Alessandro Galloni
@argalloni.bsky.social
Computational neuroscience postdoc in the Milstein Lab at Rutgers University, studying synaptic plasticity, bio-plausible deep learning / neuroAI, neuromorphic computing. Previously @ Francis Crick Institute & UCL
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
There was never any point to having reference letters. That's why we've all started using AI to do this nonesense task.
References should only be used for short-listed candidates for important positions/awards, and ideally, be done via a call to get the most honest opinion possible.
References should only be used for short-listed candidates for important positions/awards, and ideally, be done via a call to get the most honest opinion possible.
From my discussions with other faculty, the use of generative AI I hear about the most is writing reference letters.
What's the point of having reference letters anymore if everyone is just having them written by machine?
What's the point of having reference letters anymore if everyone is just having them written by machine?
November 14, 2025 at 7:10 PM
There was never any point to having reference letters. That's why we've all started using AI to do this nonesense task.
References should only be used for short-listed candidates for important positions/awards, and ideally, be done via a call to get the most honest opinion possible.
References should only be used for short-listed candidates for important positions/awards, and ideally, be done via a call to get the most honest opinion possible.
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Exploiting heterogeneous delays for efficient computation in low-bit neural networks
Neural networks rely on learning synaptic weights. However, this overlooks other neural parameters that can also be learned and may be utilized by the brain. One such parameter is the delay: the brain...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
With my great advisors and colleagues, @achterbrain.bsky.social @zhe @danakarca.bsky.social @neural-reckoning.org, we show that if heterogeneous axonal delays (imprecise) can capture the essential temporal structure of a task, spiking networks do not need precise synaptic weights to perform well.
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Exploiting heterogeneous delays for efficient computation in low-bit neural networks
Neural networks rely on learning synaptic weights. However, this overlooks other neural parameters that can also be learned and may be utilized by the brain. One such parameter is the delay: the brain...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:51 PM
With my great advisors and colleagues, @achterbrain.bsky.social @zhe @danakarca.bsky.social @neural-reckoning.org, we show that if heterogeneous axonal delays (imprecise) can capture the essential temporal structure of a task, spiking networks do not need precise synaptic weights to perform well.
Really enjoyed reading this short opinion piece by Tim O'Leary. I think it echoes the classic Feynman quote "what I cannot create I do not understand". I think engineering approaches such as neuromorphic computing will prove fundamental to scientific understanding of how biological brains work
Personal bias but I liked this transmitter article: www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
“You won’t catch an engineer trying to formulate a grand unified theory of the brain”
“Engineers know how to make things work […] This is what makes engineering closer to biology than to other […] sciences”
“You won’t catch an engineer trying to formulate a grand unified theory of the brain”
“Engineers know how to make things work […] This is what makes engineering closer to biology than to other […] sciences”
Neuroscience needs engineers—for more reasons than you think
Adopting an engineering mindset will help the field focus its research priorities.
www.thetransmitter.org
November 3, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Really enjoyed reading this short opinion piece by Tim O'Leary. I think it echoes the classic Feynman quote "what I cannot create I do not understand". I think engineering approaches such as neuromorphic computing will prove fundamental to scientific understanding of how biological brains work
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Reminder this is happening this Wed/Thu. Free spiking neural network conference - registration required (see below).
Spiking NN fans - the #SNUFA workshop (Nov 5-6) agenda is finalised and online now. Make sure to register (free) soon. (Note you can register for either day and come to both.)
Agenda: snufa.net/2025/
Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snufa-2025...
Thanks to all who voted on abstracts!
🤖🧠🧪
Agenda: snufa.net/2025/
Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snufa-2025...
Thanks to all who voted on abstracts!
🤖🧠🧪
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
November 3, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reminder this is happening this Wed/Thu. Free spiking neural network conference - registration required (see below).
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
My co-authors have yet to move to Bluesky, so I'm pleased to announce our latest work has just been published in @nature.com Neuroscience. Amazing work led by Junheng Li, revealing that falling asleep follows a predictable bifurcation pattern #neuroskyence #sleep
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Falling asleep follows a predictable bifurcation dynamic - Nature Neuroscience
Li et al. propose a conceptual framework to study the phenomenon of falling asleep based on electroencephalogram data. They show that a tipping point marks the brain’s nonlinear wake-to-sleep transiti...
www.nature.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
My co-authors have yet to move to Bluesky, so I'm pleased to announce our latest work has just been published in @nature.com Neuroscience. Amazing work led by Junheng Li, revealing that falling asleep follows a predictable bifurcation pattern #neuroskyence #sleep
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
MSR NYC is hiring senior researchers in AI, both broadly in AI/ML & in specific areas (post-training, test-time scaling, modular transfer learning, science of deep learning).
aka.ms/msrnyc-jobs
We're reviewing on a rolling basis, interviews in Nov/Dec. Please apply here: tinyurl.com/MSRNYCjob
aka.ms/msrnyc-jobs
We're reviewing on a rolling basis, interviews in Nov/Dec. Please apply here: tinyurl.com/MSRNYCjob
Microsoft Research Lab - New York City - Microsoft Research
Apply for a research position at Microsoft Research New York & collaborate with academia to advance economics research, prediction markets & ML.
