Simeon Bamford
I'm a research associate with the Complex Systems Modelling group at l'Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome. I'm working on the EU-funded CORONET project, as well as continuing research that came out of the EU-funded ReNaChip project.
I find both the study of neural systems and the discipline of engineering them fascinating. I see enormous scope for neuroprosthetic and biomedical applications with the potential to improve health provision and better the human condition. I work as a neuromorphic engineer, creating electronic circuits which in some way mimic computation in animal's nervous systems. This is partly to help understand how brains work and partly to search for better ways of doing the kind of computing that nervous systems are good at, for example, sensing the environment and working out how to move around in it. The circuits are integrated on microchips, so they're manufactured in the same way as the processors in personal computers, but the design is very different, often using flows of electrical current to imitate the currents which flow through the nerve cells in our brains.
The aim of the ReNaChip project was to create a chip which can be implanted in a brain replacing one function of the brain in performing a learning task. The design includes amplifiers and filters for signals from neural recording electrodes; it also contains a novel field-programmable array of mixed-signal components specialised for neural signal processing and neural modelling. My interest in field-programmable circuitry was enhanced by a brief contract at Edinburgh University on a project to create a related design specialised for neuromorphic applications. I make use of standard field-programmable gate arrays in the electronic environments I create for testing my chips.
Our role in the CORONET project is to develop neuromorphic hardware which implements a network of modules which demonstrate bistable attractor dynamics, abstracting away many details of the spiking neurons they are assumed to be made of.
For my PhD at the University of Edinburgh I worked on an alternative method for delivering events within neuromorphic systems made of many silicon chips; the events represent spikes (the electrical pulses that brain cells use to communicate with each other). I also implemented the formation and elimination of connections between neurons (a process which happens continuously in our brains, known as "synaptic rewiring"). I then used synaptic rewiring to model the development of topographic maps (ordered sets of connections between different brain areas).
In my MSc I worked on a project testing an experimental device (a planar patch-clamp chip) for electrical recording from biological nerve cells; this project gave me experience with the patch-clamp technique as well as some silicon clean-room experience.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- "Spike-timing-dependent plasticity with weight dependence evoked from physical constraints", Bamford SA, Murray AF, Willshaw DJ. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, 2012, in press. pdf
- "Large Developing Receptive Fields Using a Distributed and Locally Reprogrammable Address-Event Receiver", Bamford SA, Murray AF, Willshaw DJ. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, 2010, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 286-304. pdf
- "Synaptic Rewiring for Topographic Map Formation and Receptive Field Development", Bamford SA, Murray AF, Willshaw DJ. Neural Networks, 2010, vol. 23 pp. 517-527. pdf
- "A framework for approaches to transfer of a mind's substrate", Bamford S. International Journal of Machine Consciousness, 2012, in press. pdf
Peer-reviewed conference papers
- "Behavioral Rehabilitation of the Eye Closure Reflex in Senescent Rats using a Real-Time Biosignal Acquisition System", Prückl R, Taub AH, Hogri R, Magal A, Herreros I, Bamford SA, Ofek Almog R, Shacham Y, Verschure PFMJ, Mintz M, Scharinger J, Silmon A, Guger C, International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2011, pp. 4211-4214. pdf
- "The Application of a Real-Time Rapid-Prototyping Environment for the Behavioral Rehabilitation of a Lost Brain Function in Rats", Prückl R, Grünbacher E, Ortner R, Taub AH, Hogri R, Magal A, Segalis E, Zreik M, Nossenson N, Herreros I, Giovannucci A, Ofek Almog R, Bamford S, Marcus-Kalish M, Shacham Y, Verschure PFMJ, Messer H, Mintz M, Scharinger J, Silmon A, Guger C, IEEE Symposium Series in Computational Intelligence, Cognitive Algorithms, Mind, and Brain (CCMB), 2011, pp. 1-8. pdf
- "Intimate mixing of analogue and digital signals in a field-programmable mixed-signal array with lopsided logic", Bamford SA, Giulioni M, IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BIOCAS), 2010, pp. 234-237. pdf
- "Large Developing Axonal Arbors Using a Distributed and Locally-Reprogrammable Address-Event Receiver", Bamford SA, Murray AF, Willshaw DJ. IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2008, pp. 1464-1471. pdf
- "Synaptic Rewiring for Topographic Map Formation", Bamford SA, Murray AF, Willshaw DJ. International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN), 2008, pp. 218-227. pdf
Theses and related publications
- "Synaptic Rewiring in Neuromorphic VLSI for Topographic Map Formation", PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. pdf
- MSc project (2005): Testing silicon planar patch-clamp devices. Poster; Dissertation.
Conference abstracts - not peer reviewed
- "Replacing a cerebellar microcircuit with an autonomous neuroprosthetic device", Giovannucci A, Bamford SA, Herreros I, Hogri R, Taub A, Zucca R, Prueckl R, Mintz M, Silmon A, Guger C, Del Giudice P, Verschure PFMJ, Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Meeting, 2010. Abstract
- "A real-time analysis and control system for the reconstitution of cerebellar functionality" Prueckl R, Taub A, Hogri R, Giovannucci A, Herreros I, Bamford SA, Zreik M, Nossenson N, Guger C, Mintz M, Verschure PFMJ, Messer-Yaron H, Silmon A, Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Meeting , 2010. Abstract
- "Replacing a cerebellar microcircuit with an autonomous neuroprosthetic device", Giovannucci A, Bamford S, Hogri R, Taub A, Prueckl R, Guger C, Del Giudice P & Verschure PF, Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum, 2010. Abstract
Talks
- "Modern Classical Conditioning: towards a CMOS chip for bi-directional in-vivo brain interface for rehabilitation of a learnt eye-blink response.", Istituto di Biorobotica, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa. 17th May 2011. Abstract
- "Modern Classical Conditioning: towards a CMOS chip for bi-directional in-vivo brain interface for rehabilitation of a learnt eye-blink response.", University Campus Bio-Medico, Rome. 15th May 2011. Abstract
- "Modern Classical Conditioning: towards a VLSI chip for bi-directional in-vivo brain interface for rehabilitation of a learnt eye-blink response.", Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College. 19th Feb 2010. Abstract
- "Synaptic Rewiring in Neuromorphic VLSI for Topographic Map Formation", Electronic and Computer Engineering Dept., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 10th Jun 2008. Abstract
- "Synaptic Rewiring in Neuromorphic VLSI for Topographic Map Formation", Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Dept., Italian Institute of Technology. 9th Apr 2008. Abstract
Papers to which I made an acknowledged contribution
- "Robust working memory in an asynchronously spiking neural network realized with neuromorphic VLSI" Giulioni M, Camilleri P, Mattia M, Dante V, Braun J, Del Giudice P, Frontiers in Neuromorphic Engineering, 2012, in press. pdf
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