[Neuroinfo] INCF/OCNS Software WG: Dev session on GeNN (9th March)

[Ankur Sinha]

Hello everyone,

Apologies for the cross-posts.

The INCF/OCNS Software Working Group (WG)[1] is happy to announce the
next "Dev session" on GeNN[2] where James Knight and Thomas Nowotny will
introduce the software and then discuss its *development* pipeline.

The session will be held on March 9 at 1700 UTC. Zoom link:
https://universityofsussex.zoom.us/j/97956408800?pwd=by9yVnhCZTJlenY0bVI4OEc5QWVFQT09

The aim of these sessions is to stimulate discussion of the development
practices and tools used by different teams to improve the software we
use while also improving our knowledge of these practices and tools.
We also hope to encourage more users of these tools to contribute to
their development to ensure their longevity.

The abstract of the session is below:

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Large-scale numerical simulations of brain circuit models are important
for identifying hypotheses on brain functions and testing their
consistency and plausibility. Similarly, spiking neural networks are
also gaining traction in machine learning with the promise that
neuromorphic hardware will eventually make them much more energy
efficient than classical ANNs. In this dev session, we will present the
GeNN (GPU-enhanced Neuronal Networks) framework [1], which aims to
facilitate the use of graphics accelerators for computational models of
large-scale spiking neuronal networks to address the challenge of
efficient simulations. GeNN is an open source library that generates
code to accelerate the execution of network simulations on NVIDIA GPUs
through a flexible and extensible interface, which does not require
in-depth technical knowledge from the users. GeNN was originally
developed as a pure C++ and CUDA library but, subsequently, we have
added a Python interface and OpenCL backend. The Python interface has
enabled us to develop a PyNN [2] frontend and we are also working on a
Keras-inspired frontend for spike-based machine learning [3].

In the session we will briefly cover the history and basic philosophy of
GeNN and show some simple examples of how it is used and how it works
inside. We will then talk in more depth about its development with a
focus on testing for GPU dependent software and some of the further
developments such as Brian2GeNN [4].

[1] https://github.com/genn-team/genn
[2] https://github.com/genn-team/pynn_genn
[3] https://github.com/genn-team/ml_genn
[4] https://github.com/brian-team/brian2genn

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If you develop software for neuroscience, we would love to hear about
your development pipeline. Please get in touch with the Software WG
either on INCF's Neurostars platform[4] or on our GitHub repository[5].

The WG is a community based group that is open to everyone at all levels
of their careers (academic or otherwise). Please introduce yourself to
the community on our channels to get involved.

[1] https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/pages/about.html
[2] http://genn-team.github.io/genn/
[3] https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/2021/02/26/dev-session-james-knight-thomas-nowotny-genn.html
[4] https://neurostars.org/t/ocns-infrastructure-software-tools-sig-meet-and-greet-initial-discussions/15560
[5] https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/discussions/12

On behalf of the WG,

-- 
Thanks,
Regards,
Ankur Sinha (He / Him / His)
Research Fellow at the Silver Lab | http://silverlab.org/
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, & Pharmacology
University College London, London, UK
Time zone: Europe/London