Innovations across AI and Semiconductors

Joint meeting with the Scottish Neuromorphic Network

Wednesday 6th November 2024, 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Themis Prodromakis, Regius Chair of Engineering Centre for Electronics Frontiers, Institute for Micro Nano Systems, University of Edinburgh

Venue: Computershare Limited, Edinburgh House, 4 North St. Andrew Street, Edinburgh EH2 1HJ

Refreshments and networking from 6:00 pm.

This event is free of charge and open to all, though registration is required.

Synopsis

The 21st century is defined by increasingly intelligent machines and a drive to use them for augmenting human capability. On one side, developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are more and more inspired by nature’s efficiency. On the other hand, advances in medical interventions are increasingly driven by ever more intelligent electronics. Innovation in engineering underpins both on a fundamental level.

A novel nanoelectronic technology, known as the memristor, proclaims to hold the key to all, being both smaller and simpler in form than transistors, low-energy, and with the ability to retain data by ‘remembering’ the amount of charge that has passed through them – akin to the behaviour of synaptic connections in the human brain. In this talk Professor Prodromakis will present the attributes of memristive technologies that make this emerging technology attractive for a variety of applications – ranging from bio-inspired memories to compressing sensing and even embedding “AI on chip”.

About the speaker

Themis holds the Regius Chair of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh and is Director of the Centre for Electronics Frontiers. His work focuses on developing energy-efficient AI hardware solutions through innovating novel semiconductor technologies and neuromorphic computing architectures. He leads an interdisciplinary team comprising 50 researchers with expertise across materials process development to electron devices and circuits and systems for applications in embedded systems and AI. He holds an RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies and is Adjunct Professor at UTS Australia and Honorary Fellow at Imperial College London. He is Fellow of the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the IET and the Institute of Physics. He is the Director of the UKRI APRIL AI Hub that is developing AI tools and capabilities for the electronics sector. In 2015, he established ArC Instruments Ltd that delivers high-performance testing infrastructure for automating characterisation of novel nanodevices in over 26 countries. His contributions in memristive technologies and applications have brought this emerging technology one step closer to the electronics industry for which he was recognised as a 2021 Blavatnik Award UK Honoree in Physical Sciences and Engineering.