News

Workshop "Neurons: from micro to macro"

Siamo lieti di informarvi che il giorno 31 gennaio 2022 si terrà il workshop "Neurons: from micro to macro".

Il workshop è organizzato dal Dipartimento di Fisica, dal Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare, Computazionale e Integrata - CIBIO e dal Centro Interdipartimentale Mente/Cervello - CIMEC dell'Università di Trento, ed è diretto ai ricercatori e alle ricercatrici dell’Ateneo che si interessano alle tematiche delle neuroscienze e delle relative metodiche sperimentali di indagine.

Il workshop si concentrerà sugli aspetti relativi alle reti neurali attraverso indagini che dalla scala dei singoli neuroni arrivano a studiare il cervello nel suo insieme, con attenzione sia agli aspetti fisiologici che patologici.

Maggiori informazioni sull'evento qui.

REGISTRATION OPEN: 11th Optoelectronics and Photonics Summer School: NMP2021 – Neuromorphic Photonics

We are happy to announce that the registration to attend the 11th edition of the Optoelectronics & Photonics Summer School is open. Participation is either online or onsite. Deadline in on 30th May 2021

This year the school is about Neuromorphic Photonics and will be held from 20th till 26th of June 2021 on Hotel Montana, Monte Bondone (Trento - Italy). 
The School Directors are Lorenzo Pavesi and Claudio Mirasso. For more info look at the school site or write to nmp2021@unitn.it

All are invited to join! 

 

An integrated setup for in-vitro optogenetic experiments using AI to localize stimulation with a feedback of electrophysiological signals - ISLAND

The project “An integrated setup for in-vitro optogenetic experiments using AI to localize stimulation with a feedback of electrophysiological signals - ISLAND" of our researcher Ilya Auslender within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project was approved. The project is started the 12th of Apirl 2021 and its duration is two years. Congratulation Ilya!

Logo ISLAND

Workshop with the University of Genoa

We are glad to inform you that on April 19th an important workshop between the team of our project BACKUP of the University of Trento and the Biotechnology laboratory of the University of Genoa will take place. The aim of the event is to discuss prospects for future cooperation within the research field of the BACKUP project.

Two Phd open position within the ERC project BACKUP

The Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics at the University of Trento, invites who is interested to apply for two phd positions within the ERC project BACKUP in:

Details about PhD application procedure will be available here.  

Interested candidates have to send their CV to prof. Lorenzo Pavesi (lorenzo.pavesi@unitn.it).

The workshop "Neuroni artificiali e biologici: etica e diritto" on the Biolaw Journal

Contributions from participants of the "Neuroni artificiali e biologici: etica e diritto" workshop have been published in the Biolaw Journal and can be read here

 

 

Open Phd position within the ERC project BACKUP

We are seeking for a highly-motivated and passionate student, with a strong attitude to work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary team, and with a background in physiology, molecular biology or neuroscience.
The PhD project will use neuromorphic photonic circuits to modulate neuronal excitability in in-vitro models of autism and epilepsy. Investigating the cellular mechanisms by controlling the neuronal excitability paves the way to develop novel therapeutic opportunities for a number of invalidating brain disorders. The goal of this project is to study in-vitro models of epilepsy and autism to modulate their electrical activity by using neuromorphic photonic circuits. Neuronal cultures from the brain of mouse models of epilepsy and autism will be grown on neuromorphic photonic circuits and cutting-edge techniques (including optogenetics, confocal microscopy, and multi-electrode array recordings) will be used to investigate the interactions
between neurons and photonic circuits.
This PhD will be part of the ERC-funded BACKUP project (P.I. Prof. Lorenzo Pavesi, Dept. of Physics) and the UniTrento strategic project Trentino Autism Initiative - TRAIN (P.I. Prof. Yuri Bozzi, CIMeC).

 

Details about PhD application procedure will be available at https://www.unitn.it/drcimec/116/admission-doctorate-cognitive-and-brain-sciences

For more info: yuri.bozzi@unitn.itlorenzo.pavesi@unitn.it

Open position within the ALPI project

The Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics at the University of Trento (Trento, Italy), invites applicants to apply for Research Fellowship in “Photonic neural network for mitigation of nonlinear effects in optical fibers” within the ALPI project.

More info could be find here.

