Sunday, 14 April 2013

Brain, Universe, Internet governed by same fundamental laws, suggests supercomputer simulation

By performing supercomputer simulations of the Universe, researchers have shown that the causal network representing the large-scale structure of space and time is a graph that shows remarkable similarity to other complex networks such as the Internet, as well as social and biological networks. A paper describing the simulations[1] in the journal Nature's Scientific Reportsspeculates that some as-yet unknown fundamental laws might be at work.

"By no means do we claim that the Universe is a global brain or a computer," said paper co-author Dmitri Krioukov, at the University of California, San Diego. "But the discovered equivalence between the growth of the Universe and complex networks strongly suggests that unexpectedly similar laws govern the dynamics of these very different complex systems."
For the simulations, the researchers found a way to downscale the space-time network while preserving its vital properties, by proving mathematically that these properties do not depend on the network size in a certain range of parameters, such as the curvature and age of our Universe.
After the downscaling, the research team performed simulations of the Universe's growing causal network. By parallelizing and optimizing the application, the researchers were able to complete in just over one day a computation that was originally projected to require three to four years.
"We discovered that the large-scale growth dynamics of complex networks and causal networks are asymptotically [at large times] the same, explaining the structural similarity between these networks," said Krioukov, who believes the findings have key implications for both science and cosmology.
"The most frequent question that people may ask is whether the discovered asymptotic equivalence between complex networks and the Universe could be a coincidence," he explained. "Of course it could be, but the probability of such a coincidence is extremely low. Coincidences in physics are extremely rare, and almost never happen. There is always an explanation, which may be not immediately obvious."
Such an explanation could one day lead to a discovery of common fundamental laws whose two different consequences - or limiting regimes - are the laws of gravity (Einstein's equations in general relativity) describing the dynamics of the Universe, and some yet-unknown equations describing the dynamics of complex networks.

SKELETON KEY: Researchers develop method that shows diverse complex networks have similar skeletons

The worldwide air transportation network. Each grey link resembles traffic of passengers between more than 1,000 airports worldwide; the entire network has more than 35,000 links. The red lines represent the network’s skeleton, a tree-like structure of only 1,300 links that represents the core structure of the network. Links in the skeleton are the most important connections in the network.

 Northwestern University researchers are the first to discover that very different complex networks -- ranging from global air traffic to neural networks -- share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton and these skeletons share common features, much like vertebrates do.
Mammals have evolved to look very different despite a common underlying structure (think of a human being and a bat), and now it appears real-world complex networks evolve in a similar way.
The researchers studied a variety of biological, technological and social networks and found that all these networks have evolved according to basic growth mechanisms. The findings could be particularly useful in understanding how something -- a disease, a rumor or information -- spreads across a network.
This surprising discovery -- that networks all have skeletons and that they are similar -- was published this week by the journal Nature Communications.
“Infectious diseases such as H1N1 and SARS spread in a similar way, and it turns out the network’s skeleton played an important role in shaping the global spread,” said Dirk Brockmann, senior author of the paper. “Now, with this new understanding and by looking at the skeleton, we should be able to use this knowledge in the future to predict how a new outbreak might spread.”
Brockmann is associate professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and a member of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO).
Complex systems -- such as the Internet, Facebook, the power grid, human consciousness, even a termite colony -- generate complex behavior. A system’s structure emerges locally; it is not designed or planned. Components of a network work together, interacting and influencing each other, driving the network’s evolution.
For years, researchers have been trying to determine if different networks from different disciplines have hidden core structures -- backbones -- and, if so, what they look like. Extracting meaningful structural features from data is one of the most challenging tasks in network theory.
Brockmann and two of his graduate students, Christian Thiemann and first author Daniel Grady, developed a method to identify a network’s hidden core structure and showed that the skeletons possess some underlying and universal features.
The networks they studied differed in size (from hundreds of nodes to thousands) and in connectivity (some were sparsely connected, others dense) but a simple and similar core skeleton was found in each one.
“The key to our approach was asking what network elements are important from each node’s perspective,” Brockmann said. “What links are most important to each node, and what is the consensus among nodes? Interestingly, we found that an unexpected degree of consensus exists among all nodes in a network. Nodes either agree that a link is important or they agree that it isn’t. There is nearly no disagreement.”
By computing this consensus -- the overall strength, or importance, of each link in the network -- the researchers were able to produce a skeleton for each network consisting of all those links that every node considers important. And these skeletons are similar across networks.
Because of this “consensus” property, the researchers’ method does not have the drawbacks of other methods, which have degrees of arbitrariness in them and depend on parameters. The Northwestern approach is very robust and identifies essential hubs and links in a non-arbitrary universal way.
The Volkswagen Foundation supported the research.

Journal Reference:
  1. Daniel Grady, Christian Thiemann, Dirk Brockmann. Robust classification of salient links in complex networks.Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 864 DOI:10.1038/ncomms1847

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

Idea networking

Idea networking is a qualitative means of undertaking a cluster analysis or concept mapping of any collection of statements. Networking lists of statements acts to reduce them into a handful of clusters or categories. The statements might be source from interviews, text, web sites, focus groups, SWOT analysis or community consultation. Idea networking is inductive as it does not assume any prior classification system to cluster the statements. Rather keywords or issues in the statements are individually linked (paired). These links can then be entered into network software to be displayed as a network with clusters. When named, these clusters provide emergent categories, meta themes, frames or concepts which represent, structure or sense-make the collection of statements.
An idea network can be constructed in the following way:
  • 60 to 200 statements are listed and assigned reference numbers.
  • A table is constructed showing which statements (by reference number) are linked (paired) and why. For example statement 1 maybe linked to statements 4, 23, 45, 67, 89 and 107 because they all are about the weather (see table).

Is Linked To
Because They Are About
4, 23, 45, 67, 89, 107
16, 29, 46, 81
23, 45, 67, 89, 107
13, 16, 34, 78, 81

The number of links per statement should be from 1 to 7; many more will result in a congested network diagram. This means choosing why the statements are linked may need grading as strong or weak, or by sub sets. For example statements linked as being about weather conditions may be further subdivided into those about good weather, wet weather or bad weather etc.…). This linking is sometimes called ’coding’ in thematic analysis which highlights that the statements can be linked for several and different reasons (source, context, time, etc.). There maybe many tens of reasons why statements are linked. The same statements may be linked for different reasons. The number of reasons should not be restricted to low number as so anticipate the resultant clustering.
  • The reference numbers are input to a network diagramming software, usually in the form of a matrix with the reference numbers along the top and side of the matrix. Each cell will then have a 1 or 0 to indicate whether its row and column reference number are linked.
  • The software is instructed to draw network diagram using maximum node repulsion. This encourages cluster formation. Around 5 clusters are identified in the network diagram, both visually and using the cluster identification algorithms supplied with the software (e.g. Newnan Girvan sub-groups)

  • A descriptive collective adjective name is determined for each cluster of statements (a meta narrative, classification name or label).
  • The list of statements is then reported as being clustered into these five or so cluster names (themes, frames, concepts). For example, one might report that your analysis of the statements shows that those at community meeting were using the concepts of exposure, interaction, safety, light and inspiration in their responses.

