Tutorial: hands-on SpiNNaker and BrainScaleS - Agenda

Hands-on SpiNNaker (morning) and BrainScaleS (afternoon) tutorials

A free-of-charge tutorial event for the neuromorphic compute systems SpiNNaker (digital many core real time simulation) and BrainScaleS (accelerated physical (analogue or mixed signal) emulation of neuron, synapse and plasticity models ) .

This event is taking place in Heidelberg (Germany) at the EINC. Both, the SpiNNaker and the BrainScaleS neuromorphic compute systems are accessible via internet as part of the EBRAINS Research Infrastructure: https://ebrains.eu/nmc. SpiNNaker is physically running at Manchester University and the BrainScaleS machines executing the network emulations are running in the EINC building in Heidelberg.

Venue

Heidelberg University,
European Institute for Neuromorphic Computing (EINC),
Im Neuenheimer Feld 225a,
D-69120 Heidelberg,
Germany

Airports

• Nearest airport: Frankfurt international airport (FRA)
  • Train Station in the airport itself: Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof (use bahn.de for time table information)
  • About an hour by car. Info: we often used the TLS shuttle service in the past. A shuttle for up to 7 people costs around 145 Euro single trip. This shuttle needs to be booked in advance.
• also relatively close: Stuttgart airport (STR)

Train station

Heidelberg Main Station (Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof, use bahn.de for time table information)

Registration

Registration is free of charge. To register please:

1. (if you do not yet have one:) get your (free) EBRAINS account (here)
2. then register here

Contact

If you have any additional questions, please contact brainscales_admin@kip.uni-heidelberg.de

The SpiNNaker system is based on numerical models running in real time on custom digital multicore chips using the ARM architecture.

Cost: around 10 Euro. 5 min walk from the institute.

The BrainScaleS system is based on physical (analogue or mixed signal) emulations of neuron, synapse and plasticity models with digital connectivity, running thousand times faster than real time.

The BrainScaleS hands-on tutorial notebooks cover material from beginner to expert level. All tutorial notebooks will use the online access (via webbrowser on the participants own laptops) - so everything can be afterwards also used be continued "at home" for own research projects.

With possibility for an EINC lab tour (machine room, computer room, ...)

(Info: on 27-29 November 2024 (i.e. directly following this tutorial) the 1st EBRAINS Software Distribution (ESD) Hackathon will take place at the same venue. That event might be interesting for people, who would like to integrate an own science software tool into the EBRAINS Software Distribution.)