Working with the SpiNNaker Neuromorphic Hardware

#1

We can bring some 4-node boards with us, so I would like to gauge any interest here. Let us know what you would like to learn or work on.

#2

Wow, that would be nice!

Can you propose some ideas of what can be a nice hands-on or multi-days hack?

Do you plan to get the boards here for the 3 days or just during one of the session?

Do you need anything special to get that working? lots of place or power, or is a table and some seats enough?

#3

We can do various things for the hands-on or hacks, which could range from playing with PyNN scripts, to writing new neuron and plasticity models for the hardware. We are doing a workshop here in Manchester a few weeks before, so we can bring this material with us. Equally, if someone has been working with a device that attaches to SpiNNaker, the boards have SpiNNaker-Link connectors, so we can also work with people in this area (we don’t have too many hardware devices ourselves, so we might not be able to bring any of these). We can also work on projects interacting with the simulation from outside of the machine via the ethernet connection, so direct connectivity to the SpiNNaker-Link connectors is not an absolute requirement.

We can bring the boards for the entire time we are there. I probably won’t know exactly how many boards we can bring until after our workshop. People with HBP usernames can also submit jobs via the NMPI portal, although these are processed on a batch basis of course, so it might not be as interactive.

Each board generally requires a power supply via a normal plug (UK plugs - we can try to bring some adapters) and an ethernet connection which can be made directly to the user’s laptop. So we would just require enough plugs really, and we can bring UK 4-way power leads for this with EU adapters. Each person would otherwise just need their own laptop and enough space for that (the boards themselves are small).

#4

Ok great. The good news is that to register to the summit, you need a HBP username, so you can bet that almost everyone will have one at this event.

#5

Those topics sounds great for us. From the University of Granada we would like to start playing with the SpiNNaker platform to implement our network models (including custom neuron and plasticity models) and connect them to external robotics devices, so the topics you suggested would match what we need at this time.

Off-topic: Where could we get further information about other SpiNNaker workshops?

Regards,

#6

I’m preparing the next version of the hackathon program, can you confirm the following points about your proposed activity:

Attendance - at least on people of the team should be present to hack with other attendees.

  • Monday 16:20 - 19:00
  • Tuesday 14:05 - 17:40
  • Wednesday 9:00 - 11:40
    If you cannot attend all the session, please send me a plan of when you will be for me to update the program.

Lead for this hack/hands-on - people with whom we can get in touch

  • Andrew Rowley
  • Jesus Garrido

Description

Working with the SpiNNaker Neuromorphic Hardware: Activity that range from playing with PyNN scripts, to writing new neuron and plasticity models for the hardware.

#7

There are a total of 11 people attending from Manchester, so someone should be around during these times. This may also depend on what is happening in parallel sessions however; if the hackathon is all in the same place for everyone, this may make it more likely that someone will be available at all times.

Is there going to be a sign-up for this at some point (i.e. during registration, or each morning), so that we are not just hanging around if everyone is busy elsewhere?

For the leads who can be contacted, please put down:
Andrew Rowley
Alan Stokes
Sergio Davies
Alex Rast
Dave Lester

I think that the other respondents would be users rather than leads. I will also have a mobile phone which should work abroad, so I could be available “on demand” if this were useful (others may also be able to do this).

For the description, can you change this to:
Working with the SpiNNaker Neuromorphic Hardware: Activities that include running PyNN Scripts on SpiNNaker, interfacing with external devices, and writing new neuron and plasticity models to be run on the hardware.

#8

done, Thanks!

There will be a signup next week for all attendees but I’m half confident that everybody will play the game. Anyway, you will be free to go if there is nobody at some point of course.

Maybe you will find some cool hack to participate in as well.

#9

Thanks Guys for your collaboration! Great job is such a tiny time frame. It was a pleasure! Hope we can keep in touch. :smile: Enjoy the rest of your stay in Madrid.