Underlying philosophy

  • In his book Notes on the Synthesis of Form, the pragmatist Christopher Alexander suggested networking the ideas of clients as means to identifying the major facets of an architectural design. This is still used modern design work usually using cluster analysis. Modern social network analysis software provides a useful tool for how these ideas can be networked. This simply adds ideas to the list of computers, power stations, people and events that can be networked (see Network theory) The links between ideas can be represented in a matrix or network. Modern network diagramming software, with node repulsion algorithms, allows useful visual representation of these networks revealing clusters of nodes.
  • When networking peoples' statements or ideas, these become the nodes and the links are provided by an analyst linking those statements thought to be similar. Keywords, synonyms, experience or context might be used to provide this linking. For example, the statements (1) That war is economics progressed by other means, might be considered linked to the statement (2) That progress unfortunately needs the innovation which is a consequence of human conflict.
  • Linguistic pragmatism argues we use our conceptions to interpret our perceptions (sensory inputs).[5] These conceptions might be represented by words as conceptual ideas or concepts. For example, if we use the conceptual idea or concepts of justice to interpret the actions of people, we get a different interpretation (or meaning) compared to using the conceptual idea of personal power. Using the conceptual idea of justice makes certain action ideas seem reasonable. These may include due process, legal representation, hearing both sides, have norms or regulations for comparison. Therefore there is a relationship between conceptual ideas and related apparently rational action ideas.
  • If the statements gathered at a consultative meeting are considered action ideas, then clusters of these similar actions ideas might be considered to examples of a meta idea or conceptual idea. These are also called themes, and frames. Modern research extending Miller’s Magic number7 plus or minus 2, to idea handling, suggests a five-part classification is appropriate for humans.

Notable applications and uses

Using networking to cluster statements is considered useful because:
  • It provides a multi-dimensional alternative to post-it notes in clusters YouTube example.
  • It offers a convenient graphic which can be presented in reports and analysed using network metrics (See Computer assisted qualitative data analysis software).
  • It is an auditable process where each step taken can be explained in supporting documentation.
  • It is a qualitative alternative, and thus more subtle and transparent, than NVivo, Thematic Analysis, Cluster analysis, Factor analysis, Multidimensional scaling or Principle component analysis. This subtleness includes enabling the analyst to deal with metaphor, synonyms, pronouns and alternative terminology generally. No variables (variation in numerical data) are necessary

  1. Alexander, C. (1964). Notes On The Synthesis of Form.. Harvard University Press, Mass
  2. Metcalfe, M. (2007). Problem Conceptualisation Using Idea Networks. Systematic Practice and Action Research. pp. 141-150.
  3. Alexander, C. (c. 1964). Notes On The Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press, Mass.
  4. Inkpen, A.C., E.W.K. Tsang. (2005). Social Capital, Networks, And Knowledge Transfer. Academy Of Management Review. pp. 146–165.
  5. Rorty, R. (1982). Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  6. Miller, G.A. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. The Psychological Review. pp. 81–97.

Monday, 8 April 2013

Analyzing financial interactions/markets as a complex network

Since most of the posts till now have been the characteristic trademark of the so-called 'techies' , I thought I will combine a new field with the analysis of complex networks . Financial interactions/markets in the world sure are a source of arousing curiosity of most of the tech-school students , though ephemerally .So here it goes .....
Economic research on network formation usually starts from the observation that social structure is important in a variety of interactions, including the transmission of information and the buying and selling of goods and services. Over the past decade, economists have started to investigate the interactions between network topologies and game-theoretic notions of stability and efficiency using the tools and jargon of graph theory.
It is noteworthy that in a recent survey of economic models of network formation, the term degree distribution does not appear once, and it seems that the economics profession is only very recently becoming aware of the research by statistical physicists and computer scientists. As a consequence, it becomes very hard to evaluate whether the network structures emerging from various processes are efficient with respect to either the involved microscopic motives, or to the resulting and possibly unintended macroscopic regularities, or both .Interestingly, the particular economic (game-theoretic) setup does not seem to be crucial for such a trade-off between efficiency and stability. Chemical engineers have argued that generic network topologies, including polar cases like ‘stars,’‘circles,’ and ‘hubs,’ can be understood as the outcome of adaptive evolutionary processes that optimize the trade-off between efficiency and robustness in uncertain environments .The efficiency and robustness results were extended to show how power-law, exponential, and Poisson degree distributions can be understood as manifestations of the trade-off between efficiency and robustness within a unified theoretical framework based on the maximum entropy principle .Although degree distributions, small world effects, clustering measures, or other concepts from the statistical physics community have been ignored to a large extent by economists, I take the position that economically or behaviorally plausible mechanisms in the generation and evolution of empirically relevant network
structures should play an important role.

Financial time series are characterized by a number of statistical regularities in both their unconditional and conditional properties that are often termed ‘stylized facts.’ One property is the scaling law observed for large returns r .
                                                        P(|r|>x)∼pow(x,−α) ,
where α denotes the tail index .The ubiquitous nature of this power law decay has been documented in numerous financial data, covering different markets (stock markets, foreign exchange markets, commodity markets), different frequencies (from minute-to-minute to monthly data), and different countries. Moreover,empirical estimates lead to a universal value of α≈3, with a small interval of statistical variability between 2.5 and 4.
Taking into account the long tradition in the analysis of complex systems in statistical physics, scaling laws suggest to look at financial data as the result of social processes of a large ensemble of interacting sub-units.

 I start from the observation that multi-fractal models (i.e. models with a hierarchy of volatility components with different stochastic life times) describe the stylized facts of financial returns very well, and combine this with our aforementioned insight that the very large number of traders (called clients subsequently) in financial markets should be grouped into K structures, where K is moderate relative to the total number of clients. The multi-fractal model corresponds to a tree graph with a moderate K compared to the total number of agents .In social nets the average geodesic path length seems to be universal andrelatively small (the so-called “small world effect”). In our nets this distance is related to K , which determines the tail index. Thus I expect to explain the universality of the latter by that of K.The prediction of a hyperbolic decay of correlation in the multi-fractal model is only valid in a time window. Since this window changes according to with the time resolution, I hope to explain the transition from a power law for high frequency data to the complicated behavior of daily returns.The improvement of time behavior by including features of the multi-fractal model should lead to a substantially improved predictive power.

