The University of Heidelberg was happy to take part in Girls’ Day 2026 on 23 April and to welcome a group of 19 students from different schools and regions.
Throughout the morning, they got hands-on experience with neuromorphic computing and explored how principles from neuroscience can be translated into electronic systems.
A central part of the program was experimenting with the electronic Lu.i neurons. The participants spent a lot of time wiring them up, building small networks, and observing how signals propagate through them. Along the way, they were introduced to fundamental neuroscience concepts such as spatio-temporal integration of inputs, membrane dynamics, thresholding, and spike-based communication. They could directly see how neurons accumulate signals over time and space and how this leads to the generation of spikes in simple networks.
Building on this, the group had the opportunity to run larger-scale experiments using the BrainScaleS-2 system via the EBRAINS Research Infrastructure. This allowed them to see how the same principles they explored with individual Lu.i setups extend to more complex neuromorphic hardware, and how such systems are used in current research.
The day was complemented by guided tours through the EINC building, where participants got a closer look at the labs and infrastructure behind neuromorphic engineering. This gave them a broader impression of how interdisciplinary research in neuroscience, physics, and computer science comes together in practice.
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