Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

Summary Report

On

Blue Brain

Submitted by:
Vincent C. Estrada
CS 423 Student

Submitted to:
Born Christian A. Isip
Instructor, CS 423 Seminars and Fieldtrips

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City
I.

INTRODUCTION

The Brain Activity Map Project is a major effort to map *every neuron in the
human brain, and may represent a significant advance towards conscious machine
intelligence sometimes called Strong General Artificial Intelligence or Strong AI.
The Brain Activity Map is expected to get Obama administration funding to the
tune of approximately 3 billion over the next decade. The project has some
similarities to Europes new Human Brain Project effort, a well-funded extension
of Henry Markrams Blue Brain Project which seeks to create a working model of
the human brain in the next decade. At these funding levels technological optimists
can hope for even more dramatic progress towards the technological singularity,
the point at which machine intelligence far surpasses that of humans. Futurist and
engineer Ray Kurzweil has written extensively about the coming technological
singularity, and his recent appointment as Googles director of engineering
suggests that the private sector will also be funding machine consciousness
projects at unprecedented levels.
II.

SUB-TOPICS

BLUE COLUMN
The template - the Blue Column - will be composed of ~10,000 neocortical
neurons within the dimensions of a neocortical column (~0.5 mm in diameter and
~1.5 mm in height) (FIG. 3). The Blue Column will include the different types of
neuron in layer 1, multiple subtypes of pyramidal neuron in layers 2-6, spiny
stellate neurons in layer 4, and more than 30 anatomical- electrical types of
interneuron with variations in each of layers 2-6. In the rat somatosensory cortex,
there are ~2,000 neurons in each of layers 2-6 (~1,500 in layer 5), ~25% of which
are interneurons, although the proportions of different types of interneuron differ
between layers (see REF. 36). The neurons are connected according to the
fraction of neurons targeted and precisely mapped together using axonal and
dendritic maps derived.

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

III.

SUMMARY GENERALIZATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: TOWARD THE

PURSUIT OF BEST PRACTICES

In conclusion, we will be able to transfer ourselves into computers at some

point. Most arguments against this outcome are seemingly easy to circumvent.
They are either simple minded, or simply require further time for technology to
increase. The only serious threats raised are also overcome as we note the
combination of biological and digital technologies. While the road ahead is long,
already researches have been gaining great insights from their model. Using
the Blue Gene supercomputers, up to 100 cortical columns, 1 million neurons,
and 1 billion synapses can be simulated at once. This is roughly equivalent to
the brain power of a honey bee. Humans, by contrast, have about 2 million
columns in their cortices. Despite the sheer complexity of such an endeavor, it
is predicted that the project will be capable of this by the year 2023.
REFERENCES
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch

http://www.ijaiem.org/Volume2Issue3/IJAIEM-2013-03-28-091.pdf

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

Requirement No. 2

On

Blue Brain

Submitted by:
Vincent C. Estrada
CS 423 Student

Submitted to:
Born Christian A. Isip
Instructor, CS 423 Seminars and Fieldtrips

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

I.

HISTORY

Blue brain is basically a Virtual Brain It is the creation of synthetic brain by

reverse engineering, the mammalian brains down to the molecular level. That
means a machine can function as human brain. No one can ever understand
the complexity of human brain. It is more complex than any circuitry in the world
.Is it possible to create a virtual brain? Yes, the scientists today are in research
to create an artificial brain that can think, respond, take decision, and keep
everything in memory. Ultimately, it is to upload human brain into machine so
that man can think, take decisions without any effort. After the death of the
body, we will not lose knowledge, intelligence, feelings and memory of that man
and can be used for the welfare of human society. Within 30 years, we will be
able to scan ourselves into the computers.
II.

SHORT DESCRIPTION

The IBM is now developing a virtual brain known as the Blue brain. It would
be the worlds first virtual brain. Within 30 years, we will be able to scan
ourselves into the computers. We can say it as Virtual Brain i.e. an artificial
brain, which is not actually a natural brain, but can act as a brain. It can think
like brain, take decisions based on the past experience, and respond as a
natural brain. It is possible by using a super computer, with a huge amount of
storage capacity, processing power and an interface between the human brain
and artificial one. Through this interface the data stored in the natural brain can
be up loaded into the computer. So the brain and the knowledge, intelligence of
anyone can be kept and used for ever, even after the death of the person.

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City
III.