It might help to understand whether the intermittent character of financial returns as a signature of the ‘critical’ nature of market fluctuations serves to balance a lack of efficiency with the robustness to absorb large exogenous shocks (like 9/11) along the lines of the above literature. From an interdisciplinary point of view, such insights should be applicable as well to other phenomena that are characterized by qualitative differences among nodes in a network, like supply chains in industrial organization, or food webs in biological systems.

References :
(2)V. Bala and S. Goyal. A non-cooperative model of network formation.Econometrica, 68:1181–1230,2000 .
(3)E. Egenter, T. Lux, and D. Stauffer. Finite-size effects in Monte Carlo simulations of two stock market models.Physica A, 268:250–256, 1999
(4)M.I. Jordan.Learning in Graphical Models. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998.
(5)T. Lux. Turbulence in financial markets: The surprising explanatory power of simple cascade models. Quantitative Finance, 1:632–640, 2005.

The application of graph theoretical analysis to complex networks in the brain

Traditionally, neuroscientists correlate ‘focal’ brain lesions, for instance brain tumors, with ‘focal’ clinical deficits. This approach gave important insights into the localization of brain functions; a classical example is the identiﬁcation of the motor speech center in the lower left frontal cortex by the French neurologist Paul Broca at the end of the 19th century. Particularly during the last decades of the 20th century, this essentially reductionistic program led to signiﬁcant progress in neuroscience in terms of molecular and genetic mechanisms . Despite the impressive increase of knowledge in neuroscience, however, progress in true understanding of higher level brain processes has been disappointing. Evidence has accumulated that functional networks throughout the brain are necessary, particularly for higher cognitive functions such as memory, planning, and abstract reasoning. It is more and more acknowledged that the brain should be conceived as a complex network of dynamical systems, consisting of numerous functional interactions between closely related as well as more remote brain areas (Varela et al., 2001).
Evaluation of the strength and temporal and spatial patterns of interactions in the brain and the characteristics of the underlying functional and anatomical networks may contribute substantially to the understanding of brain function and dysfunction. A major advantage of this approach is that a lot can be learned from other ﬁelds of science, particularly the social sciences, that are also devoted to the study of complex systems. In the last decade of the 20th century, considerable progress has been made in the study of complex systems consisting of large numbers of weakly interacting elements. The modern theory of networks, which is derived from graph theory, has proven to be particularly valuable for this purpose (Amaral and Ottino, 2004; Boccaletti et al., 2006).

Historical background

The modern theory of networks has its roots both in mathematics and sociology. In 1736 the mathematician Leonard Euler solved the problem of ‘the bridges of Konigsberg’. This problem involved the question whether it was possible to make a walk crossing exactly one time each of the seven bridges connecting the two islands in the river Pregel and its shores. Euler proved that this is not possible by representing the problem as an abstract network: a ‘graph’. This is often considered as the ﬁrst proof in graph theory. Since then, graph theory has become an important ﬁeld within mathematics, and the only available tool to handle network properties theoretically.
An important step forward occurred when ‘random’ graphs were discovered (Solomonov and Rapoport, 1951; Erdos and Renyi, 1960). In random graphs, connections between the network nodes are present with a ﬁxed and equal likelihood. Many important theories have been proven for random graphs. In particular it has been shown that properties of the graphs often undergo a sudden transition (‘phase transition’) as a function of increasing likelihood that edges are present. However, despite the success of random graph theory, most real-world networks, particularly those found in social or biological systems, have properties that cannot be explained very well by classic random graphs. These properties include the high clustering and power law degree distributions. One empirically observed phenomenon in many real networks is the fact that the ‘distances’ in sparsely and mainly locally connected networks are often much smaller than expected theoretically. This phenomenon was probably ﬁrst observed by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called ‘Chains’. In this story he speculates that in the modern world the distance between any two persons is unlikely to be more than ﬁve persons, a phenomenon later studied and described in more detail by Stanley Milgram, and referred to as the ‘small world phenomenon’, or ‘six degrees of separation’ (Milgram, 1967).

Recent advances

The publication of a landmark paper in 1998 by Watts and Strogatz (Watts and Strogatz, 1998) provided a simple and elegant way of modeling small world networks. These authors proposed a very simple model of a one-dimensional network. Initially each node (‘vertex’) in the network is only connected to its ‘k’ nearest neighbors (k is called the degree of the network), representing a so-called ‘regular’ network. Next, with likelihood ‘p’, connections (‘edges’) are chosen at random and connected to another vertex, also chosen randomly. With increasing p, more and more edges become randomly re-connected and ﬁnally, for p = 1, the network is completely random (Fig. 1). Thus, this simple model allows the investigation of the whole range from regular to random networks, including an intermediate range.
The intermediate range proved to be crucial to the solution of the small world phenomenon. In order to show this, the authors introduced two measures: the clustering coeﬃ- cient ‘C’, which is the likelihood that neighbors of a vertex will also be connected, and the path length ‘L’ which is the average of the shortest distance between pairs of vertices counted in number of edges. Watts and Strogatz showed that regular networks have a high C but also a very high L. In contrast, random networks have a low C and a low L. So, neither regular nor random networks explain the small world phenomenon. However, when p is only slightly higher than 0 (with very few edges randomly rewired) the path length L drops sharply, while C hardly changes (Fig. 2). Thus networks with a small fraction of randomly rewired connections combine both high clustering and a small path length, and this is exactly the small world phenomenon to be explained. The authors demonstrated the existence of such small world networks in the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans, a social network of actors, and the network of power plants in the United States. Furthermore, they showed that a small world architecture might facilitate the spread of infection or information in networks (Watts and Strogatz, 1998).
A second major discovery was presented in 1999 by Baraba´si and Albert (Barabasi and Albert, 1999). They proposed a model for the growth of a network where the likelihood that newly added edges connect to a vertex depends upon the degree of this vertex. Thus, vertices that have a high degree (large number of edges) are more likely

to get even more edges. This is the network equivalent of ‘the rich getting richer’. Networks generated in this way are characterized by a degree distribution which can be described by a power law:

 Networks with a power law degree distribution are called ‘scale free’. It has been shown that many social and technological networks, such as for instance collaborative networks of scientists, the World Wide Web, and networks of airports, are likely to be scale free (Newman, 2003).

Basics of modern network theory

The discovery of small world networks and scale free networks set oﬀ a large body of theoretical and experimental research, which has led to increasing knowledge on various aspects of network properties in the last decade. Before we move on to the application of network theories to experimental neural networks, and healthy and diseased brain, we will provide some basic knowledge on several aspects of network properties. As mentioned before, more detailed mathematical descriptions can be found in Albert and Baraba´si (Albert and Baraba´si, 2002) and Stam and Reijneveld (Stam and Reijneveld, 2007).

