Alpha Renner

Dr. Alpha Renner is a researcher at Forschungszentrum Jülich, specifically in the Neuromorphic Software Ecosystems group (PGI-15) within the Peter Grünberg Institute. He leads the Cognitive Localization and Mapping (CLAM) project, which is funded by the Volkswagenstiftung and is part of the Young Excellent Scientist Program (YESP).

Dr. Renner's research sits at the intersection of neuromorphic computing, computational neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. His work investigates navigation and memory formation systems inspired by the entorhinal-hippocampal formation in the brain. The CLAM project aims to develop neuromorphic systems that leverage hyperdimensional computing to create cognitive maps, offering better generalization than current AI approaches that require massive training data. This brain-inspired approach enables more efficient continual learning and transfer learning capabilities.

His research has significant implications for creating sustainable AI technologies that don't rely solely on ever-increasing computational resources. By grounding AI architectures in biologically inspired principles (NeuroAI), the CLAM project provides both a practical testbed for neuroscience theories and a path toward more efficient AI systems that leverage neuromorphic hardware features like massive parallelism, in-memory compute, and event-based processing.

• Volkswagenstiftung Grant for CLAM Project

Dr. Renner mentors PhD student Sven Krauße and Master's student Erdi Kararmaz in his research group. He actively collaborates with external partners including Professor Melika Payvand from the University of Zurich and PostDoc Johannes Leugering from UCSD. He is scheduled to present his research at Science Online+ on January 22, 2026, and welcomes students interested in internships or final projects (minimum 3 months) in neuromorphic navigation research.