aka.ms
October 27, 2025 at 5:11 PM
MSR NYC is hiring senior researchers in AI, both broadly in AI/ML & in specific areas (post-training, test-time scaling, modular transfer learning, science of deep learning).
aka.ms/msrnyc-jobs
We're reviewing on a rolling basis, interviews in Nov/Dec. Please apply here: tinyurl.com/MSRNYCjob
aka.ms/msrnyc-jobs
We're reviewing on a rolling basis, interviews in Nov/Dec. Please apply here: tinyurl.com/MSRNYCjob
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Want to make publication-ready figures come straight from Python without having to do any manual editing? Are you fed up with axes labels being unreadable during your presentations? Follow this short tutorial including code examples! 👇🧵
October 16, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Want to make publication-ready figures come straight from Python without having to do any manual editing? Are you fed up with axes labels being unreadable during your presentations? Follow this short tutorial including code examples! 👇🧵
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Check out my new article: vitalstatistics.kareemcarr.com/p/a-simple-e...
October 15, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Check out my new article: vitalstatistics.kareemcarr.com/p/a-simple-e...
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Message for participants of the #SNUFA 2025 spiking neural network workshop. We got almost 60 awesome abstract submissions, and we'd now like your help to select which ones should be offered talks. Follow the "abstract voting" link at snufa.net/2025/ to take part. It should take <15m. Thanks! ❤️
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
October 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Message for participants of the #SNUFA 2025 spiking neural network workshop. We got almost 60 awesome abstract submissions, and we'd now like your help to select which ones should be offered talks. Follow the "abstract voting" link at snufa.net/2025/ to take part. It should take <15m. Thanks! ❤️
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
A thought-provoking perspective from the visionary @giacomoi.bsky.social, calling for neuromorphic computing to return to its root: fundamental neuroscience; an inspiring vision for the future of NeuroAI 🤩
October 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
A thought-provoking perspective from the visionary @giacomoi.bsky.social, calling for neuromorphic computing to return to its root: fundamental neuroscience; an inspiring vision for the future of NeuroAI 🤩
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Travel awards are available for undergraduate students looking to attend #Cosyne25! The application is short, and the deadline is Nov 12. @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Travel Grants — COSYNE
Apply for COSYNE 2026 Travel Grants to support your participation in Lisbon and Cascais, Portugal. Grants are available for students, postdocs, and PIs, including programs for Childcare, Presenters, N...
www.cosyne.org
October 3, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Travel awards are available for undergraduate students looking to attend #Cosyne25! The application is short, and the deadline is Nov 12. @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk
More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants
(1/2)
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Hey ephys friends! I've been teaching electrophysiology for a few years now, and this summer while teaching at CSHL I started building an interactive simulation of a full patch-clamp amplifier circuit to help explain electronics to my students.
Sharing it here in case anyone finds it useful!
Sharing it here in case anyone finds it useful!
September 23, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Hey ephys friends! I've been teaching electrophysiology for a few years now, and this summer while teaching at CSHL I started building an interactive simulation of a full patch-clamp amplifier circuit to help explain electronics to my students.
Sharing it here in case anyone finds it useful!
Sharing it here in case anyone finds it useful!
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
The CTRL-Labs decoding model paper is out! Saw this presented at Cosyne this year, very cool to see it out.
I would say this is the clearest demonstration of scaling laws in neural decoding to-date.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
I would say this is the clearest demonstration of scaling laws in neural decoding to-date.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
A generic non-invasive neuromotor interface for human-computer interaction - Nature
A high-bandwidth neuromotor interface offers performant out-of-the-box generalization across people.
www.nature.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The CTRL-Labs decoding model paper is out! Saw this presented at Cosyne this year, very cool to see it out.
I would say this is the clearest demonstration of scaling laws in neural decoding to-date.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
I would say this is the clearest demonstration of scaling laws in neural decoding to-date.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
New preprint! What happens if you add neuromodulation to spiking neural networks and let them go wild with it? TLDR: it can improve performance especially in challenging sensory processing tasks. Explainer thread below. 🤖🧠🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Neuromodulation enhances dynamic sensory processing in spiking neural network models
Neuromodulators allow circuits to dynamically change their biophysical properties in a context-sensitive way. In addition to their role in learning, neuromodulators have been suggested to play a role ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
New preprint! What happens if you add neuromodulation to spiking neural networks and let them go wild with it? TLDR: it can improve performance especially in challenging sensory processing tasks. Explainer thread below. 🤖🧠🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Job post alert!👩🔬 Postdoctoral fellow in CompNeuro/ML in the Artificial and Biological Computation lab at NYU (csavin.wixsite.com/savinlab).
Exciting opening in the Data and Theory team in the new Simons Collaboration in Ecological Neuroscience!
www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s...
#neuroskyence
Exciting opening in the Data and Theory team in the new Simons Collaboration in Ecological Neuroscience!
www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s...
