UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE            
       COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM       
                                                  
                     presents   
					                   
	"Supercomputers are ready to simulate human-scale brain models"                
                      				                        
               Prof. Tadashi Yamazaki                
                                                  
        (University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan)           
                                                  
                17 February 2020                  
                                                  
                  13:00 - 14:00                   
                                                  
                   Over Zoom          

Abstract:
The brain is a complex network composed of nerve cells called neurons connected by junctions called synapses [1]. The human brain is composed of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses. Although how the brain works as a whole remains largely unknown, how a single neuron behaves is well described as a set of mathematical equations [2].  It is, in principle, possible to write a computer program that solves the equations for every neurons in the human brain, thereby simulating the entire network dynamics of the human brain. Thanks to the exponential increase of its performance, modern supercomputers are now able to build and simulate very large-scale spiking neural network models as large as the human brain [3]. In this talk, I will introduce our efforts on such large-scale simulation using the Supercomputer Fugaku, which is Japan's flagship supercomputer and the world's fastest supercomputer in 2020 [4, 5]. I will start with general introductions on computational neuroscience and high-performance computing, and then gradually go to the main topic.

References:
[1] Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., Jessell, T. M., and Mack, S., editors (2013). Principles of neural science. McGraw-Hill Medical.
[2] Hodgkin, A. L. and Huxley, A. F. (1952). A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. Journal of Physiology, 117(4):500–544.
[3] Yamazaki, T., Igarashi, J., Yamaura, H. (2021). Human-scale brain simulation via supercomputer: A case study on the cerebellum. Neuroscience, In Press.
[4] Supercomputer Fugaku: About the project. https://www.r-ccs.riken.jp/en/fugaku/project
[5] https://brain-hpc.jp/en/