Driven by the brain’s remarkable ability to perform energy-efficient and in-memory computing, the field of neuromorphic engineering is advancing toward the development of materials, devices, and circuits that emulate artificial synaptic and neuronal functions. While robust and scalable neuromorphic hardware holds great promise for the future of electronics, computing, and broader societal impact, significant challenges remain—particularly in the development and integration of novel materials into next-generation device architectures.
This symposium welcomes contributions that highlight recent progress in engineered systems, circuits, and devices with exceptional physical properties for neuromorphic applications. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, ferroic and phase-change devices, valence-change devices, spintronic systems, 2D van der Waals materials, halide perovskites, self-assembled and organic materials, circuits and systems combining standard and emerging technologies for in memory computing. We aim to explore challenges at different levels of the device-to-system stack, strategies to tailor memristive behavior through structure and defect engineering, the conceptual design of innovative neuromorphic devices and circuits, and the seamless integration of these elements into functional neuromorphic systems.
Join us in advancing the materials frontier of neuromorphic computing.
- Recent progress in engineered materials with exceptional physical properties for neuromorphic applications
- Information representation and processing in neuroscience
- Exploration of challenges and strategies to tailor memristive behavior through structure and defect engineering
- Data processing with self-assembled materials
- Integration of materials and devices into functional neuromorphic circuits and systems
- Memristive computational neural network models and hardware
- Reprogrammable hybrid platform for edge computing
Francesca Borghi is a tenure track assistant professor at the Physics Department of the University of Milano. She graduated in Physics from the University of Milano in 2011 and she received her PhD in Physics, Astrophysics and Applied Physics in 2015. Her research focuses on structural and functional properties of cluster-assembled nanostructured materials, and the development of neuromorphic computing systems and soft electronic devices. She’s currently coordinating multidisciplinary laboratories for the advanced characterization of neuromorphic systems at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMaINa) at the Physics Department (UniMi). She’s co-founder of GRUCIO, a start-up initiative aiming at the development of unconventional data processing devices.
Jasmin Aghassi-HagmannJuan Bisquert (pHD Universitat de València, 1991) is a Distinguished Research Professor at Instituto de Tecnología Química (Universitat Politècnica de València-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). He is Executive Editor for Europe of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He has been distinguished in the list of Highly Cited Researchers from 2014 to 2024. The research activity of Juan Bisquert has been focused on the application of measurement techniques and physical modeling in several areas of energy devices materials, using organic and hybrid semiconductors as halide perovskite solar cells. Currently the main research topic aims to create miniature devices that operate as neurons and synapses for bio-inspired neuromorphic computation related to data sensing and image processing. The work on this topic combines harnessing hysteresis and memory properties of ionic-electronic conducting devices as memristors and transistors towards computational networks. The work is supported by European Research Council Advanced Grant.
Michele GiuglianoI am Principal Investigator at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, Italy.
I was born in [Genova](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa) (Italy) in 1974, I received my *scientific* high-school diploma in 1992, and I graduated summa cum laude in *Electronic Engineering* in 1997 at the [Univ. of Genova](http://www.unige.it) (Italy), specializing in *Biomedical* *Engineering*. In 2001, after I received a [PhD in *Bioengineering*](http://www.dottorato.polimi.it/corsi-di-dottorato/corsi-di-dottorato-attivi/bioingegneria/), with a thesis in Computational Neuroscience by the Polytechnic of Milan (Italy), I decided to move abroad to continue my academic training.
In the same year, I received an award from the [Human Frontiers Science Program Organization](http://www.hfsp.org) to pursue postdoctoral training in experimental Electrophysiology and Neurobiology at the [Inst. of Physiology](http://www.physio.unibe.ch) of the Univ. of Bern (Switzerland),
where I had the opportunity to work with Prof. Hans-Rudolf Luescher and [Prof. Stefano Fusi](http://neuroscience.columbia.edu/profile/stefanofusi). In 2005, I moved to the [Brain Mind Institute](http://bmi.epfl.ch) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne where I joined the experimental lab of [Prof. Henry Markram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Markram) as junior group leader.
Three years later, in 2008, I was appointed faculty member at the [University of Antwerp](https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/) (Belgium), taking over the
Theoretical Neurobiology lab as a successor of [Prof. Erik De Schutter](https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/132/bio), to extend its scope to
interdisciplinary research in experimental Neuroscience and Neuroengineering. During the period 2013-2015, I was also visiting scientist at the [Neuroelectronics Flanders Institute](http://www.nerf.be) at IMEC, Leuven (Belgium). Over the years, I received visiting appointments at the [Department of Computer Science](https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/dcs) of the University of Sheffield (UK) and at the Brain Mind Institute of the EPFL (Switzerland). In 2012, I received my [tenure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_tenure) and later, in 2016,
I was promoted to full professor.
From 2008 until 2019, I directed the Laboratory for Theoretical Neurobiology and Neuroengineering, founding in 2017 a new research unit on Molecular, Cellular, and Network Excitability research.
In 2019, I moved to the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, where I became faculty in the Neuroscience Area and I started the Neuronal Dynamics Laboratory. In 2024, I was called by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia to launch a new faculty of Bioengineering for Innovation in Medicine.
Susanne Hoffmann-Eifert holds a degree in physics and a doctorate in electrical engineering from RWTH Aachen University. She currently works as a senior scientist at the Peter Grünberg Institute for Electronic Materials at Forschungszentrum Jülich, where she heads a research group on functional thin films for novel electronic devices. She has been engaged in research and development of high-dielectric and ferroelectric thin films for volatile and non-volatile random access memory. Her current research projects focus on the fabrication, optimisation and CMOS integration of nanoscale memristive devices for use in neuromorphic computing circuits. She is the author and co-author of more than 145 peer-reviewed publications. ORCID: 0000-0003-1682-826X
Prof. Lee is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Taipei Tech. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2009. Prior to joining Taipei Tech, he continued his postdoc research at Stanford University from 2012 to 2014. He is devoted to the field of soft electronic materials. His present research interests covered stretchable polymer-based field-effect transistors, e-Skin, artificial synapses, non-volatile memory, and wearable electronics.
Gianluca Milano, PI of the ERC MEMBRAIN, is currently Senior Researcher at the Italian National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM). He holds a Ph.D. in Physics cum laude from Politecnico di Torino in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), a bachelor’s and master’s in physics from the University of Torino. He his author of more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, 2 patents, and gave more than 10 invited talks at international conferences. Besides being the responsible for national and European projects at INRiM, he was coordinator of the European project MEMQuD that involved 15 European partners including universities, research centers and industries. He is associate editor of APL Machine Learning, and he is co-organizer of the workshop Deep Learning meets Neuromorphic Hardware. He was selected as “Emerging Leader 2022” by the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics Editorial Board, he received the Advanced Materials Award 2025 from the International Association of Advanced Materials for the notable and outstanding research contribution in the field of Advanced Materials Science & Technology, and he received the NEST prize for Nanoscience in 2021.
Luisa Petti