Project description
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers enable brain-like photonics functionalities
Today’s photonic technologies – used in everything from barcode scanners to fibre-optic networks – typically handle sensing and computation separately, creating bottlenecks in speed and energy efficiency. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the NEPTUNE project aims to overcome this by leveraging widely available and inexpensive vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and drawing inspiration from how the brain computes. The VCSEL systems will generate complex speckled light patterns exquisitely sensitive to environmental changes and encode the changes as brain-inspired neural-like spikes. This will enable the use of neuromorphic paradigms and algorithms, such as ‘extreme learning machines’ and spiking neural networks. The compact, low-cost platform could transform applications in environmental monitoring, security and high-speed communications.
Objective
NEPTUNE aims to develop novel neuromorphic photonic technologies able to both sense and process information in real-time, drawing direct inspiration from the brain’s powerful computational capabilities. Current photonic technologies find applications in sensing, communications, and information processing, including security, environmental monitoring, high-speed fibre-optic and wireless data links. However, sensing and computation functionalities are frequently decoupled, creating bottlenecks in energy and latency. NEPTUNE aims to tackle this critical challenge, addressing the urgent need for compact, low-cost, fast, and efficient photonic platforms that integrate both functionalities in a single hardware framework.
NEPTUNE’s platform exploits Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), widely deployed in our society (in barcode scanners, mobile phones, light sources in optical networks, datacentres, etc.) for their low cost and energy efficiency. These VCSEL systems, operating at multiple infrared wavelengths, will be used to generate complex speckle patterns through optical fibres, acting as light diffusive media. The characteristics of these light patterns are highly sensitive to environmental perturbations (such as temperature, strain, and audio signals) enabling their sensing functionality. Event-based photo-detecting systems, which convert light signals into neural-like spikes, will capture the formed speckle patterns, creating a high-resolution photonic sensing system based on an ultrafast, discrete, neuromorphic data representation. Simultaneously, by generating fast optical neural-like spiking regimes with the VCSELs, we can exploit spike-based encoding mechanisms to represent input data in speckle patterns, embedding further computational capability in the platform. This allows the use of neuromorphic paradigms and algorithms, such as extreme learning machines and spiking neural networks, for low-latency photonic processing tasks.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications telecommunications networks optical networks
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications mobile phones
- natural sciences physical sciences optics fibre optics
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence computational intelligence
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
G1 1XQ Glasgow
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.