BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Nabil H. Farhat

Moore School of Electrical Engineering
Head of the Electro-Optics and Photonic Neuroengineering Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania

Education:

Ph.D - Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Pennsylvania, MS - Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Tennessee, BS - Electrical Engineering, Technion

Employment:

Present

Professor of EE, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Past

Associate Professor of EE, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Assistant Professor of EE, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Graduate Research Fellow, Moore School of Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Graduate Assistant, E.E. Dept., Univ. of Tennessee
Graduate Assistant, E.E. Dept., Technion Haifa, Isráel

Honors and Awards:

Fellow IEEE, Fellow OSA, JPL Visiting Distinguished Scientist; Invited Guest Speaker: USSR Academy of Sciences,Scientific Council on Cybernetics, Moscow; Member of the Electromagnetics Academy; Member of Mahoney institute of Neurological Sciences, Alfred and Meta A. Ennis Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering, Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching; IEEE Regional Outstanding Lecture Tour; IEEE Secretary Treasurer, Region II.

Teaching and Courses Introduced:

• Neurodynamics, Neural Networks and Applications
• Chaotic Dynamics in Electrical and Biological Systems
• Dynamical Systems, Chaos, and Fractals
• Modern Optics and Image Understanding
• Electro-Optics, Fourier Optics, and Optical Information Processing
• Holography and Synthetic Aperture Systems
• Microwave Imaging and Cognition
• Electromagnetic Field Theory and Applications
• Fundamentals of Circuits, Signals and Systems
• Network and System Theory
• Electron and Light Optics
• Senior Design

Editorships:

Editorial Board, Neural Networks (Pergamon Press), (1987-199x); Advisory Editor, Optics Letters (1994-1997); Editorial Board, Neural Computation (MIT Press), (1988-1997); Editor, Advances in Holography, Vols. 1, 2 & 3 (M. Dekker publisher), (1974-1976); Editorial Board, Journal of Acoustical Imaging and Holography, (Crane-Russak & Co., Inc., Publishers), (1977-1979).

Research Interests:

Present

Qualitative theory of nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation and chaos and its application to the modeling and understanding of cortical dynamics. This encompasses corticonics (echoing electronics), neural networks; complexity, and dynamical computing with diverse attractors, the role of synchronization, bifurcation, and chaos in computing and encryption; holographic models of cortical information processing; biomorphic and bifurcation networks for feature extraction, feature binding and cognition; hardware (optoelectronic) implementation of bifurcation processing elements and networks. Image understanding and neuromorphic signal processing; remote sensing and automated object and radar target recognition.

Past

Microwave diversity imaging and optical information processing employing spectral, angular and polarization degrees of freedom; Image understanding and tomography; Optoelectronic neural networks, Stochastic learning and optical Boltzmann machines.

Scholarly Leaves:

Technion, Caltech, UCSB

Patents:

"Glow Discharge Millimeter Wave Detector and Methods of Biasing Same,"
U.S. Patent No. 3,790,895
Inventors: N.H. Farhat and N.S. Kopeika
Assignee: University of Pennsylvania
Issued: February 5, 1974.

"Electronically Steered Antenna System Using Reflective Surface Formed of Piezoelectric Transducers,"
U.S. Patent No. 4,090,204
Assignee: RCA Corp.
Issued: May 16, 1978

"Super-Resolution and Signal Recovery Using Models of Neural Networks,"
U.S. Patent No. 4,995,088
Assignee: University of Pennsylvania
Issued: February 19, 1991

"Unipolar Terminal-Attractor Based Neural Associative Memory with Adaptive Threshold,"
Co-inventors: H-K Liu, and J. Barhen
Assignee: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Issued: August 6, 1996

Selected Publications:

