METTU UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOG

SEMINAR TITLE: BLUE BRAIN

PREPARED BY:

Name IDNO
Genet Asefa wu/0401/12 E.C

Advisor Name: - Tashome

September 2016 E.C

Mettu University, ETHIOPIA

 Table content

Contents
Table content ................................................................................................................................................ 1
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................... 3
Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Blue Brain ...................................................................................................................................................... 5
What is Virtual Brain? ................................................................................................................................... 5
1.4 How it is possible?............................................................................................................................... 6
2. How the blue brain technology will work? ........................................................................................... 6
2.1 Goals & Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Architecture of Blue Gene................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Modeling ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Why we Need Virtual Brain? ......................................................................................................................... 8
2.1 Human Brain ........................................................................................................................................... 9
2.1.1 Functioning of Brain ..................................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Integration ...................................................................................................................................... 9
2.3 Motor Output .................................................................................................................................. 9
2.4. MODELING THE BLUE BRAIN.......................................................................................................... 9
2.4.1Modeling the neurons .................................................................................................................. 9
2.4.2 Modeling Connections ............................................................................................................... 10
2.4.3 Modeling the columns ............................................................................................................... 10
Modeling the columns ............................................................................................................................ 10
2.1.4 Model of NCC ............................................................................................................................. 11
2.2 BRAIN SIMULATION ...................................................................................................................... 11
2.3 UPLOADING HUMAN BRAIN ......................................................................................................... 12
3. Applications of blue brain project....................................................................................................... 12
3.1 What can we learn from Blue Brain? ............................................................................................ 12
3.2 Applications of Blue Brain ............................................................................................................. 12

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 4.2 Limitations......................................................................................................................................... 13
5. Future perspective .............................................................................................................................. 13
VI. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES ............................................................................................ 13
VII. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS............................................................................. 14
VIII. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................... 14
IX. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 14

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 Acknowledgement
I Take This Occasion To Thank God, Almighty For Blessing Me With Grace, Give Us Complete
Peace As Well As Ability To Stay In Life And Taking My Strive To Do This Seminar

I would say thanks to adviser Mr.Tashome, Who Advise in this seminar The Topic Blue brains
That Made me to know about So Many New Things That I Did Not Know Before.

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 Abstract
Blue brain technology is otherwise known as artificial brain. In today’s world, scientists are in
research to create an artificial brain that can think, respond, the ability to take decision, and
keep everything in memory. To upload the human brain into machine is the main aim of this
technology. So that a person can think, respond to something and the ability to take resolution
without any endeavor. After the death of the individual, this technology will be act as a man.
So, even after the death of a person this virtual brain will not lost the knowledge, personalities,
memories and feelings of that man.

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 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Human brain is one of the valuable creations of god. The human brain that detects and
translates the information delivered by the impulses and then it enables the person to react.
Intelligence of a person can be determined by the human brain. IBM is now in research to
create this virtual brain technology, called “Blue brain”. The blue brain technology is the first
virtual brain in the world. Blue brain is a machine that can function as a human brain even after
the death. IBM is developing a virtual brain technology in partnership with scientists at
Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fe

Blue Brain
Blue brain technology is otherwise known as artificial brain. In today’s world, scientists are in
research to create an artificial brain that can think, respond, the ability to take decision, and
keep everything in memory. To upload the human brain into machine is the main aim of this
technology. So that a person can think, respond to something and the ability to take resolution
without any endeavor. After the death of the individual, this technology will be act as a man.
So, even after the death of a person this virtual brain will not lost the knowledge, personalities,
memories and feelings of that man.

Figure 1.1 Blue Brains

What is Virtual Brain?

