My research interests

My Ph.D. research involved building highly realistic computer simulations of the brain, specifically the rat olfactory (piriform) cortex, tuning the models to accurately match experimental data, and using these models to discover interesting ideas about how this system may work. The model I have built is, to my knowledge, the most accurate computer model of this system ever constructed. My thesis work uses the model to demonstrate that the prevailing view on the organization of connections to the piriform cortex and within the piriform cortex is probably wrong, and proposes an alternative model which both fits the existing data better and has significant consequences for the way the system computes.

My other research interests include:

• Building tools for realistically simulating neurons and networks of neurons.

I'm a core developer of the GENESIS neural simulator. My contributions to GENESIS include the synaptic channel code (the "newconn" library) and the parameter searching library. I have also written a large number of libraries for simulating the piriform cortex as part of my thesis research.

• Developing methods to parameterize complex realistic neuron models.

The methods I have developed so far incorporate a number of optimization methods, including genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, and conjugate-gradient descent.

Here is a list of some of my publications.

More recently, my research interests have shifted away from computational neuroscience and towards computer science, specifically computer languages.