Lightwave Neuromorphic Signal Processing
Speaker: Dr. Mable Fok, Princeton University
Series: Electrical Engineering Departmental Seminar
Location:
Engineering Quadrangle B205
Date/Time: Monday, April 2, 2012, 4:30 p.m.
- 5:30 p.m.
Abstract:
In this talk, a new computational paradigm is presented using photonics to mimic the functionality of a spiking neuron. Spike processing is both computationally efficient and scalable, adopting the best features of both analog and digital computing. Whereas biological neurons implement spike processing using electrochemical spikes on a millisecond time scale, our “photonic neuron” performs spike processing using optoelectronic technology in picoseconds. Like it’s physiological counterpart, the photonic neuron consists of a reconfigurable FIR filter at it’s front end followed by integration and thresholding stages. A single photonic neuron circuit accomplishing feature recognition and imitating the escape response of a crayfish will be presented. One of the most powerful capabilities of neurons is their ability to learn and adapt to the environment based on experience. This is accomplished by adjusted the strength of synaptic connections based on correlations between pre-synaptic and post-synaptic activity. The first demonstration of learning using photonic technology will be presented, potentially laying the foundation for learning at speeds a billion times faster than biological neurons.
Biography:
Mable Fok received her B. Eng., M. Phil., and Ph.D degrees in Electronic Engineering from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where her research focused on optical signal processing techniques for fiber optic communications. She was a Visiting Scholar at UCLA where she researched supercontinuum laser source generation. She also held a Visiting Scholar position at UCSB, where she worked on all-optical processing for advanced modulation formats in fiber optic communications. Currently, Mable is an Associate Research Scholar in Electrical Engineering at Princeton. Her recent research is on optical hybrid analog/digital processing of signals based on neuromorphic algorithms, and photonic layer information security. Dr. Fok is the recipient of a number of awards including a Young Scientist Award from the Hong Kong Institute of Science , an IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Graduate Student Fellowship, and the Optical Society of America Incubic/Milton Chang Award.