Core measures

The degree distribution, clustering coeﬃcient, and path length are the core measures of graphs. The degree distribution can be described as the likelihood p(k) that a randomly chosen vertex will have degree k. The clustering coeﬃcient C is an index of local structure. It is the likelihood that neighbors of a vertex will also be connected to each other, and have been interpreted as a measure of resilience to random error (if a vertex is lost, its neighbours remain connected). The path length L is a global characteristic; it indicates how well integrated a graph is, and how easy it is to transport information or other entities in the network (Fig. 3). On the basis of the abovementioned three measures, four diﬀerent types of graphs can be distinguished: (i) regular or ordered; (ii) small world; (iii) random (see Fig. 1); (iv) scale free. We should stress that neither regular, small  world, nor random networks are scale free. Scale free networks can have very small path lengths of the order of lnln(N), but the clustering coeﬃcient may also be smaller than that of small world networks (Cohen and Havlin, 2003).

1.Achard S, Bullmore E. Eﬃciency and cost of economical brain functional networks. PLoS Comput Biol 2007;3:e17.
2.Achard S, Salvador R, Whitcher B, Suckling J, Bullmore E. A resilient, low-frequency, small-world human brain functional network with highly connected association cortical hubs. J Neurosci 2006;26:63–72.
3.Aertsen AM, Gerstein GL, Habib MK, Palm G. Dynamics of neuronal ﬁring correlation: modulation of ‘‘eﬀective connectivity. J Neurophysiol 1989;61:900–17.
4.Albert R, Baraba´si AL. Statistical mechanics of complex networks. Rev Mod Phys 2002;74:47–97.
5.Amaral LAN, Ottino JM. Complex networks; augmenting the framework for the study of complex systems. Eur Phys J B 2004;38:147–62.
6.Artzy-Randrup Y, Fleishman SJ, Ben Tal N, Stone L. Comment on Network motifs: simple building blocks of complex networks’’ and  Superfamilies of evolved and designed networks. Science 2004;305:1107.
7.Astolﬁ L, De Vico Fallani F, Cincotti F, Mattia D, Marciani MG, Bufalari S, et al. Imaging functional brain connectivity patterns from high-resolution EEG and fMRI via graph theory. Psychophysiology 2007;44:10.1111.

Increasing the Complications

Lot has been studied for the past few months in complex networks. Some non-trivial topological features in real time networks such as citation network, movie actor network, web graph and many more. All these graphs were having some common features such as they were are simple, undirected, and un-weighted graphs. Network topological features have been studied on lots of other types of graphs too. (I am not saying that the course was less so please don't increase the syllabus). Some other interesting graphs which show some unique behavior or characteristic properties worth studying can be weighted graphs, directed graphs, eulerian graph, hamiltonian graph.

Considering weighted graphs, they are not that complicated if seen superficially but they can be a useful representation to some complicated real-time networks which are not covered by simple graphs or are partially covered in terms of information and thus are unable to study some vital results that are seen in the real-time systems.

Let’s take an example. The movie actor graph can be further made weighted with the weights showing the number of times he/she was on screen or the time for which he/she was on screen. This graph will give a better representation to the actual weightage of an actor in the movie rather than giving equal weight to all the actors (lead/subordinate/extras).

Another example can be Airport Network (Fig 1). This graph in a simple way can represent all the connected airports. However this graph can be extended to weighted graph in order to represent the total number of seats available between two airports in all the flights. The extended information can be well used to study traffic over two places rather than just studying the connectivity of places in case of un-weighted graphs.

Fig1. The Airport Network (edge weight denote no. of seats (million/year)

However this new graph will also need some new definitions to the old terms or some new terms may even be coined in.

To study this new attribute, weight of edge, along with the old studies on the undirected graph a new definition coined in the paper by A. Barrat is of vertex strength. Vertex strength (si) can aptly cover the degree distribution along with weight of edge. It is defined as summation all the weights of the edges of a vertex. In the case of the Airport Network the vertex strength simply accounts for the total traffic handled by each airport. This certainly is more useful measure rather than just having connectivity of airports.

Here aij denote the presence of edge and wij denote the weight on the edge.

The strength also gives the degree centrality of the vertex since the degree centrality is not the degree anymore. It also has to cover for the weights on the edges.

Another type of graph can be directed graphs. Here one can think of some unbalanced relations of undirected graphs that have been studied. In those graphs a directed edge will provide a better and accurate view.

One example here that fits here is the citation graph (Fig 2). The graph of research papers with each out-edge denoting a citation of source node. Here again it would be interesting to observe the clusters where the group of papers are cited by most other papers. A more important set of paper can be easily pointed out according to the number of papers to which a certain paper has been cited.

Fig 2. Citation graph (Research papers from the field of biology)

One simplification of directed graph for certain calculation is breaking each vertex into a pair of vertices, one denoted as in-vertex and the other as the out-vertex. The in-vertex shall have edges that were ending into the original vertex. Similarly out-vertex shall have edges that were originating i.e. going out of the original vertex. All the edges in this graph are undirected. This was quite a useful representation for graph attributes. More can be done to find out whether this is useful for complex networks attributes or not.

Lot more is there to explore in complex networks w.r.t. the types of graphs, properties, interpretations etc. A couple of them I tried to present here. The more we discover, the more it is going to be interesting. Though this blog did not cover much but it was just intended to give a brief overview (some of my views) on these topics.

Thank you.

  •          The architecture of complex weighted networks A. BarratM. BarthélemyR. Pastor-Satorras,  A. Vespignani
  •          Albert, R. & Barabási, A.-L. (2002) Rev. Mod. Phys. 74, 47-97.
  •          Pastor-Satorras, R. & Vespignani, A. (2001) Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3200-3203.
  •         Callaway, D. S., Newman, M. E. J., Strogatz, S. H. & Watts, D. J. (2000) Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5468-5471.

Saturday, 6 April 2013

Connecting the Dots: Linked Data

Not so long ago, Tim Berners-Lee came up with the notion of a World Wide Web revolutionizing the way people exchange information and documents. We now live in an economy where data plays a central role in decision making. As the implications of utilizing large data sets in research and enterprises are being realized, there is also a certain degree of underlying frustration when it comes to acquiring quality data sets. The Internet has proved to be a phenomenal source of information. However, most of it is unstructured and scattered. Linked Data provides a publishing paradigm in which not only documents, but also data, can be a first class citizen of the Web, thereby enabling the extension of the Web with a global data space based on open standards - the Web of Data.