Deadline: 8th of February 2021

11th Optoelectronics and Photonics Winter School: NMP2021

We inform you that the "11th Optoelectronics and Photonics Winter School: NMP2021 NEUROMORPHIC PHOTONICS" is moved to June 2021 in the week from 20th to 26th.

More information soon!

Kick off ERC-PoC ALPI Project

The Kick off meeting of the ERC-PoC ALPI project will be held on November 25th starting from 16.00 p.m.

We are happy to announce the event that officially marks the start of the ALPI project “All optical signal recovery by Photonic neural network Integrated in a transceiver module”, programmed on 25th of Novembr, 2020. ALPI aims at the integration of a photonic neural network within an optical transceiver to increase the transmission capacity of the optical link. In the meeting, the involved team of University of Trento, HIT-Hub Innovazione Trentino, SM Optics and St Microelectronics will talk about the project, the objectives and the working methodology to achive togheter the desired results.

For more info please read the press realease.

Open position within the ERC project BACKUP

The Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics at the University of Trento (Trento, Italy), invites who is interested to apply for Research Fellowship in the ERC project BACKUP. More info could be find here.

Open position within the ERC-POC 2020 project ALPI

Within the ERC-AdG project BACKUP, we developed a concept for an integrated photonic chip to be used in an optical transceiver to mitigate transmission nonlinearities. The concept is going to be implemented and demonstrated in a proof-of-concept project financed by the European Commission. The project will start 1 November and will last 18 months. To perform this activity, we are looking for a telecom engineer/physicist with expertise in optical transceivers or optical communication to drive the development and to facilitate the validation (test) phase. A PhD degree is not mandatory but is a plus.

The suitable person will be hired with a research fellowship for 18 months and will join the BACKUP team in this project. The working place is the Nanoscience Laboratory of the Department of Physics of the University of Trento.

Starting data 1st November.

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact prof. Lorenzo Pavesi at lorenzo.pavesi@unitn.it.

Workshop “NEURONI ARTIFICIALI E BIOLOGICI: ETICA E DIRITTO

Siamo lieti di informarvi che i giorni 3 e 4 dicembre 2020 si terrà il workshop “NEURONI ARTIFICIALI E BIOLOGICI: ETICA E DIRITTO”.

L’evento, organizzato dal Laboratorio di Nanoscienze dell’Università di Trento assieme al progetto Bio-diritto della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza di Trento e al Centro per l’informazione e la comunicazione tecnologica della Fondazione Bruno Kessler di Trento, tratterà il problema delle implicazioni etiche, giuridiche e filosofiche delle ricerche nel settore dell'intelligenza artificiale, della robotica e delle biotecnologie applicate.

Maggiori informazioni qui.

11th Optoelectronics and Photonics Winter School: NMP2021 NEUROMORPHIC PHOTONICS

We are glad to inform you that from 17th to 23rd of January 2021, will take place the 11th edition of the classical Optoelectronics and Photonics winter school on the mountains of Trentino.

This year the school is organized by University of Trento with the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC) of the University of the Balearic Islands in the frame of the ERC-AdG project BACKUP, the PRIN 2017 project PELM and of the ETN POST DIGITAL network.

More information here.

Phd position in "Neuromorphic photonic circuits to modulate neuronal excitability in autism and epilepsy"

Investigating the cellular mechanisms controlling neuronal excitability paves the way to develop novel therapeutic opportunities for a number of invalidating brain disorders. The goal of this project is to study in-vitro models of epilepsy using drugs and neuronal networks in vitro and to modulate their electrical activity by using neuromorphic photonic circuits. Neuronal cultures from the brain of mouse models of autism and epilepsy will be grown on neuromorphic photonic circuits and cutting-edge techniques (including optogenetics, confocal microscopy, and multi-electrode array recordings) will be used to investigate the interactions between neurons and photonic circuits.

Application should be submitted at  https://webapps.unitn.it/Apply/en/Web/Home/dott 

For more info yuri.bozzi@unitn.it 

Researcher position in "Development of novel software for hybrid neural networks"

The goal of the research is the development of artificial intelligence systems and methods to describe the behavior of biological neural networks and to develop hybrid neural networks based on photonic circuits interfaced with neuronal tissues.

