• Question: Can you tell me more about the european project called "scandle" ?

    Asked by helinyucetas19 to Martin on 15 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Martin Coath

      Martin Coath answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      Of course – glad to!

      SCANDLE is a project that is funded by the European Union. We have brought together the best people from Britain, Hungary, Cyprus, Germany, and Switzerland.

      There are lots of projects to builds `robots’ of some sort. I am not realy interested in robotics. I am more interested in how brains work and how organisms make sense of the world.

      People often say ‘the brain is like a computer’ but it isn’t true – the brain is NOTHING like a conventional computer. For a start there is no program. I could go on about this but I will try not to be too boring 🙂

      The brain is a fascinating gobsmackingly complex thing, and we CAN build electronic devices that work a bit like the brain but nobody has yet. Mostly this is because we wouldnt know how to wire them up or how to teach them stuff. They would be useless.

      My part of SCANDLE is to try to crack a tiny bit of this problem so that other members of the team CAN build `brain like’ (we say `neuromorphic’ which translates as the same thing) electronics that actually do something useful.

      Thats enough for one answer – phew! If you are a sucker for punishment ask for more 🙂

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