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The Computational Cognitive Brain as a Gateway to Study Intelligence

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Dec 15

We are happy to present Pawel Herman, Associate Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Neuroinformatics in the Division of Computational Science and Technology at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

His research fascinations lie at multiple crossroads between broad areas of brain science/neuroscience and computer science. Pawel Herman will talk about The Computational Cognitive Brain as a Gateway to Study Intelligence.

Date and time: 15 December 2020, 3 pm – 4 pm
Speaker: Pawel Herman
Title: The Computational Cognitive Brain as a Gateway to Study Intelligence
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/67432682790?pwd=dVgzbjRSbUVFT2FOYTByYlZrTU9BUT09
Meeting ID: 674 3268 2790
Password: DF2020

Watch the recorded presentation:

 

Picture of Pawel Herman Abstract: One of the long-lasting ambitions of artificial intelligence (AI) has been to mimic human intelligence and several distinct conceptual directions have been taken to make machines think or act humanly or rationally. This quest for general AI remains open and scientifically challenging, in analogy to multi-disciplinary efforts under the umbrella of brain science towards explaining neural basis and mechanisms of human cognition as the cornerstone of human intelligence. Making progress in understanding why humans act the way they do, how they make decisions, how they plan for the future etc. is not only an exciting scientific feat but it also has wide ranging tangible implications. A lot of promising work at the interface of brain science and AI, machine learning rests on the assumption that unravelling the mystery of intelligence arising in biological systems is crucial for engineering intelligence in artificial systems.

In this seminar I will specifically argue for an indispensable (obviously, not self-sufficient) role of computational models and theory of brain’s cognitive processes of perception, learning and memory in the quest for understanding human intelligence and engineering brain-like AI. This journey has started with some promising directions but ambitious goals and rewards remain beyond the horizon.

Bio: Pawel Herman is Associate Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Neuroinformatics in the Division of Computational Science and Technology at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. His research fascinations lie at multiple crossroads between broad areas of brain science/neuroscience and computer science. More recently the main focus of his lab has been on computational modelling of brain’s cognitive function (cognitive computational neuroscience) to understand the underlying neural machinery, and developing brain-like neural network models to offer a more generic neuro-computational framework for the next generation machine intelligence (brain-like machine learning and AI). Consequently, he is also interested in emerging paradigms and challenges linked to the co-existence of human and machine intelligence.