Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems (SPECS)

The “Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems (SPECS)” group (http://specs-lab.com/) is a multidisciplinary research group interested in understanding the neuronal, psychological and behavioural principles underlying perception, emotion and cognition. 

SPECS mission is to understand mind, brain and behaviour through constructing synthetic perceptive, emotive and cognitive systems.

SPECS’s interdisciplinary research has a long-standing tradition in the domains of computational neuroscience, cognitive science and interactive systems with a focus on neuro-technologies, robotics and AI, combining real word systems such as large-scale interactive systems, robots and virtual reality systems to understand build and repair the brain and the body.

Following a deductive medicine, approach SPECS is investigating a range of brain pathologies where medical interventions are explicit validations of scientific predictions.

The cornerstone of SPECS’s work on the biological principles underlying perception, cognition and behaviour is provided by the Distributed Adaptive Control (DAC) architecture. The DAC architecture is built on a series of neuronal models of learning and problem solving, developed over the last 15 years and constitutes an evolving candidate theory of general intelligence and cognition. DAC has become a standard in the field of artificial intelligence and behavior based robotics. DAC can account for aspects of human cognition that are usually only addressed with top-down symbolic models.

SPECS is also involved in the following activities:

• Master program: Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media at UPF
• Summer school: Barcelona Cognition Brain and Technology
• Conference: LIVING MACHINES conference
• Summer courses:  NEURO-ROBOTICS for children (BIYSC)
• Dissemination: Outreach Activities  Escolab –  Semana Cerebro –  Festa de la Ciencia  – Bojos…

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