From Metamaterials to physical AI

With the heavy advancements in software providing incredible artificial intelligence platforms for the masses, there is a severe concern about the efficiency and possible limitations that standard hardware can provide for these systems.
An alternative is to look at the next generation of computer hardware to help these advances. Among them are devices that can mimic the function of neurons in the brain, allowing for the building blocks to create physical artificial intelligence. This new avenue allows the creation of a new computational system known as neuromorphic computing. This talk will discuss how we can build and test these systems and these devices can shape our future.

Since the beginning of humanity, we have made do with the materials we could dig from the ground, but not anymore. Over the past two decades, scientists from Southampton and around the world have been developing artificial materials, so-called metamaterials, that are engineered to have the properties that we want, where we want and when we want. This talk will introduce metamaterials and illustrate how their (optical) properties can be engineered and controlled.