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Experimental Computing + Visualization

Research on computer architectures and graphics is typically conducted separately from neuroscience, missing an opportunity to inform and constrain the development of new hardware systems and tools specifically designed to advance understanding of cognition.

The Experimental Computing and Visualization Core, one of the Wu Tsai Institute’s core facilities operated by the Center for Neurocomputation and Machine Intelligence, bridges this gap by bringing together computer scientists and engineers with neuroscientists in a shared space that supports the development and use by researchers of new computing and visualization technologies.

Server connections

The Core is located on the eleventh floor of 100 College Street, near several Institute labs and with an open design that welcomes faculty, postdocs, and students. The facility's entrance supports the visualization of models and data in real-time, with a large monitor wall driven by powerful graphics drivers and VR/AR capabilities. An adjacent maker space and server room will develop and deploy an evolving suite of next-generation hardware technologies for neural computing and brain-machine interfaces that could include FPGA, programmable ASIC, content-addressable memory, analog programmable resistors, and advanced network devices. Once technologies have shown promise for multiple research groups in the Institute, they can be scaled up and incorporated in the Institute’s high-performance computing facility, in support of modeling and data analysis by both computational and experimental neuroscientists. The use of these resources will be facilitated by staff scientists. More details are coming soon.