Virtual brain is an artificial brain, but can act as the brain. It can think like human brain, the tendency to
take decisions based on the past experience, and response as the human brain can. It is possible by
using a super computer, with a large amount of storage capacity, processing power and an interface
between the human brain and this artificial brain. Through this interface the information stored in the
human brain can be up loaded into the computer. So the knowledge, intelligence and information of
anyone can be kept and used for ever, even after the death of the person

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1.4 How it is possible?
First, it is helpful to describe the basic manners in which a person may be uploaded into a
computer. Raymond Kurzweil recently provided an interesting paper on this topic. In it, he
describes both invasive and noninvasive techniques. The most promising is the use of very small
robots, or Nano bots. These robots will be small enough to travel throughout our circulatory
systems. Traveling into the spine and brain, they will be able to monitor the activity and
structure of our central nervous system. They will be able to provide an interface with
computers that is as close as our mind can be while we still reside in our biological form. Nano
bots could also carefully scan the structure of our brain, providing a complete readout of the
connections between each neuron. They would also record the current state of the brain. This
information, when entered into a computer, could then continue to function as us. All that is
required is a computer with large enough storage space and processing power. Is the pattern
and state of neuron connections in our brain truly all that makes up our conscious selves? Many
people believe firmly those we possess a soul, while some very technical people believe that
quantum forces contribute to our awareness. But we have to now think technically. Note,
however, that we need not know how the brain actually functions, to transfer it to a computer.
We need only know the media and contents. The actual mystery of how we achieved
consciousness in the first place, or how we maintain it, is a separate discussion. Really this
concept appears to be very difficult and complex to us. For this we have to first know how the
human brain actually works

2. How the blue brain technology will work?

2.1 Goals & Objectives

The Blue Brain technology is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the
mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed
simulations. The mission in undertaking The Blue Brain technology is to gather all existing
knowledge of the brain, accelerate the global research effort of reverse engineering the
structure and function of the components of the brain, and to build a complete theoretical
framework that can orchestrate the reconstruction of the brain of mammals and man from the
genetic to the whole brain levels, into computer models for simulation, visualization and
automatic knowledge archiving by 2015. Biologically accurate computer models of mammalian
and human brains could provide a new foundation for understanding functions and
malfunctions of the brain and for a new generation of information-based, customized medicine

2.2 Architecture of Blue Gene

Blue Gene/L is built using system-on-a-chip technology in which all functions of a node (except for main
memory) are integrated onto a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This ASIC includes 2
PowerPC 440 cores running at 700 MHz Associated with each core is a 64-bit “double” floating point unit

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(FPU) that can operate in single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) mode. Each (single) FPU can execute
up to 2 “multiply ads” per cycle, which means that the peak performance of the chip is 8 floating point
operations per cycle (4 under normal conditions, with no use of SIMD mode). This leads to a peak
performance of 5.6 billion floating point operations per second (gigaflops or GFLOPS) per chip or node,
or 2.8 GFLOPS in non- SIMD mode. The two CPUs (central processing units) can be used in “co-
processor” mode (resulting in one CPU and 512 MB RAM (random access memory) for computation, the
other CPU being used for processing the I/O (input/output) of the main CPU) or in “virtual node” mode
(in which both CPU switch 256 MB each are used for computation). So, the aggregate performance of a
processor card in virtual node mode is: 2 x node = 2 x 2.8 GFLOPS = 5.6 GFLOPS and its peak
performance (optimal use of double FPU) is: 2 x 5.6 GFLOPS = 11.2 GFLOPS. A rack (1,024 nodes = 2,048
CPUs) therefore has 2.8 teraflops or TFLOPS, and a peak of 5.6 TFLOPS. The Blue Brain Projects Blue
Gene is a 4-rack system that has 4,096 nodes, equal to 8,192 CPUs, with a peak performance of 22.4
TFLOPS. A 64-rack machine should provide 180 TFLOPS, or 360 TFLOPS at peak performance.

