Khubaib Ahmed

Ahsan Adeel, Adewale Adetomi, Khubaib Ahmed et al.

Context-sensitive two-point layer 5 pyramidal cells (L5PCs) were discovered as long ago as 1999. However, the potential of this discovery to provide useful neural computation has yet to be demonstrated. Here we show for the first time how a transformative L5PCs-driven deep neural network (DNN), termed the multisensory cooperative computing (MCC) architecture, can effectively process large amounts of heterogeneous real-world audio-visual (AV) data, using far less energy compared to best available 'point' neuron-driven DNNs. A novel highly-distributed parallel implementation on a Xilinx UltraScale+ MPSoC device estimates energy savings up to 245759 $ \times $ 50000 $μ$J (i.e., 62% less than the baseline model in a semi-supervised learning setup) where a single synapse consumes $8e^{-5}μ$J. In a supervised learning setup, the energy-saving can potentially reach up to 1250x less (per feedforward transmission) than the baseline model. The significantly reduced neural activity in MCC leads to inherently fast learning and resilience against sudden neural damage. This remarkable performance in pilot experiments demonstrates the embodied neuromorphic intelligence of our proposed cooperative L5PC that receives input from diverse neighbouring neurons as context to amplify the transmission of most salient and relevant information for onward transmission, from overwhelmingly large multimodal information utilised at the early stages of on-chip training. Our proposed approach opens new cross-disciplinary avenues for future on-chip DNN training implementations and posits a radical shift in current neuromorphic computing paradigms.

Khubaib Ahmed, Ahsan Adeel, Mario Franco et al.

Deep learning (DL) has big-data processing capabilities that are as good, or even better, than those of humans in many real-world domains, but at the cost of high energy requirements that may be unsustainable in some applications and of errors, that, though infrequent, can be large. We hypothesise that a fundamental weakness of DL lies in its intrinsic dependence on integrate-and-fire point neurons that maximise information transmission irrespective of whether it is relevant in the current context or not. This leads to unnecessary neural firing and to the feedforward transmission of conflicting messages, which makes learning difficult and processing energy inefficient. Here we show how to circumvent these limitations by mimicking the capabilities of context-sensitive neocortical neurons that receive input from diverse sources as a context to amplify and attenuate the transmission of relevant and irrelevant information, respectively. We demonstrate that a deep network composed of such local processors seeks to maximise agreement between the active neurons, thus restricting the transmission of conflicting information to higher levels and reducing the neural activity required to process large amounts of heterogeneous real-world data. As shown to be far more effective and efficient than current forms of DL, this two-point neuron study offers a possible step-change in transforming the cellular foundations of deep network architectures.

Muhammad Hammad Maqsood, Mubashir Sajid, Khubaib Ahmed et al.

This research paper outlines the development and implementation of a novel Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) that integrates AI predictive modeling with medical knowledge bases. It utilizes the quantifiable information elements in lab results for inferring likely diagnoses a patient might have. Subsequently, suggesting investigations to confirm the likely diagnoses -- an assistive tool for physicians. The system fuses knowledge contained in a rule-base expert system with inferences of data driven predictors based on the features in labs. The data for 593,055 patients was collected from 547 primary care centers across the US to model our decision support system and derive Real-Word Evidence (RWE) to make it relevant for a large demographic of patients. Our Rule-Base comprises clinically validated rules, modeling 59 health conditions that can directly confirm one or more of diseases and assign ICD-10 codes to them. The Likely Diagnosis system uses multi-class classification, covering 37 ICD-10 codes, which are grouped together into 11 categories based on the labs that physicians prescribe to confirm the diagnosis. This research offers a novel system that assists a physician by utilizing medical profile of a patient and routine lab investigations to predict a group of likely diseases and then confirm them, coupled with providing explanations for inferences, thereby assisting physicians to reduce misdiagnosis of patients in clinical decision-making.

Casper van Laar, Khubaib Ahmed

This study introduces a WaveNet-based deep learning model designed to automate the classification of EEG signals into physiological, pathological, artifact, and noise categories. Traditional methods for EEG signal classification, which rely on expert visual review, are becoming increasingly impractical due to the growing complexity and volume of EEG recordings. Leveraging a publicly available annotated dataset from Mayo Clinic and St. Anne's University Hospital, the WaveNet model was trained, validated, and tested on 209,232 samples with a 70/20/10 percent split. The model achieved a classification accuracy exceeding previous CNN and LSTM-based approaches, and was benchmarked against a Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) baseline. Notably, the model distinguishes noise and artifacts with high precision, although it reveals a modest but explainable degree of misclassification between physiological and pathological signals, reflecting inherent clinical overlap. WaveNet's architecture, originally developed for raw audio synthesis, is well suited for EEG data due to its use of dilated causal convolutions and residual connections, enabling it to capture both fine-grained and long-range temporal dependencies. The research also details the preprocessing pipeline, including dynamic dataset partitioning and normalization steps that support model generalization.

Junaid Muzaffar, Khubaib Ahmed, Ingo Frommholz et al.

Training reinforcement learning (RL) agents often requires significant computational resources and prolonged training durations. To address this challenge, we build upon prior work that introduced a neural architecture with permutation-invariant sensory processing. We propose a modified attention mechanism that applies a non-linear transformation to the key vectors (K), producing enriched representations (K') through a custom mapping function. This Nonlinear Attention (NLA) mechanism enhances the representational capacity of the attention layer, enabling the agent to learn more expressive feature interactions. As a result, our model achieves significantly faster convergence and improved training efficiency, while maintaining performance on par with the baseline. These results highlight the potential of nonlinear attention mechanisms to accelerate reinforcement learning without sacrificing effectiveness.

Ahsan Adeel, Junaid Muzaffar, Fahad Zia et al.

Going beyond 'dendritic democracy', we introduce a 'democracy of local processors', termed Cooperator. Here we compare their capabilities when used in permutation invariant neural networks for reinforcement learning (RL), with machine learning algorithms based on Transformers, such as ChatGPT. Transformers are based on the long standing conception of integrate-and-fire 'point' neurons, whereas Cooperator is inspired by recent neurobiological breakthroughs suggesting that the cellular foundations of mental life depend on context-sensitive pyramidal neurons in the neocortex which have two functionally distinct points. Weshow that when used for RL, an algorithm based on Cooperator learns far quicker than that based on Transformer, even while having the same number of parameters.