Linked Data Graph
Partial Snapshot of the Linked Data Graph
The difference between the current web and a web of data is best explained with an example. Nowadays a typical online store would consist of pages describing different products. Such a page contains all the information a human reader requires. But this information is represented in a way that makes automatic processing of it hard. In a web of data, the online store would actually publish data resources to the web, which represent the products. These resources can be retrieved in different representations, such that a browser would allow you to view a product page while a web crawler would get a machine understandable representation of the product.

Now comes the part which makes it even more exciting for research. Consider a case of a researcher developing a drug to treat Alzheimer’s.  Suppose, she wants to find the proteins which are involved in signal transduction AND are related to pyramidal neurons. (The question probably makes sense to her).
Searching for the same on Google returns about 2,240,000 results not one of which leads to an answer. Why? Because no one has ever had that idea before! There exists no single webpage on the web with the result. Querying the same on the Linked healthcare database pulls in data from two distinct data sets and produces 32 hits, EACH of which is a protein which has those properties.

The vision of Linked Data is the liberation of raw knowledge and making it (literally) accessible to the world. Indeed, a Web of Ideas.

Let us now take a deeper look into the principles involved and how the same can be applied in a Complex Network domain. Broadly, it entails four basic principles:
  1. Use URIs as names for things. These may include tangible things such as people, places and cars, or those that are more abstract, such as the relationship type of knowing somebody, the set of all green cars in the world, or the color green itself.
  2. Use HTTP URIs, so that people can look up those names.
  3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using the standards (RDF, SPARQL).
  4. Include links to other URIs, so that they can discover more things. For example, a hyperlink of the type friend of may be set between two people, or a hyperlink of the type based near may be set between a person and a place.
The power here lies in the linksThere are three important types of RDF links:
  • Relationship Links : point at related things in other data sources
  • Identity Links point at URI aliases used by other data sources to identify the same real-world object or abstract concept
  • Vocabulary Links point from data to the definitions of the vocabulary terms that are used to represent the data
Having a good idea of the basic concepts, we are now ready to see how we can harness Linked Data for research involving Complex Networks.

As I see it, there are two interesting areas here:

As described in this old article, Linked Data is growing at an exponential rate since its modest beginnings back in 2007. Over the years, different data sets have started linking to the global database and a clear emergence of genres can be seen. The Linked Data graph may offer a good opportunity to study the temporal behavior of the largest structured knowledge database ever witnessed by the world.

Then again, as mentioned before, the data offered itself has huge potential in terms of network research. A good question therefore is how to get our hands on this data.

One approach is to use existing systems to get data. Linked data is accessible through browsers like the Disco Hyperdata browser, the Tabulator browser or the more recent LinkSailor. We can also make use of search engines such as, Falcons and SWSE.

For example, research on Citation Analysis may be supplemented with data available on authors (example) or subject areas (example). Linguistic research stands to gain from the relationships relating words and objects with actions, events, facts, etc. (example, example).

As with all generic applications however, the problem is that deployed applications offer little control over how the data is accessed. For specific research, therefore, it is best to develop applications and crawlers from scratch. This website would be a good place to start. It explains in detail about RDF and architectures involving linked data applications.

To conclude, Linked Data provides a more generic, more flexible publishing paradigm which makes it easier for data consumers to discover and integrate data from a large numbers of data sources. Though, still in its infancy period, it has come a long way since its inception. Coupled with the onset of an Internet of Things, Linked Datasets will encompass the physical world, identifying social relationships, behavioral patterns and events. What we do with this information is entirely up to us.

Regarding indexing of text and metadata information, the Solr system:


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The last country

PHOTO: Erakogu

Romania is politically detoxifying. The diet is a «play by ear», without a set of rules, administered by disunited «technicians» and «doctors» on a clear concept for the cure.

Having already been dissatisfied with previous treatments, the patient lacks confidence in the possible success rate of what familiar specialists offer and appears ready to subscribe to more extreme methods. Romania may just be the last country in the European series to show the signs of fostering a mainstream nation-centric, anti-Western political movement.

Having so far averted the institutionalisation of extreme nationalism by including populist, ethnocentric elements in their own rhetoric, mainstream parties no longer appear able to contain this phenomenon. A disenchanted, unsatisfied society is looking for answers outside the seemingly panting political establishment. So where did it all go wrong for the country that constantly ranks among the highest trusting states in the European institutions according to the Standard Eurobarometer?

The Agent

What can be so worrisome with the emergence of party outsiders in central decision making? Nothing. Unless they are too many. Parties remain the uncontested core of democratic rule. At least some outstanding outsiders should be included in already established parties. Without understanding the need to woo them once their proliferation is noticeable at the central or local level, parties increase the gap between themselves and the society they should represent. With few notable exceptions, such as the support provided by the Liberal Party to outsider and current president Klaus Iohannis, Romanian parties have had a faulty human resources policy. The all technocrat government ruling the country as of November 2015 is another first in the country’s history.

The Tools

When you don’t have something to believe in, you can be easily manipulated to believe anything. Ideology has mostly been a ceremonial asset for mainstream parties and all political turn-overs have been the result of “anti” campaigns on broad temporary agendas. Three such phases of polarization can be so far identified: communism vs. anti-communism (1990-2000), corruption vs. anti-corruption (2000-2008), for President Basescu vs. anti - President Basescu (2008 – 2014). Once this final, highly personalised period in Romanian politics came to an end, confusion set. Romania now has two mainstream parties which call themselves socialist and centre-right liberals. The scene is set for an ideological division. If the ‘detox period’ is successful, it should end with the 2016 local and parliamentary elections. To this end, the lists of candidates should be balanced between the priorities of their activist - base and different social categories. If unsuccessful, the tension between parties and society continues and provides fertile ground for extremist parties.

The message

Why are parties to blame for the possible questioning of the pro-European, pro-American sentiment? Besides the general flow of ideas in Europe that echoes even in the more pro-European Eastern members, parties have diluted or altogether ignored the meaning of the European project. After the fall of communism, the one thing that united all mainstream Romanian parties has been the rhetoric on the country’s European path of integration. There was little debate needed as the society was in favour of breaking with the Russian influenced past and head West. In time, no additional effort has been made to explain that EU integration also imposed certain conditions, but was used as a scape goat for difficult decisions. During my brief political campaigning experience it was a communality to hear that “campaigns are not won with issues of foreign affairs. What the people care about are internal matters.” Not taking the trouble to explain the interdependence of all internal matters with everything external – be it changes in the security order or matters of European integration – led to the false belief that the two could simply work in parallel. This is not a uniquely Romanian sin, but it rings differently for a nation that continues to be thought in schools about a glorious history in which it withstood the conquering efforts of empires. Parties never took it upon themselves to differentiate between the conditionality of European integration and US partnership - that we wanted - and the rules of conquering empires – that we did not want.

