Brain inspired Neural Network (BINN) Lab

The Brain Inspired Neural Networks (BINN) Lab @ BITS Pilani Goa campus falls under the purview of the Data Science Research Group of the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS). The lab comprise a small team of undergraduate students and Research scholars, led by Basabdatta Sen Bhattacharya (Principal Investigator; PI), who are fascinated with the areas of neural networks and/or neuroscience in particular, and artificial intelligence in general. Our research interests are two-fold:

  1. Computational Neuroscience: Design and develop biologically inspired/informed neural circuits/models that can advance the understanding of brain disease and mental health. Towards this, we use lumped parameter neural networks that are known to emulate high level brain data such as Electroencephalogram (EEG).

  2. Neuro-inspired Technology: Design and develop brain inspired/informed neural networks that can be trained for visual cognition and decision making. Towards this, we use Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) that have, thus far, been implemented on the SpiNNaker neuromorphic platform. Alongside, we are now looking into computation on GPU.

The PI is a visiting researcher at the University of Manchester and continues to collaborate with the SpiNNaker team. Several ongoing projects are in collaboration with Dr. Teresa Serrano Gotarredona, Seville, Spain; Prof. Nik Kasabov, University of Auckland, KEDRI, New Zealand; Prof. Dr. Venkat Subramaniam and his team at Nimhans, Bengaluru, India; Ms Aiswarya Subramanian, Microsoft Research, Bengaluru, India; Dr. Joy Bose, Ericsson Global AI Accelerator, Bengaluru, India. We have been functional since January 2019.

We take pride in several successful undergraduate (UG) student projects that have resulted into publications at international conferences (see here). We have facilitated and supported the UG students to attend (virtually) and present (oral, poster) in these conferences, providing them useful exposure.

We are always looking for bright minds to join the team. Expression of interest to join us or associated labs are always welcome from potential PhD scholars, at any stage of their career or life.