BrainWave, a Web-friendly neural network package designed by Dr Simon Dennis and Dr Devin McAuley in the School of Psychology, has gone international.
Dr Dennis and Dr McAuley designed the package to teach neural network modelling in an introductory cognitive science course at the University.
'When we were coming up with this course we went out looking for packages and basically there was nothing we were really happy with,' Dr McAuley said.
'Most packages were aimed at industrial applications rather than teaching. So we decided to produce our own.
'Now it's been sold to universities in America, the United Kingdom and throughout Australia.'
Neural network models emphasise biologically-inspired approaches to problem solving. Computation occurs in parallel across large numbers of simple processing units, rather than in the serial fashion of traditional computer architectures.
Simple learning algorithms can be defined to alter the behaviour of the network as a result of experience.
For computer scientists and engineers, neural networks provide a paradigm for solving problems which is often very successful in domains that are uncertain or poorly understood.
For linguists, cognitive scientists, psychologists and philosophers, neural networks provide a metaphor for the way cognitive processes such as perception, attention, learning, memory, language, reasoning and thinking, occur.
And for neuroscientists, the mathematical simplification of the physiological processes allows for the analysis of large networks and insight into how the myriad interactions of neurons result in overt behaviour.
BrainWave employs a highly graphical, direct manipulation interface - similar to a drawing program - making it intuitive for students and instructors to use.
Dr Dennis said the ability to link the package to the BrainWave Web page (http://psy.uq.edu.au/~brainwav) and run it on different platforms was also an important factor.
'We are also very interested in the possibilities of flexible delivery and already have an in-principle agreement with the University of Western Australia to exchange cognitive science courses between institutions,' Dr Dennis said.
'When we launched the package at a workshop in July we had many people from different fields who probably would have struggled with most of the simulation packages out there,' Dr McAuley said.
'And if they can't get past that first step they tend to steer away from this type of work.
'There have been neural network simulators in the past but this is the first to be based on Web technology and this gives us the edge on our competitors.'
For information contact Dr Dennis or Dr McAuley (telephone (07) 3365 6230).
