Topic: Norse

We introduce Norse: An open-source library for gradient-based training of spiking neural networks. In contrast to neuron simulators which mainly target computational neuroscientists, our library seamlessly integrates with the existing PyTorch ecosystem using abstractions familiar to the machine learning community. This has immediate benefits in that it provides a familiar interface, hardware accelerator support and, most importantly, the ability to use gradient-based optimization. While many parallel efforts in this direction exist, Norse emphasizes flexibility and usability in three ways. Use

Norse aims to exploit the advantages of bio-inspired neural components, which are sparse and event-driven - a fundamental difference from artificial neural networks. Norse expands PyTorch with primitives for bio-inspired neural components, bringing you two advantages: a modern and proven infrastructure based on PyTorch and deep learning-compatible spiking neural network components.