Neuromorphic Knowledge Systems
Drs. Leif Finkel and Kwabena Boahen (Bioengineering) have been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop "Neuromorphic Knowledge Systems". This $1.6 M grant from a new program in Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence, was one of the 45 selected form over 700 applications, and involves a collaboration with Drs. George Gerstein in Neuroscience and John Hopfield of Princeton University. The grant will fund research in understanding neural computations which are based on the precise timings of spikes among populations of neurons. The group hopes to study the theoretical basis of such spike-time codes, to look for examples of these codes in physiological recordings, and to develop VLSI-based neuromorphic systems which carry out computational process using these mechanisms.
Associated Center for Bioactive Materials and Tissue Engineering
In May 1998, the School of Engineering and Applied Science approved the creation of a Center for Bioactive Materials and Tissue Engineering directed by Paul Ducheyne, Ph.D., Professor of Bioengineering. The Center is composed of existing faculty in Bioengineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Chemical Engineering, the Biochemistry Department of the Dental School, and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of the Medical School. It formalizes a critical mass of expertise to attract interdisciplinary funding directed principally at orthopaedics-related problems. Association with the IME provides the Center with an interdisciplinary "umbrella" for its activities; the majority of Center faculty are IME Members.
Regional Mini-Symposium on Systems Neuroscience
Penn is now one of the three rotating sites for a regional mini-symposium on Systems Neuroscience, together with Johns Hopkins, university of Maryland, and NIH. Symposia are held monthly, and meet for an afternoon; two speakers give in-depth (90 minutes) presentations on a common theme. The series is designed to foster lively interaction between the speakers and participants and between the participants themselves, across institutional boundaries within the Baltimore/Washington/Philadelphia area. Kwabena A. Boahen, Ph.D., is organizing three symposia here at Penn in the coming academic year (Fall, Winter and Spring), cosponsored by the Institute of Medicine and Engineering (IME) and the Institute for Neurological Studies (INS). Hopefully, Rockefeller and NYU, both of which have very strong Neuroscience programs, will be included in this series in the near future.
For more information, please contact Kwabena A. Boahen, Ph.D.
1st Annual IME Retreat, February 2nd, 1999
The first annual IME one-day retreat will be held next February 2nd at the Sugarloaf Conference Center in Chestnut Hill. Limited to100 participants, it will commence with the first of two plenary lectures that reflect the focus topic, tissue engineering. The keynote speakers are Robert Reneman, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute of the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, and Martin Yarmush, M.D., Ph.D., Helen Andras Benedict Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Both are noted biomedical engineers with keen interests in translation of tissue engineering from the bench to the patient. Dr. Yarmush's lecture on "Metabolic Engineering in Human Disease" wil launch the retreat. A poster session featuring graduate student, postdoctoral, and junior faculty research (with cash prizes for best posters), research talks by new faculty, lunch and discussion (with refreshments) comprise the balance of the retreat. Retreat Program
Upcoming!
Plans are underway for a one-day scientific symposium on Nanotechnology in Biomedicine, organized jointly by the IME and the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute (PMI). Watch out for further information on this event, to be held on campus in late spring 1999.
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