Application should be submitted at: https://www.unitn.it/en/ateneo/bando/61780/department-of-physics-call-for-the-selections-for-the-awarding-of-no-1-research-fellowship-decree-no

For more infolorenzo.pavesi@unitn.it

ERC International Workshop "Photonic Reservoir Computing and information processing in complex network"

The workshop "Photonic Reservoir Computing and Information Processing in Complex Network" took place in Trento, from 4 to 6 December 2019. More than 50 people gather together to discuss and make the point on optical platforms for artificial intelligence. The discussion revealed interesting insights for future research activities and planning for the next edition of the workshop in Greece in 2020 was performed.
The workshop directors would like to thank everyone for their fundamental contribution!

Postdoc position in Biological neural-network signal encoding using Artificial Intelligence

The goal of the research is the acquisition and analysis of electrical signals from a Multielectrode array. Possibly the researcher will also collaborate on the photonics setup to extract optical signals from neural on chip networks. The analysis of these signals with techniques proper of Artificial intelligence will allow to extract the relevant information from the data.

Application should be submitted at https://www.unitn.it/en/ateneo/bando/60444/department-of-physics-call-for-the-selections-for-the-awarding-of-no-1-research-fellowship-decree-no

For more info: lorenzo.pavesi@unitn.it 

Brandy Summer School 2019

BRANDY Summer School image

The 1st edition of the BRANDY Summer School: Interdisciplinary Research on Brain Network Dynamics will take place from 24th till 28th of June 2019 in Terzolas, Val di Sole, Trentino region, Italy.

The interest in neuronal networks is growing exponentially. The BRANDY summer school  will stimulate a multi-disciplinary approach by bringing together international students, young researchers, and experts with distinct scientific backgrounds, all sharing an interest in neuronal network dynamics.

To support an exchange between scientists with different backgrounds, tutorials will introduce the distinct scientific fields, models, and methods. Introductions will be complemented by reviews on the state-of-the-art in specific research topics and by reports on latest advances.

The BACKUP project is one of the main sponsors of the BRANDY summer school. The project team members will attend the school and present their work. Prof. Lorenzo Pavesi is a member of the Organizing Committee and will give a talk.

BACKUP a Beer & Physic

On May 19th, 2019 Clara Zaccaria and Davide Bazzanella participated at the annual initiative “Beer in Physics” organized by AISF (Italian Association of Physics Students). The goal of this initiative is to bring together the students from different fields in Physics and promote the ideas and experience exchange in an informal atmosphere.

Clara and Davide presented the talk PINKY AND THE BRAIN: The BACKUP project explained. During the talk they explained how to build a hybrid neural network where neurons and photonic chips compute together.

BACKUP and International Day of Light

Every year UNESCO proclaims the International Day of Light (IDL), a global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications, and energy.

This year the BACKUP team members and UniTN SPIE student chapter members focused on the topic “Use of light for the communications”. In particular, Mattia Mancinelli presented the talk “Optical fibers: glass microfibers for communication”

ERC BACKUP project meets the high school students

On May 10, 2019 prof. Lorenzo Pavesi  introduced the students of the Martino Martini Institute in Mezzolombardo to the project BACKUP.

During the institute assembly, Prof. Lorenzo Pavesi and Dr. Marco Cristoforetti from the Bruno Kessler Foundation  talked about artificial intelligence, its application in different fields and the future sceneries it opens.  

ERC BACKUP project and CoMuNe teams joint meeting

A multi-disciplinary brainstorming meeting between ERC BACKUP project and CoMuNe teams was held on May 8th, 2019 at the Bruno Kessler Foundation.

During the meeting the BACKUP project team, headed by prof. Lorenzo Pavesi, and CoMuNe team, headed by Dr. Manlio De Domenico, presented the current research activities and discussed the future collaboration perspectives according to the joined agenda.   

Brain Storming presentations

Kick off meeting of the ERC-BACKUP project

 

The kick off meeting of the ERC-BACKUP project “Unveiling the relationship between brain connectivity and function by integrated photonics” was held on January 15th 2019 at Polo Scientifico e Technologico, Fabio Ferrari.

BACKUP, and ERC funded project, aims at developing a biological/artificial hybrid neural network by using optogenetics, photonics and machine learning techniques.

In the meeting, the involved scientist presented the project.