Recap of 2024: continuing to pave the way for future-proof computing in 2025

CogniGron’s goal of connecting bright minds across disciplines has been strengthened throughout the year. Events such as the Brainspiration conference, our CogniGron Research Away Day, the Memristec Summer School, the Dutch NWA NL-ECO consortium meeting and (as many as 10) seminars, and without forgetting our CogniGron@work sessions every Monday, have brought many people in neuromorphic computing together internally and from outside Groningen and the Netherlands.

Our members continue to do crucial research towards brain-inspired computing and this year, we have witnessed a total of five successful PhD thesis defences – Daniel Willhalm, Thorben Schoepe, Thomas Tiotto, Michelle Mastella and Ole Richter – of outstanding level, which make a total of 9 theses already defended from CogniGron PhD students. This is an invaluable contribution to CogniGron's main goal: training a new generation of scientists that will bridge the existing knowledge gap to develop a future-proof computer.

We are very thankful for everyone who has contributed to this year’s achievements: people who have left and others who have joined. Without our passionate members, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Looking back at all the connections and developments, we want to continue doing even better in the new year. Our dedication and vision has made it possible for CogniGron to receive new funding from the Ubbo Emmius Foundation, that we announced on 6 December. In this new phase, we have committed to intensify our relationship with industrial partners and our focus on applications; while still strongly supporting fundamental research.

We look forward to 2025, with the first thesis defences and activities already on the agenda. We are ready to do great things and continue working towards building the future-proof computing ecosystem and our mission to develop 10,000x more energy-efficient computer chips.

We had many highlights this year, and here are just some of them: