Massimiliano Versace

Massimiliano Versace (born December 21, 1972 in Monfalcone, Italy) is a research assistant professor at Boston University, where he founded and is currently the director of the Neuromorphics Lab. He is co-leading the Boston University neural modeling team working with Hewlett-Packard on the DARPA SyNAPSE program. In December 2010, the IEEE Spectrum published a cover page featured article [1] written by Massimiliano and a graduate student, Ben Chandler, regarding the plan to develop a large scale brain model making use of memristor based technologies being developed by Hewlett Packard. The Modular Neural Exploring Traveling Agent (MoNETA) will be the first large-scale neural network model to implement whole-brain circuits to power a virtual and robotic agent compatibly with memristor-based hardware computations. A recent cover page featured article in IEEE Computer [2] features the software platform and modeling implemented by the joint HP and Boston University teams, and the March 2012 edition of IEEE Pulse [3] features his lab work on brain modeling. His work has also been featured [4] on the Italian national daily business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, on the magazine [5] Geek Magazine and on the documentary series [6] Future Tense.

Professional life

Versace grew up in Monfalcone, Italy and came to the United States in 2001 as a Fulbright scholar. Massimiliano holds a masters in psychology from the University of Trieste and a PhD in cognitive and neural systems from Boston University in 2007. At Boston University, he is now a senior research scientist, Neuromorphics Lab founding director, and in Co-PI of the DARPA SyNAPSE effort in collaboration with Hewlett Packard (December 2009 to March 2011).

Awards

Versace was named Outstanding Researcher at the Global Conference on Business and Finance, Las Vegas (along with Charles Wong), was awarded top cited article 2008-2010 in Brain Research, was recipient of the CELEST Award for Computational Modeling of Brain and Behavior in 2009, as well as recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship in 2001.

Neural modeling

Massimiliano Versace's research interests are focused on neural networks - in particular applied to cortical models of learning and memory, and how to build intelligent machines equipped with low-power, high density neural chips that implement large-scale brain circuits of increasing complexity. His Synchronous Matching Adaptive Resonance Theory (SMART) model shows spiking laminar cortical circuits self-organize and stably learn relevant information, and how these circuits be embedded in low-power, memristor based hybrid CMOS chip and used to solve challenging pattern recognition problems.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Memristors.

References

  1. ↑ Versace, Massimiliano; Chandler, Ben (2010), "MoNETA: A Mind Made from Memristors", IEEE Spectrum 12: 30–37
  2. ↑ Snider, Greg; Amerson, Rick; Carter, Dick; Abdalla, Hisham; MuhammadShakeel, Qureshi; Leveille, Jasmin; Amerson, Rick; Versace, Massimiliano; Chandler, Ben; Patrick, Sean; Mingolla, Ennio; Gorchetchnikov, Anatoli; Ames, Heather (2011), "From Synapses to Circuitry: Using Memristive Memory to Explore the Electronic Brain", IEEE Computer 44: 21–28, doi:10.1109/MC.2011.48
  3. ↑ Ames, Heather; Versace, Massimiliano; Gortchechnikov, Anatoli; Livitz, Jasmin; Aisha, Sohail; Leveille, Jasmin; Mingolla, Ennio (2012), "The Animat", IEEE Pulse 3: 47–50, doi:10.1109/mpul.2011.2175638
  4. ↑ Tremolada, Luca (2011), "Il ratto nel computer", Il Sole 24 Ore
  5. ↑ Casey, Matt (2013), "On Edge About AI", The Geek Magazine
  6. ↑ Dennis, Thierry (2012), "Future Tense", Future Tense Documentaries

External links