Eleni Vasilaki

Profile

I am the Chair of Bioinspired Machine Learning in the School of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, at the University of Sheffield. My early research has been dedicated to understanding the principles underlying animal learning. Together with my team, we harness these principles to develop novel machine learning techniques, particularly in the field of neuroscience. We also collaborate closely with material scientists and engineers to design hardware that computes in a brain-like manner. I am passionate about my research and committed to teaching others machine learning concepts from first principles.

Honours

• Inge Strauch Visiting Professorship, University of Zurich, Switzerland, September 2021- February 2022.
• Google Deepmind Faculty Research Awards Program (2017).

Selected Publications

1. Han, C, English, G, Saal, HP, Indiveri, G, Gilra, A, von der Behrens, W, and Vasilaki, E. (2023) "Modelling novelty detection in the thalamocortical loop." PLOS Computational Biology
2. Ellis, MOA, Welbourne, A, Kyle, SJ, Fry, PW, Allwood, DA, Hayward, TJ, and Vasilaki, E. (2023) "Machine learning using magnetic stochastic synapses." Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering
3. Manneschi, L, Lin, AC, and Vasilaki, E (2021) "SpaRCe: Improved Learning of Reservoir Computing Systems through Sparse Representations." IEEE Transactions Neural Networks and Learning Systems, [ArXiv]

Full List of Publications

Google Scholar:

Current Grants

• EPSRC, "CausalXRL: Causal eXplanations in Reinforcement Learning".
• EPSRC, "MARCH - Magnetic Architectures for Reservoir Computing Hardware".
• EPSRC, "ActiveAI - active learning and selective attention for robust, transparent and efficient AI".

Team

Research Associates

• Dr Chao Han
• Dr Ian Vidamour

Research Assistants

• Stefanos Ioannou, MSc

PhD and MPhil Students

• Dana Hariga, BSc
• Joe Smith, MSci - with Materials Science

Former PhD and MPhil Students

• Dr Adam Tomkins
• Dr Umberto Esposito
• Dr Lianne Meah - with Sheffield Robotics
• Dr Tiago Gehring
• Dr Alvin Pastore
• Matthew Whelan, MPhil - PhD candidate at Edinburgh
• Dr Avgoustinos "August" Vouros
• Dr Luca Manneschi
• Dr Chao Han
• Mark Scerri, MSc
• Dr Nada Abdelrahman - with Biomedical Sciences

Former Research Associates

• Dr Natacha Vanattou-Saifoudine - with INI, Zurich
• Dr Matt Ellis
• Dr Luca Manneschi
• Dr Anil Ozdemir - with Sheffield Robotics

Talks

2024

• WT Collaborative Meeting on Inhibitory Brain Dynamics for Adaptive Behaviour, University of Cambridge.
• UK Neural Computation 2024.
• INTERMAG 2024.
• Workshop on Stable Neuromorphic Computations.
• AI UK Turing Fringe workshop on Neuromorphic technology.
• School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Australia.

2023

• Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
• MANIC Meeting, University of Cambridge, UK.
• Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
• Cortical Computation Colloquium, University of Bern, Switzerland.
• School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester, UK.
• Mathworks, UK.
• 25 years LCN, Crans Montana, EPFL, Switzerland.
• Computer Science, University of York, UK.

2022

• ISRC-CN3 Autumn School.
• 9th Baltic-Nordic Summer School on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2022).
• LCN, EPFL, Switzerland.

2021

• CNRS/Thales lab, Paris, France.
• M-CAIT2021, Malaysia, Keynote talk.
• Symposium "Facets of computational models of synaptic plasticity“, FENS Regional Meeting 2021.
• ZnZ Symposium workshop "From neuroscience to neuromorphic intelligence”, Zurich, Switzerland.
• The Inge Strauch Lecture, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
• British Neuroscience Association Festive symposium "Ding Dong Merrily on AI”.

2020

• Neural Dynamics Forum, University of Bristol, UK.
• IIT Roorkee, India.

2019

• Cognigron, Groningen University, Netherlands.
• Nature Conference in Neuromorphic Computing, Beijing, China.
• Summer School in Computational and Theoretical Models in Neuroscience ConTaMiNEURO, Venice.
• Event-based Asynchronous Neuro-Cognitive Control, CWI Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• Reinforcement Learning Summer SCOOL, Lille, France.
• School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK.
• School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, UK.

2018

• Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience, EPFL, Switzerland.
• Laboratory of Behavioural Genetics, EPFL, Switzerland.
• Spintronics meets Neuromorphic Workshop, Mainz, Germany.
• SPANNER Workshop, York, UK.
• Workshop on Spintronics and Nanomagnetism for Neuromorphic Computing, Leeds, UK.
• Neuroscience Seminar Series, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, UK.
• Amazon Cambridge, UK.
• Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology Seminar Series, University of Nottingham, UK.
• From Neuroscience to Machine Learning workshop, European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience (EITN) Paris, France.

2017

• Human and Machine Learning Workshop, Beijing Institute of Technology, China.
• Keynote talk for the Research software management, sharing and sustainability workshop, Sheffield, UK.

2016

• Automatic Control and Systems Engineering PGR Symposium, Sheffield, UK.
• 4th Baltic-Nordic Summer School on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2016), with the theme ”Understanding neurons, cognition and behaviour through neuroinformatics”, Warsaw, Poland.
• Neurotheory Group, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

2015

• Equadiff 2015, Mini-symposium: Mathematical Mechanisms Underlying the Biophysics of Neuronal Activity, Lyon, France.
• City College, Sheffield International Faculty, Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH), Crete, Greece.
• MemoCIS workshop, Lisbon, Portugal.
• CapoCaccia Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop, Sardinia, Italy.
• Cortex Club, Neuropharmacology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
• Department of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College, London, UK.
• Department of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.

2014

• University La Sapienza of Rome, Rome, Italy.
• Centre for Integrative Neuroplasticity, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
• International Workshop on Neurodynamics, Castro Urdiales, Spain.
• City College, Sheffield International Faculty, Thessaloniki, Greece.
• University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.

2013

• Institute for Neuroinformatics, ETH Zurich / University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
• e-futures Academic event, London, UK.
• Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, NYC, USA.
• INSIGNEO workshop on Neurosciences, Sheffield, UK.
• Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw Poland. (x2)
• Living Machines, Neuromorphic Models Workshop, London, UK.
• Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway.

2012

• Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College, London, UK.
• SITraN, University of Sheffield, UK.

2011

• Life Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

2010

• Kroto Academic Research Meeting, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.

2009

• Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
• Bridging the gap workshop, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
• BENEFRI programme, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

2006

• LASA seminars, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.
• IDIAP, Martigny, Switzerland.

Contact

• GitHub
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• ResearchGate
• Mastodon

Calendar

My Google calendar, linked to the email address above, is accessible from here. To make an appointment, feel free to send me a Google calendar invitation. If unsure, please follow these instructions.

Address

Prof. Eleni Vasilaki
School of Computer Science, University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 211 Portobello
Sheffield, S1 4DP United Kingdom

Office

Go to the Regent Court building; from the main entrance on Portobello, turn left. You will find my office on the 1st floor, room number 146.

Directions to the School of Computer Science

From Sheffield Train station, you have the following options:

1. On foot, see Google Maps above; it is approximately a 23-minute walk.
2. By tram, go to the Supertram stop Sheffield Stn - Hallam Uni (To City), and take Supertram/BLUE towards Malin Bridge till West Street.
3. By taxi to Regent Court, 211 Portobello, S1 4DP.

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';