Hugo de Garis is an Australian retired researcher in the sub-field of artificial intelligence (AI) known as evolvable hardware. He became known in the 1990s for his research on the use of genetic algorithms to evolve artificial neural networks using three-dimensional cellular automata inside field programmable gate arrays. He claimed that this approach would enable the creation of what he terms "artificial brains" which would quickly surpass human levels of intelligence.
Nicholas Negroponte is a Greek American architect. He is the founder and chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also founded the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). Negroponte is the author of the 1995 book Being Digital translated into more than forty languages.
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from technology, media, science, art, and design. As of 2014, Media lab's research groups include neurobiology, biologically inspired fabrication, socially engaging robots, emotive computing, bionics, and hyperinstruments.
A neuroscientist is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial cells and especially their behavioral, biological, and psychological aspect in health and disease.
Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers. The Microsoft Research team has more than 1,000 computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners, Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners.
Rosalind Wright Picard is an American scholar and inventor who is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founder of the startups Affectiva and Empatica.
Fab Lab Barcelona is a pioneering entity in the global Fab Labs network, established in 2007 as the first Fab Lab in the European Union by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). Located in Barcelona's Poblenou district, this former factory has transformed into a hub of ideas, innovation, and education. It quickly became a leader in the maker culture and digital fabrication, contributing significantly to the global network of Fab Labs. The lab is renowned for blending digital fabrication technologies with community-driven and pedagogical innovation. It is home of the Distributed Design platform, the exchange and networking hub for the European maker movement, promoting the connection between designers, makers, and the market.
Sodium channel protein type 1 subunit alpha (SCN1A), is a protein which in humans is encoded by the SCN1A gene.
The Center for Biological & Computational Learning is a research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Walter De Brouwer is a Belgian-born businessman and semiotician. He is the former CEO of doc.ai and of Scanadu. As a businessman, as of 2013, he took part in the creation of over 35 companies, including two that became publicly traded through Initial Public Offering.
David Jay Julius is an American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate known for his work on molecular mechanisms of pain sensation and heat, including the characterization of the TRPV1 and TRPM8 receptors that detect capsaicin, menthol, and temperature. He is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
Jack Hidary is the CEO of AI and quantum technology company SandboxAQ.
The Perl-UNC Prize is awarded internationally in the field of neuroscience. Its purpose is two-fold: to recognize researchers for outstanding discoveries and seminal insights in neuroscience and to celebrate the strength of the neuroscience research program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ana Maiques is a Spanish entrepreneur and business executive. She is the CEO and co-founder of Neuroelectrics, a company based in Barcelona that develops non-invasive brain stimulation devices to treat neurological disorders. Maiques is also the President of EsTech, a platform for high-growth technology companies in Spain, and a member of the European Innovation Council Advisory Board. She is a prominent advocate for gender diversity in STEM fields, promoting women's representation in tech and business. Ana Maiques was named as one of the Most Inspiring Fifty Women in Europe.
Neuroelectrics is a Barcelona-based Spanish company which produces devices to stimulate and treat the brain. Founded in 2011, it is a spin-off of Starlab Neuroscience Research which was established in 2000.
Dimitri Michael Kullmann is a British neurologist who is a professor of neurology at the UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London (UCL), and leads the synaptopathies initiative funded by the Wellcome Trust. Kullmann is a member of the Queen Square Institute of Neurology Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy and a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Vijay Balasubramanian is a theoretical physicist and the Cathy and Marc Lasry Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He has conducted research in string theory, quantum field theory, and biophysics. He has also worked on problems in statistical inference and machine learning.
Deblina Sarkar is an electrical engineer, and inventor. She is an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the AT&T Career Development Chair Professor of the MIT Media Lab. Sarkar has been internationally recognized for her invention of an ultra thin quantum mechanical transistor that can be scaled to nano-sizes and used in nanoelectronic biosensors. As the principal investigator of the Nano Cybernetic Biotrek Lab at MIT, Sarkar leads a multidisciplinary team of researchers towards bridging the gap between nanotechnology and synthetic biology to build new nano-devices and life-machine interfacing technologies with which to probe and enhance biological function.
SYNGAP1-related intellectual disability is a monogenetic developmental and epileptic encephalopathy that affects the central nervous system. Symptoms include intellectual disability, epilepsy, autism, sensory processing deficits, hypotonia and unstable gait.
Polina Olegovna Anikeeva is a Russian-born American materials scientist who is a Professor of Material Science & Engineering as well as Brain & Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also holds faculty appointments in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT. Her research is centered on developing tools for studying the underlying molecular and cellular bases of behavior and neurological diseases. She was awarded the 2018 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, the 2020 MacVicar Faculty Fellowship at MIT, and in 2015 was named a MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35.
