Royâs grant will cover five years of study on neuromorphic computing, a concept he said Monday that seeks to mimic how the human nervous system processes information.
The professorâs focus will be on spintronics technologies, an emerging field in physics that involves electron spin manipulation and control using nanoscale electronics.
“It’s a concept that is inspired by how the brain works,” Roy said, adding, “We’re talking about a whole different class of computing.”
Royâs team of graduate students is already involved with work to design and create a functioning spintronic device that can demonstrate facial recognition, handwriting analysis or other jobs he said CMOS processors cannot do as well.
That project is partly funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through the Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces and Novel Architecture.