Computational Neuroscience Research Group
Home of the
Neural Engineering Framework
and
How to Build a Brain.

Welcome to the Computational Neuroscience Research Group (CNRG) site. We are one of the labs in the Waterloo Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience.

We are interested in understanding how the brain works. We research perception, action, cognition, and basic theoretical issues from a neural perspective. Most of this research is carried out by building large-scale models (usually simulating single neurons) of various brain areas. The main software tool we use and developed for this purpose is Nengo. The books Neural Engineering and How to build a brain summarize the main theoretical approaches we take. We recently proposed the Legendre Memory Unit (LMU) and Spatial Semantic Pointers (SSPs) based on our understanding of brain function. Both are helping to improve deep learning.

We are currently offering the Nengo summer school on how to use Nengo to build large-scale brain models.

You can find and download our publications on this site.

Lab Photo