WARFT
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WARFT or WAran Research FoundaTion is a nonprofit organization promoting interdisciplinary research among undergraduate students in the city of Chennai, India. Prof. N. Venkateswaran founded the group in 2000 and continues to manage it as of 2009.Since it's inception, WARFT has put forth sustained efforts in brain modeling, supercomputing and associated areas. The ultimate goal of WARFT is towards unraveling the connectivity of the human brain regions through the MMINi-DASS project. Biologically accurate brain simulations require massive computational power and thus, another major research initiative at WARFT is the MIP Project directed towards evolving a design methodology for the development of a tera-ops supercomputing cluster.
Undergraduate research trainees at WARFT engage themselves in multi-disciplinary research areas of neuroscience, supercomputing architectures, processor design paradigm towards deep sub-micron, power aware computing, low power issues, mixed signal design, fault tolerance and testing, digital signal processing. WARFT conducts Dhi Yantra , a workshop on brain modeling and supercomputing every year in order to inculcate research awareness among the undergraduate students. The dedicated efforts of WARFT research trainees have brought in worldwide recognition to this foundation.
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[edit] WARFT's Mission Statement
WARFT's mission is twofold. To promote innovation and research awareness in the minds of young undergraduate students. In this respect, WARFT conducts a two-year part-time Research Awareness Programme & Training (RAPT) for undergraduate students. And, to usher in inter-disciplinary research initiative for solving the mysteries of the brain and to hasten the discovery of drugs that can cure brain diseases.
Such research efforts are meaningful only when they are useful to the society. WARFT is determined to take this project across the globe.
[edit] Waran's Undergraduate Research Initiatives
There are two main inter-disciplinary research intiatives at WARFT :
The Multi MIllion Neuron interconnectivity - Dendrite Axon Soma and Synapse :
The MMINi-DASS project is a large-scale brain simulation carried out to predict interconnectivity of a specific brain region and makes use of fMRI BOLD response of various brain regions. This results in understanding of brain dynamics from the most fundamental level to cognitive and behavioral aspects. Modeling individual brain entities is in itself a challenging task. Predicting their interconnectivity through simulation requires enormous computing power and thus, the project banks on the exponentially increasing computing power and its decreasing cost.
The Memory In Processor SuperComputer On Chip (MIP SCOC) and the Silicon Operating System (SILICOS) :
The immense computational demand imposed by the THE MMINi-DASS PROJECT, has given rise to the novel supercomputer design paradigm known as the MIP SCOC. The MIP approach attempts a very fine grain physical and logical integration of memory and logic by incorporating the memory within the logic. In the MIP SCOC architecture, memory is physically and logically integrated with the functional units of the processor. This bit-level integration of processing logic and memory has led to a tremendous increase in functionality of a single MIP SCOC node. The MIP SCOC architecture includes powerful ALFU (Algorithm Level Functional units) like chain matrix adders, multipliers, sorters, multiple operand adders and graph theoretic units like Depth-First-Search, Breadth-First-Search. This introduces a higher level of abstraction through the algorithm-level instructions (ALISA). A single ALISA is equivalent to multiple parallel VLIW. The MIP SCOC architecture includes an on-chip compiler (Compiler-On-Silicon) to generate the required instructions to feed the ALFUs of the MIP node. The Primary COS (PCOS) partitions the incoming problem according to the algorithms involved. Each SCOS generates the instructions corresponding to that column. A distributed control design is employed specific to ALFU population type (forming different heterogeneous cores) enabling parallel operation of a very large number of ALFUs
[edit] Groups at WARFT
WARFT is divided into 7 research groups:
- CHARAKA: The Neurosciences Group
- VISHWAKARMA: The Computer Architecture Group
- MARCONI: The Mixed Signal Group
- BHASKARA: Power Aware Design for Nanotech DSP Architectures Group
- NAREN: Testing and Fault Tolerant Group
- RAMANUJAN: Nanotech Design Methodologies Group
- HARDY: Low Power Architectures for Matrix Algorithm Group
According to WARFT's website, it has published 50 research papers as of 2008.[1]
[edit] WARFT's Vision
The ultimate aim of WARFT is to understand and model the brain to enable drug discovery so that spastic children can live a normal life.
[edit] Dhi Yantra
Dhi Yantra is a workshop on Brain Modeling and Supercomputing organized by WARFT every year. Three editions of this prestigious workshop, featuring eminent scientists and researchers from various fields and geography, have succesfully cemented the position of WARFT as a leading undergraduate research organization in India. The fourth workshop is will be held in Chennai on the July 10th, 11th and the 12th[2]
