Minos Garofalakis, Professor and Acting Dean of the School of Electronic & Computer Engineering of the Technical University of Crete and the Software Systems Technology and Network Applications Laboratory are going to participate as partners in the Human Brain Project*, one of the 2 flagship initiatives (EU FET Flagship Initiatives) in the field of future and emerging technologies of the European Union.
The Human Brain Project is to understand the human brain and its diseases, to create new treatments and to develop new revolutionary technologies in computing. The Human Brain Project (2013-2023) is one of the twoEU FET Flagshipin the field of Future and Emerging Technologies, part of the Europe 2020 strategy, which is the European Union's development strategy for the decade 2010-2020. These research programmes have a duration of 10 years with a total funding of approximately 1.19 billion euros each, and aim to support research with a vision and a targeted mission that will lead to major breakthroughs in the field of computing.
The European flagship initiative entitled Human Brain Project is a global effort with the collaboration of more than 200 researchers from all over the world in fields such as neuroscience, medicine and informatics, aiming to understand the brain, its diseases and its computational capabilities. From Greece, only the University of Athens and the Technical University of Crete are participating.
This is the most ambitious experiment in its field, since the goal is a very detailed simulation of the human brain. Mr. Garofalakis' research team will lead the way in managing very large datasets of the human brain.
Understanding the human brain is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Through the HBP, participating researchers hope to discover deeper insights into what makes us human, develop new treatments for brain diseases, and transformative new computing technologies. Modern computing technology has made these goals possible. Computer science can enable a completely new understanding of the brain and its diseases, and understanding the brain will inevitably lead to radical innovations in computing.
This project will generate and analyze strategically selected datasets on the structure and function of the human brain, thereby deriving general principles for brain organization. A substantial part of the work will focus on datasets that will then be used to predict brain features that are difficult or impossible to measure experimentally. Consequently, the integration of very large and diverse datasets and their management are essential in this endeavor, in which the knowledge and experience of Professor Minos Garofalakis prove to be of exceptional importance.
More information: The Human Brain Project