2.3 Modeling
The Microcircuit The scheme shows the minimal essential building blocks required to recon-
struct a neural microcircuit. Microcircuits are composed of neurons and synaptic connections.
To model neurons, the three-dimensional morphology, ion channel composition, and
distributions and electrical properties of the different types of neuron are required, are
composed of neurons and synaptic connections. To model neurons, the three-dimensional
morphology, ion channel composition, and distributions and electrical properties of the
different types of neuron are required, as well as the total numbers of neurons in the
microcircuit and the relative proportions of the different types of neuron. To model synaptic
connections, the physiological and pharmacological properties of the different types of synapse
that connect any two types of neuron are required, in addition to statistics on which part of the
axonal arborization is used (presynaptic innervation pattern) to contact which regions of the
target neuron (postsynaptic innervations pattern), how many synapses are involved in forming
connections, and the connectivity statistics between any two types of neuron. Contact which
regions of the target neuron (postsynaptic innervations pattern), how many synapses are
involved in forming connections, and the connectivity statistics between any two types of
neuron.

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Figure 1.2 Virtual Brains

Why we Need Virtual Brain?

Intelligence has been defined by the capacity for logic, emotional, understanding, self-awareness,
learning, creativity and problem solving. Generally it can be described as the ability to perceive
information and to retain it as knowledge. Intelligence is one of the inborn qualities of a person that
cannot be created. Some people have these skills, so they can able to think up to some extent whether
other cannot reach. Human society is always in need of such intelligence but that intelligence is lost
along with the body after death. So that virtual brain is created as the solution to it.

II. WORKING OF NATURAL BRAIN

Getting to Know More about Human Brain

Figure 2.1 Human Brain

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 2.1 Human Brain
Human brain is the directive center for the nervous system. It receives input from the
sensory organs and generates output to the muscles. The human brain weighs about 3.3 lbs
and constitutes 2 percent of the human’s total body weight. The human brain consists of
three major divisions:
1. Cerebrum
2. Brainstem
3. Cerebellum

2.1.1 Functioning of Brain

Sensory Input When the eyes see something or hands touch something, the sensory cells
also called as neurons, sends a message to the brain. The action of getting information from
our environment is called sensory input.

2.2 Integration
Is the interpretation or the process of combining information from various sources. The
nervous system combines the information from the different senses like vision, touch,
hearing, etc. It is very important for the ability of brain to extract and organize the
information about the surrounding environment.

2.3 Motor Output

Motor output that involved in the process of activating muscles. Motor system processing
and interpreting the sensory input and deciding what should be done at each and every
time.

2.4. MODELING THE BLUE BRAIN

a) Modeling the neurons
b) Modeling connections
c) Modeling the columns

2.4.1Modeling the neurons

The shape and structure are used to influences its electrical properties. Electrical behavior of
juvenile rat and neuron morphology is used to develop this model.

3.1Modeling the Neurons

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2.4.2 Modeling Connections
The essential information’s are provided by the precise density and volume of the cell for
constructing the cortical circuits. The intensive calculation of blue gene is used to fix the
synapse locations

2.4.3 Modeling the columns

The intensive calculation results in the recreation at the cellular level of NCC. The model of NCC was
completed successfully at the end of 2006.

3.2 Modeling connections

Modeling the columns

The intensive calculation results in the recreation at the cellular level of NCC. The model of NCC was
completed successfully at the end of 2006

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3.3 Modeling the columns

2.1.4 Model of NCC

3.4 Model of NCC

2.2 BRAIN SIMULATION

NATURAL BRAIN
The inputs are given through the neurons.
Output through the natural neuron
Processing through arithmetic and logical
calculations.
State of neuron has permanent memory.
Interpretation by various states of neurons in the
brain.
SIMULATED BRAIN
The inputs are given through the silicon chip or
artificial neurons.
Output through the silicon chip.
Processing through arithmetic, logic calculation
and artificial intelligence.
Through secondary memory.
By a set of bits in the specified set of register.