1. N. Farhat, "Biomorphic Dynamical Networks for Cognition and Control", J. of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (Kluwer), vol. 21, pp. 167-177, (1998).
2. N. Farhat and E. Hernandez, "Logistic Networks with DNA-Like Encoding and Interactions", in From Natural to Artificial Neural Networks, J. Mira and F. Sandoval (Eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1995, pp. 215-222.
3. Z. Wen, A. Baek and N. Farhat, "Optoelectronic Neural Dendritic Tree Processing with Electron-Trapping Materials," Optics Letters, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 614-616, March 1995.
4. N. Farhat, S-Y Lin, and M. Eldefrawy, "Complexity and Chaotic Dynamics in a Spiking Neuron Embodiment." in Adaptive Computing: Mathematics, Electronics, and Optics, S.S. Chen and H.J. Caulfield, (Eds.), SPIE, Bellingham, Wash. 1994, pp. 77-88.
5. N.H. Farhat, M. Eldefrawy and S-Y Lin, "A Bifurcation Model of Neuronal Spike Train Patterns: A Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Approach", in Origins: Brain and Self Organization, K. Pribram (Ed), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 396-433, 1994.
6. Z. Wen and N. Farhat, "Pulsating Neuron Produced by Electron Trapping Materials", Optics Letters, vol. 19, pp. 1394-1396, Sept. 1994.
7. N.H. Farhat and B. Bai, "Optimal Spectral Windows for Microwave Diversity Imaging," Accepted for publication, IEEE Trans. on Ant. and Prop., Vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 985-993, June (1991).
8. N.H. Farhat and Z-Y Shae, "An Optical Learning Machine," Proc.1989 Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Vol. I, IEEE Computer Society Press, IEEE Cat. No. 89 TH0242-8, p. 432, 1989.
9. N.H. Farhat, "Microwave Diversity Imaging and Automated Target Identification Based on Models of Neural Networks," Proc. IEEE, Special Issue on Radar Cross-Section of Complex Objects, Vol. 77, May 1989, pp. 670-680.
10. N.H. Farhat and D. Psaltis, "Optical Implementation of Associative Memory Based on Models of Neural Networks," in Optical Processing, J. Horner (Ed.), Acad. Press (1987), pp. 129-162.
11. N.H. Farhat, S. Miyahara and K.S. Lee, "Optical Implementation of 2-D Neural Nets and Their Application in Recognition of Radar Targets," in Neural Networks for Computing, J.S. Denker (Ed.), Am. Inst. of Phys., New York, 1986, p. 146.
12. N.H. Farhat, D. Psaltis, A. Prata and E. Paek, "Optical Implementation of the Hopfield Model," Applied Optics, Vol. 24, May 1985, pp. 1469-1475.
13. D. Psaltis and N.H. Farhat, "Optical Information Processing Based on Associative-Memory Model of Neural Nets with Thresholding and Feedback," Optics Letters, Vol. 10, 98-100, Jan. 1985.

Papers in Selected Papers Volumes:

1. Paper No. 11, in Neurocomputing: Foundations and Research, J.A. Anderson and E. Rosenfeld (Eds.), The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1988.
2. Papers No. 8 and 10, in Artificial Neural Networks: Paradigms Applications and Hardware Implementations. E. Sanchez-Sinencio and Clifford Lau (Eds.), IEEE Press, New York, 1992.
3. N. Farhat, "Neural Net Models and Optical Computing: A Brief Overview," in Selected Papers on Optical Neural Networks, Suganda Jutamulia (Ed.), SPIE Optical Engineering Press, Bellingham, WA, 1994.
4. Papers No. 11 and 12, in Selected Papers on Optical Neural Networks, Suganda Jutamulia (Ed.), SPIE Optical Engineering Press, Bellingham, WA, 1994.

Recent News Item:

"A Subtler Silicon Cell for Neural Networks" Science, Vol. 277, p. 1935, Sept. 1997 (Special News Report: Silicon Mimics Life). News item describing, among others work, ongoing effort at the Photonic Neuroengineering Laboratory aimed at the development of bifurcation processing elements for use in the modeling and simulation of cortical networks and higher-level brain function.