Prof. Aida Todri-Sanial of Director of Research for the French National Council of Scientific Research (CNRS)

Abstract: With the increase of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday life, developing AI-specific hardware based on brain-inspired computing is of utmost importance for efficient, adaptative and low-power systems. Neuro-inspired computing systems emulate the human brain's neuronal functions to efficiently solve problems that are easy to humans, such as pattern recognition. In this context, the EU H2020 NeurONN project explores a new energy-efficient computing paradigm based on phase-computing Oscillatory Neural Networks (ONN). It aims to create a neurocomputing chip that can be deployed on edge devices for AI.

In this talk, a novel and alternative neuromorphic computing paradigm based on oscillating neural networks (ONN) will be presented. Energy efficient relaxation oscillators based on phase-change VO₂ material for oscillating neurons and tunable 2D TMD MoS₂ memristors for synapses are the building blocks of ONN architecture. Inspired by neural oscillations or brain waves, in ONN, the information is encoded in the phase of coupled oscillators. The talk will cover aspects from materials, devices, circuits to ONN architecture design and hardware implementation and demonstration on AI tasks. To demonstrate the ONN operation, we created a robotic application using two cascaded ONNs configured for pattern recognition to perform obstacle avoidance.

Biography:

Aida Todri-Sanial received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Bradley University, IL in 2001, M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Long Beach State University, CA, in 2003 and a Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2009. She is currently a Director of Research for the French National Council of Scientific Research (CNRS. Dr. Todri-Sanial was a visiting fellow at the Cambridge Graphene Center and Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge, UK during 2016-2017. Previously, she was an R&D Engineer for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, IL. She has also held visiting research positions at Mentor Graphics, Cadence Design Systems, STMicroelectronics and IBM TJ Watson Research Center. Her research interests focus on emerging technologies and novel computing paradigms such as neuromorphic and quantum computing.

She has co-authored more than 100 publications on high-impact journals and conferences. Dr. Todri-Sanial was a recipient of John Bardeen Fellow in Engineering in 2009, CNRS Prime d’Excellence Scientifique in 2012, ACM Distinguished Speakers 2016-2018, CNRS Bronze Medal in 2016, and ACM SIGDA Meritorious Service Award in 2020. She serves as Technical Program Committee member for IEDM, DAC, DATE, ISVLSI, NEWCAS, GLSVLSI, ISQED, and EDSSC. She is Associated Editor for IEEE Transactions on VLSI, Frontiers of Electronics and Microelectronics Journal.

Address:Netherlands