A Brain-Inspired Approach to Rapid and Energy Efficient Information Processing: AI on the Fly – TAMU X-grants
Senior Personnel: S. Banerjee (Lead), P. Shamberger (Co-Lead), S. Williams (Co-Lead), R. Arroyave, P. Balbuena, J. Batteas, L. Fang, B. Mallick, S. Palermo, M. Pharr, X. Qian, K. Xie
Processing, storing, and transmitting information already accounts for ca. 10% of global energy use; estimates suggest that by 2040, the demand for computation will be 10× higher than the projected global energy supply. The human brain serves as a powerful exemplar of processing complex information with minimal energy dissipation.
Unlike binary von Neumann architectures, where computing operations constantly fetch data from a central processor, neural elements use distributed, dynamically evolving, and interacting weights (memories) stored across a dense, highly interconnected network.
To emulate neurons and synapses, the electrical conductance of materials must:
- switch across orders of magnitude in an energy-efficient manner (aka mimic the action potential of neurons
Key Publications:
- P. Schofield, E.J. Braham, B. Zhang, J.L. Andrews, H. Drozdick, D. Zhao, W. Zaheer, R. Gurrola*, K. Xie, P.J. Shamberger, X. Qian, S. Banerjee, Decoupling the Metal—Insulator Transition Temperature and Hysteresis of VO2, Chem. Commun., 58, 6586-6589 (2022). doi: 10.1039/d2cc01599d
- A. Bradicich*, H. Clarke*, E.J. Braham, A. Yano*, D. Sellers, Sarbajit Banerjee, P.J. Shamberger. Probing Relaxation Dynamics and Stepped Domain Switching in Boron-Alloyed VO2, Advanced Electronic Materials, 8(3), 2100932 (2021). doi: 10.1002/aelm.202100932.
- A. Yano*, H. Clarke*, D. Sellers, E.J. Braham, T.E.G. Alivio, S. Banerjee, P.J. Shamberger. Towards High-Precision Control of Transformation Characteristics in VO2 through Dopant Modulation of Hysteresis, J. Phys. Chem. C., 124(39), 21223-21231 (2020). doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c04952
- Sellers, E. Braham, R. Villarreal, B. Zhang, A. Parija, T.D. Brown*, T. Alivio, H. Clarke*, L. De Jesus, L. Zuin, D. Prendergast, X. Qian, R. Arróyave, P.J. Shamberger, S. Banerjee. An Atomic Hourglass and Thermometer Based on Diffusion of a Mobile Dopant in VO2, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 142(36), 15513-15526 (2020). doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c07152
- Braham, E., D. Sellers, Emmons*, R. Villarreal, H. Asayesh-Ardakani, N. Fleer, K. Farley, R. Shahbazian-Yassar, R. Arroyave, P.J. Shamberger, S. Banerjee. Modulating the Hysteresis of an Electronic Transition: Launching Alternative Transformation Pathways in the Metal—Insulator Transition of Vanadium(IV) Oxide, Chemistry of Materials, 30(1), 214-224 (2018) . doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b04203
Reconfigurable Electronic Materials Inspired by Nonlinear Neuron Dynamics (REMIND) – Department of Energy (DOE) funded Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC)
Remind Director: R.Stanley Williams, Associate Directors: S. Banerjee and A. Ferguson, P. Shamberger, S. Kumar, P. Balbuena, J.Guo, M. Darensbourg, A. Talin, R. Arroyave, K. Jungjohann, E. Rotenberg, M. Pharr, L. Wheeler, K. Dunbar, X. Qian, J. Blackburn