With the increased demand for efficient hardware for artificial intelligence and integrated circuits comes a need to educate students and researchers on how to design and create these tools. To address this need, Shantanu Chakrabartty, PhD, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor and vice dean for research and graduate education at the McKelvey School of Engineering, is […]
The inviting smell of a freshly baked cookie immediately triggers a motor response to search for the source of that smell. Often the cookie can be easily found. This everyday event that we perform without a thought is an amazing feat that combines our superior ability to smell the cookie and computational prowess to determine […]
A team of researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has developed an energy-efficient way to consolidate long-term memories on a tiny chip. Shantanu Chakrabartty, PhD, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, and members of his lab developed a […]
The factors that lead to preterm birth, which affects nearly 10% of pregnancies worldwide, are poorly understood. Its effects, however, are known. Among them: cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, and visual and hearing impairments. In order to better understand the cause of preterm birth, researchers need to better understand the uterine contractions patterns responsible for initiating […]
Brains have evolved to do more with less. Take a tiny insect brain, which has less than a million neurons but shows a diversity of behaviors and is more energy efficient than current AI systems. These tiny brains serve as models for computing systems that are becoming more sophisticated as billions of silicon neurons can […]
The Office of Naval Research has awarded Barani Raman, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, an $851,320 grant for research to determine just how sensitive locusts’ noses are when it comes to explosives — and how well researchers can interpret what the insects are […]
If you want to enhance a locust to be used as a bomb-sniffing bug, there are a few technical challenges that need solving before sending it into the field. Is there some way to direct the locust — to tell it where to go to do its sniffing? And because the locusts can’t speak (yet), […]
When it fires, a neuron consumes significantly more energy than an equivalent computer operation. And yet, anetwork of coupled neurons can continuously learn, sense and perform complex tasks at energy levels that are currently unattainable for even state-of-the-art processors. What does a neuron do to save energy that a contemporary computer processing unit doesn’t? Computer […]
Four McKelvey School of Engineering faculty members received awards from the Skandalaris Center’s Leadership and Entrepreneurial Acceleration Program (LEAP). The LEAP Awards support Washington University faculty developing a product or innovation and provide industry connections and gap funding to stimulate Washington University technology commercialization, illuminate investment risk and rapidly accelerate development of validated projects. Out […]
Three faculty members in the McKelvey School of Engineering will be able to purchase important equipment needed for their research through grants awarded by the Department of Defense. The faculty are Tae Seok Moon, associate professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering; Barani Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering; and Vijay Ramani, the Roma B. […]
Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford Murphy Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, recently received a $380,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to address a persistent problem when it comes to recreating the brain’s neuronal networks in silicon: energy efficiency. This is known as the “neuron-to-network energy gap.” His research also […]
Collaborative research team developing biological sensors that would analyze saliva, send information electronically to doctors From the WashU Newsroom… An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the School of Engineering & Applied Science is redefining the notion of a wisdom tooth. The team is developing a smart-tooth […]
Launched in 2013, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is designed to fund research that will ultimately revolutionize the understanding of the human brain, from individual cells to complex neural circuits. From the WashU School of Engineering Newsroom… The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a two-year, BRAIN Initiative grant to engineers at […]