CBCL research Statement

At the Center for Biological and Computational Learning at MIT we believe that learning is at the core of the problem of intelligence, both biological and artificial. The mission of CBCL is to study the problem of learning within an approach that combines science with engineering, since learning is the gateway for understanding how the human brain works as well as for making intelligent machines. Research in the Center for Biological and Computational Learning is focused on the problem of learning in three domains a) theory; b) engineering applications; c) neuroscience.

At the level of mathematical theory, we collaborate with S. Smale (Hong Kong), M. Maggioni (Duke) and A Verri (U. Genova). In engineering we are working among others with L. Itti (USC) and C. Koch (Caltech). In computational neuroscience, the lab is working on models of the primate visual cortex to summarize physiological and psychophysical data and to explain image understanding and object recognition abilities of humans and primates. We collaborate closely with physiological and psychophysical labs, including Desimone's (MIT), Miller's (MIT), Logothetis' (MPG), Serre (Brown), Koch (Caltech), Sheinberg (Brown).

In 2008, Prof. Poggio began working with Prof. Tenenbaum, and others, to launch the Intelligence Initiative at MIT, a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how human intelligence develops.

Prof. Tomaso Poggio was awarded the 2009 Okawa prize for his “…outstanding contributions to the establishment of computational neuroscience, and pioneering researches ranging from the biophysical and behavioral studies of the visual system to the computational analysis of vision and learning in humans and machines.”