欧美高清

Neuromorphic photonics is an emerging technology that aims to build processing systems inspired by the human brain works, using light instead of electricity to carry and process information. In the brain, neurons communicate using short electrical pulses (spikes) to efficiently sense, process, and respond to information.

Neuromorphic photonic systems mimic this behaviour by using optical spikes travelling through photonic circuits, allowing information to be processed extremely fast and with much lower energy consumption. By harnessing light, these systems can handle large volumes of data in parallel, respond in real time, and seamlessly combine sensing, communication, and computation, making them particularly attractive for next generation intelligent and edge based technologies.

This PhD studentship will design, fabricate, and investigate novel neuromorphic optical systems based on compact photonic integrated circuits (PICs), aimed at enabling chip scale, brain inspired, and light enabled sensing and computing systems. The project will focus on systems using photonic spiking neurons and spiking neural networks (SNNs), employing optical spikes as information carriers in direct analogy with biological neural systems, but operating several orders of magnitude faster. Devices and systems will operate at key telecommunication wavelengths (850 nm, 1310 nm, and 1550 nm), ensuring compatibility with existing optical communication and sensing infrastructure and supporting low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) operation.

The research will involve the investigation of a variety of opto electronic components (e.g. micro ring resonators, semiconductor lasers, etc.) implemented in integrated photonic platforms. These elements will be engineered to exhibit neural like optical spiking behaviour and interconnected to form compact, light powered, on chip SNNs capable of high speed and energy efficient information processing. Key objectives include the demonstration of compact on chip photonic SNN architectures, the implementation of learning and training strategies, and the validation of these systems in realistic sensing and computing scenarios, directly interfacing with existing optical infrastructure.

Project objectives

The overarching aim of the project is to deliver new neuromorphic photonic integrated systems for sensing and computing. This will be achieved through the following specific objectives:

• design, develop, and characterise neuromorphic photonic integrated systems capable of high speed optical spiking operation
• implement compact on chip photonic spiking neural networks and demonstrate their performance in complex processing tasks (e.g. dataset classification, pattern recognition)
• explore the use of neuromorphic PIC platforms for strategic, real world smart sensing and computing applications, directly processing optical signals.
• develop and apply learning and training algorithms for neuromorphic photonic systems

This interdisciplinary research, bridging photonics and neuromorphic technologies, will deliver a new class of compact, ultrafast, and energy efficient brain inspired photonic integrated processing platforms for applications in smart sensing and unconventional computing.

Further information

The PhD studentship will also offer significant opportunities for networking and collaboration with UK and European research partners through large scale UK  and EU funded programmes in neuromorphic technologies, for which Prof Antonio Hurtado is the technical lead at the University of 欧美高清. These include the newly established UK Multi Disciplinary Centre for Neuromorphic Computing (NeuroSync), the UKRI Innovation and Knowledge Centre on Neuromorphic Computing Hardware (Neuroware), and the EU Marie Sk艂odowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network in Neuromorphic Computing and Signal Processing (MindNet).

This PhD studentship will be carried out in the Neuromorphic Photonics Laboratory, led by Prof Antonio Hurtado, within the Institute of Photonics (Department of Physics, University of 欧美高清).

Institute of Photonics

The Institute of Photonics (IoP), part of the Department of Physics, is a centre of excellence in applications-oriented research at the University of 欧美高清.  The Institute’s key objective is to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial applications and development in the area of photonics. The IoP is located in the £100M Technology and Innovation Centre on 欧美高清’s Glasgow city centre campus, at the heart of Glasgow’s Innovation District, where it is co-located with the UK’s first Fraunhofer Research Centre.

Researchers at the IoP are active in a broad range of photonics fields under the areas of Photonic Devices, Advanced Lasers and Neurophotonics.

欧美高清 Physics is a member of SUPA, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance.