Johan Åkerman receives ERC Proof of Concept Grant
Johan Åkerman, professor of applied spintronics at the Department of Physics, has received EUR 150,000 from the European Research Council (ERC) to further develop and commercialise his research project TOPSPIN on neuromorphic computing.
The ERC Proof of Concept grant give researchers who have already received grants from ERC the opportunity to continue to develop their research results. A total of 166 researchers from 21 countries were awarded grants of EUR 150,000. Seven of the researchers are active in Sweden.
In Johan Åkerman's research project TOPSPIN, a study was published in November 2021 in which researchers for the first time succeeded in combining a memory function with a calculation function in the same component, a discovery that opens the way for more efficient technologies, everything from mobile phones to self-driving cars.
The research project is now further developing the results of the study with ERC Proof of Concept.
“Quantum-inspired computers, such as Ising machines, have proven to be able to handle a kind of calculation problem that today's conventional computers cannot solve within a reasonable time or at a reasonable energy consumption. The goal of the research project is to build and compare a new, completely magnetic, quantum-inspired Ising machine based on two-dimensional networks of so-called spin-Hall nano-oscillators," says Johan Åkerman.
Read more about the ERC Proof of Concept Grant (erc.europa.eu)
