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Connectomics: a playground for graph algorithms
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Connectomics: a playground for graph algorithms
Abstract:
A brain can be represented as a graph in which vertices are neurons and edges are synaptic connections. The newly published fly connectome (10^5 vertices, 10^7 edges) is orders of magnitude larger than the C. elegans connectome. We will describe open problems in graph clustering, embedding, sorting, and matching, and explain the biological significance of these challenges.
Prof. H. Sebastian Seung - Bio
Prof. H. Sebastian Seung
Sebastian Seung is Anthony B. Evnin Professor in the Neuroscience Institute and Computer Science Department at Princeton University. He helped pioneer the field of connectomics, applying deep learning and crowdsourcing to reconstruct neural circuits from electron microscopic images. In 2012 he launched Eyewire, which is widely regarded as one of the most successful examples of citizen science, and was one of the first online systems to employ deep learning. In 2018, he co-founded the FlyWire Consortium, which released the first connectome of the fruit fly brain in 2023. His book Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are was chosen by the Wall Street Journal as Top Ten Nonfiction of 2012.
Before joining the Princeton faculty, Seung trained at Harvard and Hebrew Universities, worked at Bell Laboratories (1992-8), and taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1998-2013). He is External Member of the Max Planck Society. He chairs the Advisory Committee for the CIFAR Learning in Machines and Brains program, dubbed the cradle of the deep learning revolution. Seung served as President of Samsung Research from 2020 to 2022.
Dr. Arie Matsliah - Bio
Aria Matsliah
Arie Matsliah is a research scientist at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, where he leads efforts to disseminate the recently published FlyWire full brain connectome. Arie is the creator of FlyWire Codex and the organizer of the FlyWire data challenges, which use combinatorial optimization methods to tackle questions about the connectome.
Arie holds a Ph.D. in computer science focused on graph property testing and approximation algorithms for large datasets. Before joining PNI Arie worked at IBM Research, Google, and multiple startups.