5 research outputs found
Adversarial Defense via Neural Oscillation inspired Gradient Masking
Spiking neural networks (SNNs) attract great attention due to their low power
consumption, low latency, and biological plausibility. As they are widely
deployed in neuromorphic devices for low-power brain-inspired computing,
security issues become increasingly important. However, compared to deep neural
networks (DNNs), SNNs currently lack specifically designed defense methods
against adversarial attacks. Inspired by neural membrane potential oscillation,
we propose a novel neural model that incorporates the bio-inspired oscillation
mechanism to enhance the security of SNNs. Our experiments show that SNNs with
neural oscillation neurons have better resistance to adversarial attacks than
ordinary SNNs with LIF neurons on kinds of architectures and datasets.
Furthermore, we propose a defense method that changes model's gradients by
replacing the form of oscillation, which hides the original training gradients
and confuses the attacker into using gradients of 'fake' neurons to generate
invalid adversarial samples. Our experiments suggest that the proposed defense
method can effectively resist both single-step and iterative attacks with
comparable defense effectiveness and much less computational costs than
adversarial training methods on DNNs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the
first work that establishes adversarial defense through masking surrogate
gradients on SNNs
Accelerate & Actualize: Can 2D Materials Bridge the Gap Between Neuromorphic Hardware and the Human Brain?
Two-dimensional (2D) materials present an exciting opportunity for devices
and systems beyond the von Neumann computing architecture paradigm due to their
diversity of electronic structure, physical properties, and atomically-thin,
van der Waals structures that enable ease of integration with conventional
electronic materials and silicon-based hardware. All major classes of
non-volatile memory (NVM) devices have been demonstrated using 2D materials,
including their operation as synaptic devices for applications in neuromorphic
computing hardware. Their atomically-thin structure, superior physical
properties, i.e., mechanical strength, electrical and thermal conductivity, as
well as gate-tunable electronic properties provide performance advantages and
novel functionality in NVM devices and systems. However, device performance and
variability as compared to incumbent materials and technology remain major
concerns for real applications. Ultimately, the progress of 2D materials as a
novel class of electronic materials and specifically their application in the
area of neuromorphic electronics will depend on their scalable synthesis in
thin-film form with desired crystal quality, defect density, and phase purity.Comment: Neuromorphic Computing, 2D Materials, Heterostructures, Emerging
Memory Devices, Resistive, Phase-Change, Ferroelectric, Ferromagnetic,
Crossbar Array, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Spiking Neural Network
Autopoietic-extended architecture: can buildings think?
To incorporate bioremedial functions into the performance of buildings and to balance
generative architecture's dominant focus on computational programming and digital
fabrication, this thesis first hybridizes theories of autopoiesis into extended cognition in order to
research biological domains that include synthetic biology and biocomputation. Under the
rubric of living technology I survey multidisciplinary fields to gather perspective for student
design of bioremedial and/or metabolic components in generative architecture where
generative not only denotes the use of computation but also includes biochemical,
biomechanical, and metabolic functions.
I trace computation and digital simulations back to Alan Turing's early 1950s
Morphogenetic drawings, reaction-diffusion algorithms, and pioneering artificial intelligence
(AI) in order to establish generative architecture's point of origin. I ask provocatively: Can
buildings think? as a question echoing Turing's own "Can machines think?" Thereafter, I
anticipate not only future bioperformative materials but also theories capable of underpinning
strains of metabolic intelligences made possible via AI, synthetic biology, and living technology.
I do not imply that metabolic architectural intelligence will be like human cognition. I
suggest, rather, that new research and pedagogies involving the intelligence of bacteria, plants,
synthetic biology, and algorithms define approaches that generative architecture should take in
order to source new forms of autonomous life that will be deployable as corrective
environmental interfaces. I call the research protocol autopoietic-extended design, theorizing it
as an operating system (OS), a research methodology, and an app schematic for design studios
and distance learning that makes use of in-field, e-, and m-learning technologies.
A quest of this complexity requires scaffolding for coordinating theory-driven teaching
with practice-oriented learning. Accordingly, I fuse Maturana and Varela's biological autopoiesis
and its definitions of minimal biological life with Andy Clark's hypothesis of extended cognition
and its cognition-to-environment linkages. I articulate a generative design strategy and student
research method explained via architectural history interpreted from Louis Sullivan's 1924
pedagogical drawing system, Le Corbusier's Modernist pronouncements, and Greg Lynn's
Animate Form. Thus, autopoietic-extended design organizes thinking about the generation of
ideas for design prior to computational production and fabrication, necessitating a fresh
relationship between nature/science/technology and design cognition. To systematize such a
program requires the avoidance of simple binaries (mind/body, mind/nature) as well as the
stationing of tool making, technology, and architecture within the ream of nature. Hence, I argue,
in relation to extended phenotypes, plant-neurobiology, and recent genetic research:
Consequently, autopoietic-extended design advances design protocols grounded in morphology,
anatomy, cognition, biology, and technology in order to appropriate metabolic and intelligent
properties for sensory/response duty in buildings.
At m-learning levels smartphones, social media, and design apps source data from
nature for students to mediate on-site research by extending 3D pedagogical reach into new
university design programs. I intend the creation of a dialectical investigation of animal/human
architecture and computational history augmented by theory relevant to current algorithmic
design and fablab production. The autopoietic-extended design dialectic sets out ways to
articulate opposition/differences outside the Cartesian either/or philosophy in order to
prototype metabolic architecture, while dialectically maintaining: Buildings can think