LightSensorAI

This ERC-PT A-Projects funding (from FCT Portugal) is intended as an incentive for Portuguese institutions and their researchers to enable applications submitted to the ERC that have obtained an ‘A’ score after the last evaluation phase, and have been recommended for funding, but ultimately were not funded. LightSensorAI, aims to push the frontiers of brain-inspired science and will address this challenge by developing III-V semiconductor nanophotonic neurons down to 100 nanometer in size while keeping their advanced nonlinear spiking properties with ultralow energy expenditure. It aims at scaling nanopillar neurons to form compact 2D pixel nanopillar arrays and connect in 3D two of these arrays with a light field enabled by on-chip microlenses, essential to emulate sensing and processing of spiking activity in networks. The project builds on the expertise of Nieder’s group in the past years in the area of neuromorphic nanophotonics and photonic integration of nanoscale light-emitting and receiving devices with various national and EU funded projects in the last 5 years (e.g. ChipAI, InsectNeuroNano, META-LED, CROSSBRAIN). The LighSensorAI project project was inittialy submitted to the ERC consolidator 2024 call (panel7). The project was evaluated with score ‘A’ after interview, but not funded due to budgetary restrictions. This ERC-PT A-Projects funding shall be used for the initial development of the LightSensorAI project to consolidate preliminary results for reapplying to the ERC 2025 next call.