HOW IT WORKS ( with illustration)

The Blue Brain Project has created a digital slice of brain to study neurons. Ahmed Riyazi Mohamed CC BY-ND

The brain is a very delicate organ. Taking it apart to learn more about its secrets
takes practice, patience, and the kind of steady hand only the worlds calmest
people have. Instead of taking apart brain after brain in the name of science,
however, researchers at the Blue Brain Project which resides at the Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in France have spent the past
decade trying to digitally reconstruct the brain section of a juvenile rat. The first
draft of the project, published in Cell, shows off how far the process has come; the
reconstruction includes over 31,000 neurons, 55 layers of cells, and 207 different
neuron subtypes. The purpose of the project is to define all the different types of
neurons found in the brain, measure their electricity-firing properties, and create a
roadmap of the circuits that connect the neurons to one another. Gaining insight to
the way neurons work would allow scientists to better understand how the brains
structure makes it work the way it does. Markam and his colleagues decided to
digitally reconstruct a piece of the brain from a region called the neocortex, which
resides in the cerebral cortex and is responsible for sight and hearing in mammals.
Markam found the neocortex was the area of the brain that allowed for the most
extensive characterization. Using the data they found, the researchers built the
slice of brain to include the different neurons found in that area of the brain, the
factors that make them fire, and the connections they make. In all, it comprised of
40 million synapses and 2,000 connections between each brain cell type. "The
reconstruction required an enormous number of experiments," said lead author
Henry Markram, of the EPFL, in a press release. "It paves the way for predicting
the location, numbers, and even the amount of ion currents flowing through all 40
million synapses."

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

IV.

SPECIFIC APPLICATION

The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to reverse engineer the human brain and
recreate it at the cellular level inside a computer simulation. The project was
founded in May 2005 by Henry Markram at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Goals of the project are to gain a complete understanding of the brain and to
enable better and faster development of brain disease treatments. The research
involves studying slices of living brain tissue using microscopes and patch clamp
electrodes. Data is collected about all the many different neuron types. This data is
used to build biologically realistic models of neurons and networks of neurons in
the cerebral cortex. The simulations are carried out on a Blue Gene supercomputer
built by IBM. Hence the name "Blue Brain". The simulation software is based
around Michael Hines's NEURON, together with other custom-built components.
As of August 2012 the largest simulations are of mesocircuits containing around
100 cortical columns (image above right). Such simulations involve approximately
1 million neurons and 1 billion synapses. This is about the same scale as that of a
honey bee brain. It is hoped that a rat brain neocortical simulation (~21 million
neurons) will be achieved by the end of 2014. A full human brain simulation (86
billion neurons) should be possible by 2023 provided sufficient funding is received.

V.

RELEVANCE TO INDUSTRY NEEDS

Blue brain is the attempt by IBM to synchronize the real brain to an artificial
brain. The project Blue was started on May 2005 by Henry Markam in Lusanne at
EPFL, Switzerland. IBM expect they would complete this project by the year
2023.This aim is to know the human brain completely and creating an artificial one
with the capability of real brain such as thinking, quick response, keeping things in
memory intelligently. After the death of the body the virtual brain can act as the
man whose data it holds. So that it is possible to use the intelligence, memory and
knowledge of a person even after his death. There is also a hope that this project
also leads to the development of brain disease treatments. The blue brain project
involves the study in real living brain tissues in microscopic level and also studying
about different neuron type. These data are collected systematically and used to
make a realistic model of neuron network artificially which is similar as in the brain.
Blue Gene is the super computer in order to carry out the simulations.

Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAODEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, COMPUTER STUDIES AND TECHNOLOGY
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City
Human brain is highly complicated to study, it can memorize millions of things, it
can make decisions according to the situation, it can give real time response
therefore a normal level machine cannot meet compatible features to that of a
human brain. There come the relevance of the super computer. Blue Gene is the
super computer used by the IBM for this purpose. This is the primary machine
used for the Blue brain concept. The Blue brain project aims to interface real brain
with a computer. For that a computer with huge memory and processing power is
necessary. Nano robots or nanobot are used to interface real brain with computer
(Blue gene). Nanobots are small enough to reside inside the body and travel
through the circulatory system. The nanobots will be used to travel through brain
and spine. This will study the activity of the nervous system as well as its structure,
it will also analyses the structure of the brain. The nanobots will continuously
monitor the brain and gives updates to the computer which will be stored in the
registers. The purpose of the nanobots is to study each and every things related to
the brain, it include the interconnection of neurons.