Mu Ming Poo is on a mission to promote experimental approaches to and neural circuit understanding of higher cognitive functions, e.g. empathy, consciousness, and language. He is a biophysicist and neurobiologist who studies how neural circuits are formed in the brain and how the plasticity of neural connections could be used to store memory.

While exploring how artificial neural network could use properties of natural neural circuits to process and store information more efficiently, Mu Ming developed greater interaction with the AI community in China. He is currently the Director of the Center for Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, a consortium of more than 100 laboratories in more than 20 research institutes of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

G-Summit Pebble Beach speaker, Mu Ming Poo opened up in an interview with our team on his scientific background and how he stays current on innovative trends.

Mu Ming Poo

Where does an innovator find inspiration?

Mu Ming Poo is inspired by the late Francis Crick… “who wrote an article/critique in 1980s about the excitement in neural network triggered by the back-prop algorithm. The comments he wrote in this article led me toperform some experiments in the network formed by neurons in culture dishes, and novel findings on the plasticity of natural network that could be highly relevant for devising new algorithms in artificial neural network.”

How can innovation be defined?

When asked how he defines innovation, Mu Ming Poo uses a system of qualities to analyze an idea: * Novelty (must be new), Importance (something people care) * Continuity (built upon the shoulders of others – nothing comes from vacuum) * Uniqueness (it has your mark on it, no other people could produce exactly the same thing) * Timeliness (it comes at the right time).

While a good idea may not satisfy all the above criteria, he says an innovative idea will.

For companies looking to hire innovators, he suggests they look for dreamers who can distinguish dream from reality. He notes, “Adversity breeds creativity – always challenges people with difficult problems, but also provide the environment that could help them to solve the problems.”

Pebble Beach

Connect with Mu Ming Poo at G-Summit Pebble Beach

Mu Ming Poo is looking forward to meeting people at G-Summit who are interested in developing new architecture for neural network that incorporate new properties of natural neural circuits.

You can catch Mu Ming Poo speak at G-Summit Pebble Beach on the panel, How Technology Could Help Healthcare via Internet, AI and Robotics on Thursday, August 24.

Check out the G-Summit agenda.

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