Georgia Tech Ph.D. candidate Aheli Ghosh has won the Best Poster Award at the 23rd International Conference on Solid State Ionics (SSI-23). SSI-23’s highly competitive poster competition featured nearly 750 participants. Ghosh is advised by Alan Doolittle, the Joseph M. Pettit Professor in Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Ghosh’s research has shown how a novel oxide material, lithium niobite, can use design rules similar to CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology to engineer brain-like memristive synapses, tuning both statically and dynamically the resistance and temporal response. Memristive devices have extraordinary potential in neuromorphic computing — a computing paradigm that mimics the biological brain.

The findings are part of the CEREBRAL (Cross-disciplinary Electronic-ionic Research Enabling Biologically Realistic Autonomous Learning) research project funded by the Department of Defense to facilitate key device innovations in implementing brain inspired low-power neuromorphic circuits. The program, launched in 2017, has expanded work on new metal oxide materials that buzz electronically at the nanoscale to emulate the way human neural networks buzz with electric potential on a cellular level.

Ghosh’s research has already been utilized by fellow ECE Ph.D. candidate Bill Zivasatienraj to model new memristor-based network architectures that show remarkable lifelong self-learning properties.

SSI-23 was held July 17-22 in Boston. The conference is a major event in the field, attracting a worldwide audience every two years. It provides an unparalleled opportunity to gather leading international scientists and engineers, top-level industrial, management and business executives, as well as students and young scientists, to discuss all aspects of the science, technology and applications of ion-conducting materials.