In this presentation we talk about us: the Brain NECSTwork team. Discoveries associated with a more precise comprehension of the connections inside human brain are foreseen as disruptive in many fields: from improved neurological disorders treatment to strong artificial intelligence, as well as more precise and less invasive diagnostic tools and, finally, improved Big Data systems. For this purpose, Brain Networks (BNs) are used to quickly and accurately model and map neural interconnections inside human brain. A common statistical tool that helps analysis and definition of BNs is the Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (PCC), which is able to identify the correlation between neurons or groups of neighboring neurons. However, the computational power that commonly available technologies provide allows scientists to analyze only few hundred neural nodes within reasonable time. Increasing the number of analyzed neurons and speeding up the computation are both fundamental steps to achieve more accurate results, and to allow the scientific and medical research to progress. This work presents an implementation of BNs on Xilinx VIRTEX-7 FPGA. Our goal is to tackle the problems previously described, in order to provide a fast hardware implementation able to support the computation of a remarkable number of neurons.

1. Brain NECSTworkEleonora D'Arnese
eleonora.darnese@mail.polimi.it
Enrico Reggiani
enrico2.reggiani@mail.polimi.it
Marco Gucciardi
marco.gucciardi@mail.polimi.it
image from http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/The-Brain-Super-Sized-Computer-Going-from-Internet-to-Fiber-Optics-2.jpg

2. Marco:
The
Social Man
Enrico:
The
Technician
Eleonora:
The
Jolly
The leaders who work most
effectively never say "I".
They don't think "I". They think
"we"; they think "team".
(Peter F. Drucker)
An EXTRAORDINARY mix of
skills and ENTHUSIASM
2
The Team

3. 3
Eleonora D’Arnese
• Born in Aosta on 16th August,
1994
• Ongoing bachelor degree in
biomedical engineering at
Politecnico di Milano
• Marketability and innovation
manager of Brain
NECSTwork project
• Personal interests: skiing,
volleyball and travelling

4. 4
Enrico Reggiani
• Born in Modena on 17th
December, 1991
• Bachelor degree in
electronics engineering in
2014 from UNIMORE
• Ongoing master degree in
electronics engineering at
Politecnico di Milano
• Development manager of
Brain NECSTwork project
• Personal interests:
traveling, music and sports

5. 5
Marco Gucciardi
• Born in Palermo on 9th
June, 1993
• Ongoing bachelor degree in
biomedical engineering at
Politecnico di Milano
• Communication manager of
Brain NECSTwork project
• Personal interests:
Japanese language and
musicals

6. Eleonora D’Arnese – eleonora.darnese@mail.polimi.it
Enrico Reggiani – enrico2.reggiani@mail.polimi.it
Marco Gucciardi – marco.gucciardi@mail.polimi.it
https://m.facebook.com/BrainNECSTwork
https://twitter.com/Brain_NECSTwork?s=08
http://www.slideshare.net/BrainNECSTwork
Contacts
6