Reacting to the lack of inclusiveness of parties, civil society is strengthening. And after spending the last 25 years deploring its weakness, we may just start swallowing our words. Unorganised activism is an open gate for manipulation. Add the weakness and inadequacy of mainstream parties and one has the recipe for political chaos. Parties are strong as long as they understand to be inclusive institutions. The real competitors, those outside the Euro-Atlantic family, seek not to conquer but weaken. From this perspective, defence is no longer a matter of taking up arms, but ensuring governance.

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    Survival Guide: Recognize Which Clouds Mean Danger

    By By Meghan Evans, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist
    May 18, 2015, 5:34:15 AM EDT

    During severe weather outbreaks, conditions can change rapidly and the weather can turn volatile quickly.

    It is crucial to follow severe weather and tornado-related watches and warnings during episodes of severe storms. Keeping a weather radio nearby, with extra batteries handy, is a must.

    If you are out on the open road, staying tuned to severe weather alerts and being able to read the clouds for severe weather can help save your life.

    The Difference Between Tornado Watches and Warnings
    AccuWeather Severe Weather Center
    Can Severe Weather Ever Be Avoided?

    The following is a breakdown of ominous-looking clouds and whether there is imminent danger associated with them.

    Cumulonimbus Clouds

    Rapid vertical growth in these cauliflower-looking cumulonimbus clouds shows that there is a mature thunderstorm, likely producing heavy rain. Abundant moisture and instability due to cool air aloft and heating at the surface set the stage for cumulonimbus to develop.

    A lifting mechanism, such as a cold front, can help trigger these clouds to form.

    Heavy rain, frequent lightning, strong winds and hail can be threats associated with cumulonimbus clouds.

    Scud Clouds

    Scud clouds may appear to be ominous as they hang vertically below a cumulonimbus cloud. Sometimes, scud clouds are mistaken for funnel clouds.

    However, these clouds are benign and non-rotating. They often have a ragged appearance that sets them apart from the often smooth funnel clouds.

    Shelf Clouds

    Shelf clouds often form at the leading edge of a gust front or outflow boundary from a thunderstorm or strong winds flowing down and outward from a storm.

    The outer part of a shelf cloud is often smoother with a notable rising motion exhibited by a tiered look (hence, the name shelf cloud). Underneath, a turbulent, unsettled appearance is often the case.

    A shelf cloud should be seen as a harbinger of strong winds, so take caution.

    Wall Clouds

    A wall cloud is a cloud that is lowered from a thunderstorm, forming when rapidly rising air causes lower pressure below the storm's main updraft.

    "Wall clouds can range from a fraction of a mile up to nearly 5 miles in diameter," according to the National Weather Service.

    Wall clouds that rotate are a warning sign of very violent thunderstorms. They can be an indication that a tornado will touch down within minutes or even within an hour.

    Funnel Clouds

    A funnel cloud is a rotating column of air (visible due to condensation) that does not reach the ground.

    If a funnel cloud reaches all the way to the ground, it is then classified as a tornado.

    When out on the road, funnel clouds should be treated as tornadoes, since they could touch down.

    A tornado is a rotating column of air, reaching all the way to the ground. Strong tornadoes are one of the most destructive forces of nature on a small scale, the strongest of which can level entire towns.

    A roaring noise, often compared to that of a train, can be heard in many cases when a tornado touches down.

    Vehicles are NOT a safe place to be if there is a tornado nearby.

    Thunderstorm Anvil Clouds

    Anvil clouds are the flat top of a thunderstorm, or cumulonimbus cloud.

    They can spread up to "hundreds of miles downwind from the thunderstorm itself," according to the National Weather Service.

    Lightning can strike from anvil clouds, even far away from a thunderstorm. Lightning described as striking "from out of the blue" is usually from an anvil cloud that has drifted from a thunderstorm.

    Mammatus Clouds

    Striking mammatus clouds can sometimes be seen below thunderstorm anvil clouds.

    The rounded and smooth look of mammutus clouds captivates onlookers.

    They are often found underneath anvil clouds of severe thunderstorms; however, they can form underneath clouds associated with non-severe thunderstorms as well.

    Asperatus Clouds

    An abundance of heat in the atmosphere is needed to produce enough energy for the dramatic, rolling formations of asperatus clouds. Another factor is the interaction of very moist air (often on the fringes of thunderstorm complexes) with very dry air.

    The darkness of the clouds is likely due to the large amount of water vapor.

    Asperatus clouds are not necessarily accompanied by stormy weather. In fact, they have often been observed without the development of thunderstorms.

    Report a Typo

    More Weather News


Active Release Technique

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What is Active Release Techniques (ART) to Individuals, Athletes, and Patients?

How do overuse conditions occur?

Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:

  • accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)
  • not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia).

What is an ART treatment like?

These treatment protocols - over 500 specific moves - are unique to ART. They allow providers to identify and correct the specific problems that are affecting each individual patient. ART is not a cookie-cutter approach.

What is the history of Active Release Techniques?

ART has been developed, refined, and patented by P. Michael Leahy, DC, CCSP. Dr. Leahy noticed that his patients' symptoms seemed to be related to changes in their soft tissue that could be felt by hand. By observing how muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves responded to different types of work, Dr. Leahy was able to consistently resolve over 90% of his patients' problems. He now teaches and certifies health care providers all over the world to use ART.


Eying the ultimate technology and systems

For 50 years, the industry has been scaling chip technology following Mooreʼs Law, with scaling targets that addressed cost, area, power, and performance, more or less at the same pace. The systems built from those chips followed suit, upgrading features and performance as new chip generations became available.

But the last years, the explosive growth of data traffic has led to a demand for processing power beyond what is possible with traditional transistor scaling. Additionally, the Internet of Things is growing into a veritable system of systems, demanding highly specialized functionality for e.g. low-power sensoring, security, or high-performance computing.

In the following vision, imecʼs An Steegen, Diederik Verkest and Ingrid Verbauwhede explain how imec and its partners are developing the chips and systems for this new reality.

An Steegen talks about the pipeline of materials, device architectures and advanced techniques for a number of new technology generations. And Diederik Verkest and Ingrid Verbauwhede look at higher system functions and see how we may create an optimized technology to implement these as efficiently as possible.

Technologies to extend semiconductor scaling

The explosive growth of data traffic fuels the demand for ever more processing power and storage capacity. Mooreʼs Law continues to be necessary, but innovations are needed beyond this law to help managing the devices power, performance, area and cost. An Steegen reveals some of the secrets of semiconductor scaling – a pipeline full of materials, device architectures and advanced techniques that promise to further extend semiconductor scaling.

