The human brain has always been a thing of extreme curiosity to the students of anatomy. In fact, Einstein’s brain was preserved for future study immediately after his death. Innumerable studies have been done on this part of the human anatomy, yet, we know very little about how its complete range of functions. In the quest to know more about the human brain, resources are being put together for a simulation to study how the brain functions. The HBP or Human Brain Project of the European Union has a primary directive – an artificial brain by 2023. They recently held their annual HBP Summit in Germany, at the University of Heidelberg.
The European Commission Future and Emerging Technologies fund one of its flagship programs, the Human Brain Project. The 10-year-long project has a funding of nearly US$1.3 billion. Initially, HBP aims to simulate the entire human brain functionality on supercomputers, and then replicate the functionality on a special hardware emulator. They expect to be able to reproduce the functions of the brain so accurately as to allow trying out diseases and their cures on the emulator. The long-term objective of the project is to build an artificial brain inexpensive enough to outperform traditional supercomputers of the von Neumann type at a fraction of the cost.
At the end of the first year, all pieces have been assembled. According to the report, all personnel are hired, laboratories engaged throughout the region, and the ICT or Information and Communication Technology set up in place. This arrangement will allow the researchers with their 100+ corporate and academic partners in 20+ countries to collaborate effectively to share data. The projects already running include reconstructing the functioning of the brain at different biological scales along with development of computing systems to mimic the functioning of the brain.
According to the agenda for the ramp-up phase or the first two and a half years, HBP will gather as much strategic data about brain functioning as is known. The project will also develop theoretical frameworks to fit that data. They will also develop the infrastructure necessary for six ICT platforms during the next operational phase to start from 2017.
Supercomputers or high-performance computing will serve all platform builders for the six ICT platforms. These will consist of: the Neurorobotics platform for supporting testing of the brain models and simulations in virtual environments; the Neuromorphic computing platform for mimicking the various functions of the brain; the Medical Informatics platform for cataloging the diseases of the brain; the Brain Simulation platform to assemble the simulation algorithms of different brain components; and the main Neuroinformatics data repository for housing the Brain Atlas.
The first year of the project has some progress highlights. These include: a brain simulation technique for the cerebellum, repurposed from the one originally working successfully for the neocortex; a virtual room for the neurorobotics prototype, where researchers can study virtual bodies with brain models for behavior and cognitive abilities; an HPC or high performance computer successfully retrofitted for interactive-supercomputing – essential for testing brain models; and demonstrations of several new neuromorphic chips and testing them to solve modern computing challenges that only humans can perform today.
