Report：Can a Next-generation Supercomputer Reveal How the Brain Works?
July 06, 2016
A research group in which a scientist from UEC participates is going to create a computer model of the whole brain and brain-like artificial intelligence using the post K supercomputer.
In the year 2020, Japan plans to launch the next generation of supercomputer called post K, which is about 100 times faster than the current flagship machine called K. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (MEXT) called for a group of scientists and industry representatives to discuss what would be the best use of the machine. The committee recommended, in addition to nine priority issues including, environment, energy, and medicine, four exploratory challenges. including brain science and artificial intelligence. Professor Kenji Doya of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and colleagues from four other Japanese institutes were awarded a grant from the MEXT for the project. The team consists of seven groups from five institutes, OIST, Kyoto University, RIKEN, the University of Tokyo, and UEC.
From UEC, Tadashi Yamazaki (Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Network Engineering) participates the project. He will build a human-scale spiking network model of the cerebellum and conduct computer simulation of the cerebro-cerebellar interaction during voluntary movements.
Over the next four years, the team will develop a brain simulation model that realizes flexible decisions and learning. They will also implement artificial intelligence that can perceive the world and make decisions in a similar way as the brain.