The end of happy scaling?

Data traffic explosion, fueled by the Internet of Things, social media and server applications, has created a continuous need for advanced semiconductor technologies. Servers, mobile devices, IoT devices... they drive the requirements for processing and storage. An Steegen: “At the same time, this trend is also creating more diversification. IoT devices for example will need low-power signal acquisition and processing, and embedded non-volatile memory technologies. For mobile and server applications, on the contrary, further dimensional scaling, continuous transistor architecture innovations and memory hierarchy diversification are among the key priorities.” But will we be able to continue traditional semiconductor scaling, as initiated by Gordon Moore more than 50 years ago? An Steegen: “For a long time, we have lived in the happy scaling era, where every technology node reshrinks and redoubles the number of transistors per area, for the same cost. But the last 10-12 years, we have not been following that happy scaling path. The number of transistors still doubles, but device scaling provides us with diminishing returns. Weʼve seen these dark periods of ‘dark siliconʼ before, but, fortunately, weʼve always managed to get out of these periods. Again, the technology box will provide new features to help manage power, performance and area node by node as we move to the next generation.”

The technology box for dimensional scaling

On the dimensional scaling side, extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is considered an important enabler for continuing Mooreʼs Law. An Steegen: “Ideally, we would need it at the 10nm node, where we will start replacing single exposures with multiple exposures. More realistically, it will hopefully be ready to lower the costs for the 7nm technology. At imec, we already showed that EUVL is capable of printing 7nm logic dimensions with one single exposure.” Still, issues need to be resolved, related to, for example, the line-edge roughness. An Steegen: “At the same time, to enhance dimensional scaling, we increasingly make use of scaling boosters, such as self-aligned gate contact or buried power rail. These tricks allow a standard cell height to be reduced from 9 to 6 tracks, leading to a bit density increase and large die cost reduction -   a nice example of design-technology co-optimization.”

Improving power/performance in the front-end of line

FinFET technology has been the killer device for the 14 and 10nm technology nodes. But for the 7-5nm, An Steegen foresees challenges. “At these nodes, FinFET technology canʼt meet the 20% performance scaling and 40% power gain anymore. To go beyond 7nm will require horizontal gate-allaround nanowires, which promise better electrostatic control. In such a configuration, the drive current per footprint can be maximized by vertically stacking multiple horizontal nanowires. In 2016, at IEDM, we demonstrated for the first time the CMOS integration of vertically stacked gate-all-around Si nanowire MOSFETs. Vertical nanowires, although requiring a more disruptive process flow, could be a next step. Or junction-less gate-all-around nanowire FET devices, which, as shown at the 2016 VLSI conference, appear as an attractive option for advanced logic, low-power circuits and analog/RF applications.” Further down the road, from the 2.5nm node onwards, fin/ nanowire devices are expected to run out of steam. An Steegen: “Sooner or later, we will need to find the next switch. Promising approaches are tunnel- FETs, which can provide a 3x drive current improvement, and spin-wave majority gates. ”Spin-wave majority gates with micro-sized dimensions have already been reported. But to be CMOS-competitive, they must be scaled and handle waves with nanometer-sized wavelengths. An Steegen: “In 2016, imec proposed a method to scale these spin-wave devices into nanometer dimensions, opening routes towards building spin-wave majority gates that promise to outperform CMOS-based logic technology in terms of power and area reduction.”

Extending or replacing Cu in the back-end-of-line

Looking ahead, it might as well be the interconnect that will threaten further device scaling. Therefore, the back-end-of-line (BEOL) and the struggle to keep scaling the BEOL needs attention as well. “We look at ways to extend the life of Cu, for example with liners of ruthenium (Ru) or cobalt (Co). On the longer term, we will probably need alternative metals, such as Co for local interconnects or vias”, says An Steegen.

The future memory hierarchy

Besides a central processing unit, memory to store all the data and instructions is another key element of the classical Von Neumann computer architecture. The ever increasing performance of computation platforms and the consumerʼs hunger for storing and exchanging ever more data drive the need to keep on scaling memory technologies. Besides this scaling trend, existing memories that make up todayʼs memory hierarchy are challenged with the need for new types of memory. An Steegen: “STT-MRAM, for example, is an emerging memory concept that has the potential to become the first embedded non-volatile memory technology on advanced logic nodes for advanced applications. It is also an attractive technology for future high-density standalone applications. It promises non-volatility, high-speed, low-voltage switching and nearly unlimited read/write endurance. But its scalability towards higher densities has always been challenging. Recently, we have been able to demonstrate a high-performance perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction device as small as 8nm, combined with a manufacturable solution for a highly scalable STT-MRAM array.” The future memory landscape also requires a new type of memory able to fill the gap between DRAM and solid-state memories: the storage class memory. This memory type should allow massive amounts of data to be accessed in very short latency. Imec is working there on MRAM and resistive RAM (RRAM) approaches.

Beyond classical scaling – towards system-technology cooptimization...

A challenge for traditional Von Neumann computing is to increase the data transfer bandwidth between the processing chip and the memory. And this is where 3D approaches enter the scene. An Steegen: “With advanced CMOS scaling, new opportunities for 3D chip integration arise. For example, it becomes possible to realize different partitions of a system-on-chip (SoC) circuit and heterogeneously stacking these partitions with high interconnect densities. At the smallest partitions, chips are no longer stacked as individual die, but as full wafers bonded together.” An increased bandwidth is also enabled by optical I/O. In this context, imec continues its efforts to realize building blocks (e.g. optical modulators, Ge photodetectors) with 50Gb/s channel data rate for its Si photonics platform.

Mooreʼs Law will continue, but not only through the conventional routes of scaling. An Steegen: “We have moved from pure technology optimization (involving novel materials and device architectures) to design-technology cooptimization (e.g. the use of scaling boosters to reduce cell height). And we are already thinking ahead about a next phase, system-technology co-optimization. And to keep computing power improving, we are exploring ways beyond  the classical Von Neumann model, such as neuromorphic computing, a brain-inspired computer concept and quantum computing, which exploits the laws of quantum physics. There are plenty of creative ideas that will allow the industry to further extend semiconductor scaling...”

An SteegnAn Steegen is imecʼs Executive Vice President Semiconductor Technology & Systems. In that role, she heads the research hubʼs efforts to define and enable nextgeneration ICT technology and to feed the industry roadmaps. Dr. Steegen is a recognized leader in semiconductor R&D and an acclaimed thought leader and speaker at the industryʼs prominent conferences and events. An Steegen joined imec in 2010 as senior VP responsible for imecʼs CORE CMOS programs in logic and memory devices, processing, lithography, design, and optical & 3D interconnects. Before, she was director at IBM Semiconductor R&D in Fishkill, New York, responsible for the bulk CMOS technology development. While at IBM, Dr. Steegen was also host executive of IBMʼs logic International Semiconductor Development Alliance and responsible for establishing collaborative partnerships in innovation and manufacturing. Dr. An Steegen holds a Ph.D. in Material Science and Electrical Engineering, which she obtained in 2000 at the KU Leuven (Belgium) while doing research at imec. She has published more than 30 technical papers and holds numerous patents in the field of semiconductor development.