#neuroskyence
Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience
Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience on Simons Foundation
www.simonsfoundation.org
September 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Job post alert!👩🔬 Postdoctoral fellow in CompNeuro/ML in the Artificial and Biological Computation lab at NYU (csavin.wixsite.com/savinlab).
Exciting opening in the Data and Theory team in the new Simons Collaboration in Ecological Neuroscience!
www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s...
#neuroskyence
Exciting opening in the Data and Theory team in the new Simons Collaboration in Ecological Neuroscience!
www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s...
#neuroskyence
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
The shitty first draft is and always will be the number one strategy for writing well.
Editing is a craft you can hone. Writing from scratch is a different dumpster fire every time you put a pen to a blank page.
Editing is a craft you can hone. Writing from scratch is a different dumpster fire every time you put a pen to a blank page.
August 17, 2025 at 9:37 PM
The shitty first draft is and always will be the number one strategy for writing well.
Editing is a craft you can hone. Writing from scratch is a different dumpster fire every time you put a pen to a blank page.
Editing is a craft you can hone. Writing from scratch is a different dumpster fire every time you put a pen to a blank page.
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Dear universities,
I am begging you to stop requiring letters of recommendation for master's programmes. You and I both know you don't read them, so stop asking for them.
Instead, have applicants list a name and get in touch if it's a borderline case.
Signed,
Everyone.
I am begging you to stop requiring letters of recommendation for master's programmes. You and I both know you don't read them, so stop asking for them.
Instead, have applicants list a name and get in touch if it's a borderline case.
Signed,
Everyone.
July 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Dear universities,
I am begging you to stop requiring letters of recommendation for master's programmes. You and I both know you don't read them, so stop asking for them.
Instead, have applicants list a name and get in touch if it's a borderline case.
Signed,
Everyone.
I am begging you to stop requiring letters of recommendation for master's programmes. You and I both know you don't read them, so stop asking for them.
Instead, have applicants list a name and get in touch if it's a borderline case.
Signed,
Everyone.
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
New preprint for #neuromorphic and #SpikingNeuralNetwork folk (with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social).
arxiv.org/abs/2507.16043
Surrogate gradients are popular for training SNNs, but some worry whether they really learn complex temporal spike codes. TLDR: we tested this, and yes they can! 🧵👇
🤖🧠🧪
arxiv.org/abs/2507.16043
Surrogate gradients are popular for training SNNs, but some worry whether they really learn complex temporal spike codes. TLDR: we tested this, and yes they can! 🧵👇
🤖🧠🧪
Beyond Rate Coding: Surrogate Gradients Enable Spike Timing Learning in Spiking Neural Networks
We investigate the extent to which Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) trained with Surrogate Gradient Descent (Surrogate GD), with and without delay learning, can learn from precise spike timing beyond fi...
arxiv.org
July 24, 2025 at 5:03 PM
New preprint for #neuromorphic and #SpikingNeuralNetwork folk (with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social).
arxiv.org/abs/2507.16043
Surrogate gradients are popular for training SNNs, but some worry whether they really learn complex temporal spike codes. TLDR: we tested this, and yes they can! 🧵👇
🤖🧠🧪
arxiv.org/abs/2507.16043
Surrogate gradients are popular for training SNNs, but some worry whether they really learn complex temporal spike codes. TLDR: we tested this, and yes they can! 🧵👇
🤖🧠🧪
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
Exciting new preprint from the lab: “Adopting a human developmental visual diet yields robust, shape-based AI vision”. A most wonderful case where brain inspiration massively improved AI solutions.
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
arxiv.org
July 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Exciting new preprint from the lab: “Adopting a human developmental visual diet yields robust, shape-based AI vision”. A most wonderful case where brain inspiration massively improved AI solutions.
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Eve Marder: "The process of turning a word model into a formal mathematical model invariably forces the experimentalist to confront his or her hidden assumptions."
The point isn’t to capture all the richness, it’s to put your money where your mouth is.
The point isn’t to capture all the richness, it’s to put your money where your mouth is.
July 7, 2025 at 11:36 AM
I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Eve Marder: "The process of turning a word model into a formal mathematical model invariably forces the experimentalist to confront his or her hidden assumptions."
The point isn’t to capture all the richness, it’s to put your money where your mouth is.
The point isn’t to capture all the richness, it’s to put your money where your mouth is.
Reposted by Alessandro Galloni
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
The recent work I presented at Cosyne this year is now out on bioRxiv! Combining bio-plausible credit assignment using (apical) dendrites, realistic E/I cell types, and BTSP-based synaptic plasticity. One small step closer to understanding learning in the brain! Check out the summary here 👇
New #NeuroAI #compneurosky preprint! To better understand how target-directed learning works in the brain, we sought to engineer an artificial neural network capable of solving complex image classification tasks that comprises only experimentally-supported biological building blocks. (1/15)
May 29, 2025 at 12:59 AM
The recent work I presented at Cosyne this year is now out on bioRxiv! Combining bio-plausible credit assignment using (apical) dendrites, realistic E/I cell types, and BTSP-based synaptic plasticity. One small step closer to understanding learning in the brain! Check out the summary here 👇