Safety and ethical issues

Overall, due to the fact that our project design is based on computer, there is no obvious physical

health and safety issues directly related to our project. Yet, The potential health and safety issue

can occur if users use the computer for a long time without take some rest: people might become

enervated and depressed after working in front of the electronic screen. If we are about to work

on hardware in the future to improve the performance of our design, the operation on the PCB

board may get some static electricity, thus resulting spark and fire, and ungrounded body may be

injured by static electricity brought by those electronics. For the environmental, social and ethical

issues, we think the simulation of neural network may raise an ethic issue of whether the artificial

intelligence should be developed. Then, The application of GUI based on Brian package and use

of neural model may take involve of patent issue. Also, Since the simulation takes long time and a

lot of computation, the energy consume will also become a problem. Therefore we need to

ensure that the power we use is generated by clean, pollution-free power plants.

Environmental, social, ethical, health & safety issues

● Each Laptop per person, roughly 1200 each(already have).

● Notebook and scratch paper, 10/person.

● Python and jupyter notebook installed, free. (online)

● Brian2 package, free. (online)

● MATLAB, free for UCSD student, but 2000 for license. (online)

● Spartan 6 FPGA. (we already have it, but also could order from ebay, cost 30-150)

● Neuromorphic chip, designed by PhD student. (only through contacting manufacturer)

● Designed and manufactured PCB containing FPGA, chips, regulator, ram…etc. (only

through contacting manufacturer)

● Oscilloscope, not sure the specific model. (already in lab, order from ebay cost 200-400)

● Power supply, not sure the specific model. (already in lab, order from ebay cost 50-100)

● Server power cord and jump wire. (already in lab, order from ebay, amazon cost 20)

● USB cable. (already in lab, order from ebay,amazon cost 10-20)

● Access to Linux system, free.

● Access to relevant papers. (provided by PI, free)

● Labor fee, free.

Other resources:

● Assistance of senior scientists and PHD student in that field.(free)

● Support of professor Cauwenbergh.(free)

● Access to the lab. (free)

● Be able to use necessary lab equipment, such as desktop and power supply. (free)