Optimizing technology for IoT systems – adding fingerprints and brains

The IoT is fast becoming a multilevel system of systems spanning the globe. But to realize the growth path that is forecasted, weʼll need optimized and specialized hardware, capable of, amongst others, sensoring at ultralow power, guaranteeing a systemʼs security during its full lifetime, and learning from huge amounts of data. Imecʼs Diederik Verkest and Ingrid Verbauwhede talk about the next step: how technology can be further optimized to solve specific system and application demands. As examples, Ingrid proposes hardware-entangled security and Diederik explains imecʼs efforts in neuromorphic processing.

A heterogeneous chip future (Moore on steroids)

“Until recently,” says Diederik Verkest, “we concentrated almost all of our scaling effort on the smallest unit of a chip, the transistor, whatever that unit was used for afterwards. Next, to stay on the course predicted by Mooreʼs Law, we co-optimized technology with lower-level design units such as e.g. memory cells. Now weʼre working our way up in the system hierarchy, always looking how we can optimize technology to better implement a function. So naturally, we also arrive at the key functions needed for the future IoT, such as a failsafe security. And we are also eying specialized processors for e.g. neuromorphic computing, complete subsystems to tackle specific, hard problems.”

Verkest adds that he is excited about imecʼs recent merger: “This is a great opportunity for both sides. My new colleagues are application experts in domains such as bio-informatics or security. They can help us screen technology and direct us to the solutions that are best fit to solve the hard problems in their domains. And reversely, as application experts, they will learn from all the hardware opportunities that we are considering. What I see happening going forward, is a much more intimate, structured interaction between hardware and application R&D, greatly speeding up this system/ technology co-optimization.”

Secure chips with unclonable fingerprints

Today already, electronics are embedded in many objects in our environment. Think of your carʼs keys, security cameraʼs, smart watches, or even implanted pacemakers. “This makes security considerably more complex than it used to be," says Ingrid Verbauwhede. "Existing cryptographic algorithms demand a lot of compute power, so they run mainly on high-end platforms. But most microchips in the IoT are small, lightweight, low-power and have a limited functionality. So traditional cryptography doesnʼt fit well. Our ambition is to make chips that are inherently more secure through the way they are designed and processed."

In 2016, Ingrid Verbauwhede and her team received a prestigious European ERC research grant for their Cathedral project. “This grant is at once a recognition for what we have been doing, and a great support going forward. A support that will allow us to independently look for the best solutions.”

Ingridʼs team is exploring various ways of doing that: “In the past, R&D looked at dedicated designs methods for e.g. low-power chips. We now want to do the same to better secure chips. Chips e.g. that donʼt leak information while they are computing so they are more resistant against side-channel attacks. And another of our focus points is implementing future-proof cryptography, algorithms that will protect a system during its long lifetime, even if it is attacked by future quantum computers.”

Asked for her plans for 2017, Ingrid Verbauwhede points to the direct access her team now has to technology processing at imecʼs fabs: “One of the characteristics of todayʼs chip scaling is process variation: each chip is slightly different from all others. From a reliability perspective, that is a nuisance. It requires engineers to take extra measures so that computations remain predictable. But there is also an upside that we want to exploit: the variations are like a fingerprint, a way to uniquely identify each chip without expensive calculations. It is what we call a physically unclonable function (PUF). And if you tie that function to the software running on the processor, you have another layer of security which is well-suited for IoT devices.”

Smart chips with brain power

Our brains are formidable computing wonders, using only a fraction of the power than traditional computers to obtain comparable results. Therefore, engineers are eager to mimic the brain on chip to speed up deep learning from massive amounts of data, or low-power image recognition.

“But to do so,” says Diederik Verkest, “we have to replicate the brainʼs architecture, a tight interconnection of an enormous number of relatively primitive processing nodes (the neurons) and their interconnections (the synapses). That is usually done with some type of crossbar architecture, wires laid out in a matrix (or cube), so that each input line connects with all outgoing lines. At a crossing of two lines, there is a switch that implements the synapses. They contain the intelligence of the system, the ability to hold data, process and learn from experience. So they should be made programmable and selfadaptable.

Work on this emerging domain at imec started some two years ago, partly embedded in the EC Horizon2020 project NeuRAM3. In 2016, we have selected an architecture and screened options to implement the self-adapting synapses. We are convinced that our concept is uniquely suited to tackle the problem, so weʼve taken out a patent and are now building a proof-of-concept. In 2017, we will tape-out a first chip and package it into a neuromorphic computing system that we can test against neuromorphic application simulators with growing numbers of neurons.”

These brain-on-chips may not be exact copies of our brain circuits, but nature teaches us that it is physically possible to build much better computers than we do today. Computers that we need to make sense from the enormous amounts of data that the IoT will generate. But also for the intelligent sensors and robots of the connected world. Small, low-power, long-lasting devices that have to stand their ground among an ever growing stream of data, continuously adapt themselves to their environment, even learn and become smarter over their life time.

Diederik VerkestDiederik Verkest is director of imecʼs INSITE program. After earning a Ph.D. in micro-electronics engineering from the KU Leuven, Diederik joined imec in 1994, where he has been responsible amongst others for hardware/software co-design. In 2009, he started imecʼs INSITE program focusing on co-optimization of design and process technology for sub-14nm nodes. The program offers the fab-less design-community insights into advanced process technologies and provides a platform for foundries and fab-less to discuss directions for next generation technologies.

Diederik Verkest published over 150 articles in international journals and at international conferences. Over the past years he has been involved in numerous technical conferences. He was the general chair of, DATE, the Design, Automation, and Test in Europe conference in 2003. Verkest is a Golden Core member of IEEE Computer Society.

Ingrid VerbauwhedeIngrid Verbauwhede is professor at the KU Leuven (Belgium) in the imec- COSIC research unit where she leads the embedded systems and hardware group. She is also adjunct professor at the electrical engineering department at UCLA, Los Angeles (USA).

Ingrid Verbauwhede is an IEEE fellow, member of IACR and she was elected as member of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in 2011. Her main interest is in the design and design methods for secure embedded circuits and systems. She has  published around  70  papers  in  international  journals  and  260  papers  at  international conferences. She is also inventor on 12 issued patents.