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2.3 UPLOADING HUMAN BRAIN
The uploading is only possible by the use of Nano bots otherwise called as small robots. These
small robots have the tendency to travel throughout the circulatory system. The Nano bots
travelling into the spine and brain, they will be able to monitor the structure and activities of
central nervous system. Nano bots will be able to provide an interface between computers. The
small robots then scan the structure of the brain and provide a complete readout of the
connection. The information stored in the brain will be uploaded into the computer through the
interface. Once the microcircuit is built, the blue gene is pressed inside to solve the complex
mathematical equations that preside over the electrical activity. The electrical impulse then
travel from one neuron to other. The Blue Brain team is working for the computation to create
one second activity that can be modeled in one second.

3. Applications of blue brain project

3.1 What can we learn from Blue Brain?
Detailed, biologically accurate brain simulations offer the opportunity to answer some
fundamental questions about the brain that cannot be addressed with any current
experimental or theoretical approaches. These include,

• Defining Functions of the Basic Elements

• Understanding Complexity

• Exploring the Role of Dendrites.

• Revealing Functional Diversity

• Tracking the Emergence of Intelligence

• Identifying Points of vulnerability.

• Simulating Disease and Developing Treatments

• Providing a Circuit Design Platform

3.2 Applications of Blue Brain

• Gathering and Testing 100 Years of Data

• Cracking the Neural Code

• Understanding Neocortical Information Processing

• A Novel Tool for Drug Discovery for Brain Disorders

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• A Global Facility

• A Foundation for Whole Brain Simulations

• A Foundation for Molecular Modeling of Brain Function

4.2 Limitations
Further, there are many new dangers these technologies will open. We will be susceptible to
new forms of harm.

• We become dependent upon the computer systems.

• Others may use technical knowledge against us.

• Computer viruses will pose an increasingly critical threat.

• The real threat, however, is the fear that people will have of new technologies.

That fear may culminate in a large resistance. Clear evidence of this type of fear is found today
with respect to human cloning.

5. Future perspective
The synthesis era in neuroscience started with the launch of the Human Brain Project and is an
inevitable phase triggered by a critical amount of fundamental data. The data set does not need
to be complete before such a phase can begin. Indeed, it is essential to guide reductionist
research into the deeper facets of brain structure and function. As a complement to
experimental research, it offers rapid assessment of the probable effect of a new finding on
preexisting knowledge, which can no longer be managed completely by any one researcher.
Detailed models will probably become

VI. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages
 Remember things without any effort.

 The knowledge, intelligence, personalities, feelings of a person will not be lost even after the
death.

 It provides an ability to take decision without the presence of a person.

 Through the electric impulse from the brain of the animal their activities can be easily
understood.

 It is very useful for deaf and also allows them to hear via direct nerve stimulation

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Disadvantages
 People become dependent upon the computer.

 Others may use technical tricks and intelligence against us.

 Computer virus will result in critical threat.

VII. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

 22.8 TFLOPS peak processing speed.

 8,096 CPUs at 700 MHz (downgraded to handle massive parallel processing).

 256MB to 512MB memory per processor.

Window 10 and PHP software

 100 kilowatts power consumption.

 Very powerful Nano bots to act as the interface between the natural brain and the computer.

VIII. CONCLUSION
Hence I conclude that virtual brain also called as blue brain will help us to transfer ourselves
into computer at some points. Through the combination of biological and digital technologies
we will be able to overcome the serious threats that are raised

IX. REFERENCES
1) “Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society”, 2008. EMBS 2008. 30th Annual International
Conference of the IEEE

2) Henry Markram, “The Blue Brain Project”, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2006 February.

3) Simulated brain closer to thought BBC News 22 April 2009.

4) “Project Milestones”. Blue brains. http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/Jahia/site/bluebrain/op/edit/pid/19085

5) Graham-Rowe, Duncan. “Mission to build a simulated brain begins”, New Scientist, June 2005. pp.
1879-85.

6) Blue Gene: http://www.research.ibm.com/bluegene

7) The Blue Brain Project: http://bluebrainproject.epfl.ch

8) https//www.ieee.org/bluebrain/project

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