An Internet of Things Inspired by Nature: ERC Grant for STI research

© 2023 EPFL
A newly funded ERC Synergy proposal unveils a groundbreaking bio-inspired vision for future smart wireless multimodal sensory systems.
The European Research Council has announced today that the project SWIMS, Stochastic Spiking Wireless Multimodal Sensory Systems, will be funded at 13.5M Euros under the Synergy program. The project proposes a veritable paradigm shift in the architecture, design, and hardware of future smart wireless multimodal sensory systems.
“Our approach, driven by bio-inspired stochastic spiking, promises an unprecedented breakthrough in energy efficiency from device to system level for event detection and communication,” says EPFL's School of Engineering Professor Adrian Ionescu, who heads EPFL’s contribution to the project.
The project is made possible by the synergistic efforts of four distinguished scientific leaders: Professor Gerhard Fettweis (TU Dresden), Professor Denis Flandre (UC Louvain), Professor Adrian Ionescu (EPFL), and Professor Elisabetta Chicca (Uni Groningen).“With support from the European Research Council, we affirm that the scientific advancements proposed here are pivotal for the sustainable deployment of billions of future Internet of Things nodes. These nodes will play a crucial role in advancing our smart economy and society, while simultaneously delivering substantial energy savings and minimizing environmental impact,” say the researchers.
Inspired by the intricate workings of a small insect in the biological world, the approach heralds a genuine revolution in future electronics. According to the researchers, the proposal focuses on realizing a radically novel end-to-end stochastic analog spiking neuromorphic concept for SWIMS Internet-of-Things nodes. This concept provides innovative solutions to the challenges of sensor spiking signal generation, processing, and communication, disrupting the status quo at all levels.