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Error installing extension module
by bstrohmer＠gmail.com 13 Jan '23

13 Jan '23

I would like to install a custom neuron model in NEST so I followed the instructions for the nest-extension-module. It is able to build the .so files but it errors during the final install of the project as seen in the below message. Install the project... -- Install configuration: "" -- Installing: /home/bs/git_repos/extension/nest-simulator/result/include/piftestmodule/pif_psc_alpha.h -- Installing: /home/bs/git_repos/extension/nest-simulator/result/lib/nest/piftestmodule.so -- Installing: /home/bs/git_repos/extension/nest-simulator/result/lib/nest/libpiftestmodule.so Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/bs/git_repos/extension/nest-simulator/result/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/__init__.py", line 444 err = AttributeError(f"Cannot set attribute '{attr}' on module 'nest'") I am trying to install one of the example neurons provided first (pif_psc_alpha) so I do not expect that it is an issue within the source files. Thanks for any advice in correcting this issue!

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stdp_dopamine_synapse model
by Behnam Ghazinouri 05 Jan '23

05 Jan '23

Hi all, Happy new year! I have a question about the "stdp_dopamine_synapse" model. In the documentation, they mentioned that they used it as a benchmark the model in [1], based on [2]. In [1], in the section "2.2 Benchmark Network Models", they have C_1 and C_2. They just mentioned these two parameters are constant coefficients. My question is: Does NEST implement these equations? If yes, how can I find the values of C_1 and C_2? (they are not listed under the nest.GetValues() and are not in the table of the documentation). If not, what is the exact model that the NEST implemented for "stdp_dopamine_synapse"? Best regards, Behnam [1] Potjans W, Morrison A, Diesmann M (2010). Enabling functional neural circuit simulations with distributed computing of neuromodulated plasticity. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 4:141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2010.00141 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2010.00141> [2] Izhikevich EM (2007). Solving the distal reward problem through linkage of STDP and dopamine signaling. Cerebral Cortex, 17(10):2443-2452. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhl152 <https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhl152>

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Dec 19 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 19 Dec '22

19 Dec '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday December 19, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-12-19-Open-NEST-Developer-… As I will not be joining today, I delegated chairing the meeting. Looking forward to seeing you again next year! Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst :*) ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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how to customize Ion channels and receptor types of "cm_default" neuron model through nestml
by 王梓瑞 08 Dec '22

08 Dec '22

Dear nest community, I wonder if any of you know how to customize Ion channels and receptor types of "cm_default" neuron model through nestml. I noticed some information on Extending NESTML- Running NESTML with custom templates, but I still found myself confused due to my poor understanding. Is there any way to acquire the .nestml file of the cm_default neuron model? Thank you. Best, Zirui

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Dec 5 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 05 Dec '22

05 Dec '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday December 5, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. Special topic for the in-depth discussion for today are / Hackathon Results / As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-12-05-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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docker questions
by 1538356357＠qq.com 05 Dec '22

05 Dec '22

I use Docker to create a nest environment. The version is v2.16.0 But when I execute the code as follows，vt_dummy = nest.Create("global_volume_transmitter", 1, {'deliver_interval': 10})， , I encounter an error, the error is pynestkernel.NESTError: UnknownModelName in GetDefaults_l: /global_volume_transmitter is not a known model name. Please check the modeldict for a list of available models . but after I use the nest2.16 source code to install, the same code executes successfully. I don't know why

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About Polling Algorithm
by 1538356357＠qq.com 22 Nov '22

22 Nov '22

Dear NEST community： We all know that distributed computing is carried out in Nest, and neurons are distributed to each neuron through polling. However, considering the load balancing and sparsity of communication, this is a NP hard problem. Should we adopt some other methods, such as directed graph segmentation technology. Whether this will be considered in Nest, or whether graph segmentation is helpful in SNN simulation. If you can spare time to reply, thank you very much

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Nov 21 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 21 Nov '22

21 Nov '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday November 21, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. Special topic for the in-depth discussion for today are mechanisms around /Tsodyks-style synapses/ As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-11-21-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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errors when using command"d1_pop.set({"V_m":nest.random.uniform(-80.0, -55.0)})"
by 王梓瑞 15 Nov '22

15 Nov '22

Dear NEST community, Thank you so much for your previous suggestions on writing my own neuron model with NESTML. I constructed a multiple synapses version of simple integrate-and-fire ("iaf_cond_beta_multisynapse") neuron based on the existing "iaf_cond_beta" neuron model. And I did this by simply adding two synaptic channels (AMPA and NMDA) without changing the structure of the neuron model. But when I called this model on NEST to set the initial membrane potentials from a uniform distribution (from 280 to 255 mV), for example:"d1_pop.set({"V_m":nest.random.uniform(-80.0, -55.0)})", an error reporting NESTErrors.TypeMismatch: "TypeMismatch in SLI function SetStatus_id: Expected datatype: doubletype Provided datatype: parametertype" appeared. So I wonder is there any coding errors in my own neuron model, since it worked just fine when I set the initial membrane potentials to a number like -80, and how can I fix this error. Best, Zirui

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Re: weight_recorder with large number of synapses
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 14 Nov '22

14 Nov '22

Hello Alice, Setting repeated recording windows is currently not possible (but maybe create a feature request on Github). What you can do is the following n1 = nest.Create('iaf_psc_delta', params={'I_e': 1000.}) n2 = nest.Create('iaf_psc_delta') wr = nest.Create('weight_recorder', params={'origin': 0., 'start': 0, 'stop': 1000}) nest.CopyModel('stdp_synapse', 'stdp_synapse_rec', {'weight_recorder': wr}) nest.Connect(n1, n2, syn_spec={'synapse_model': 'stdp_synapse_rec', 'weight': 20}) nest.Connect(n2, sr) t_block = 5000 for k in range(10): wr.origin = k * t_block nest.Simulate(t_block) This will simulate in 5s blocks and record weights only during the first 1s of each block. The actual recording windows are given by (origin+start, origin+stop]. You need to do this with Simulate() calls since you need to change the origin parameter; therefore RunManager + run() does not work. You could also record to file if that is an option for your workflow, by setting wr.record_to = 'ascii'. If you want to combine that with a loop, you need to set wr.label to a different value for each loop iteration, otherwise data will be overwritten for each round through the loop. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser From: Alice Geminiani <alice.geminiani(a)polimi.it> Reply to: NEST User Mailing List <users(a)nest-simulator.org> Date: Friday, 11 November 2022 at 18:47 To: "users(a)nest-simulator.org" <users(a)nest-simulator.org> Subject: [NEST Users] weight_recorder with large number of synapses Some people who received this message don't often get email from alice.geminiani(a)polimi.it. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> Dear NEST users, I am trying to record weights from a network with about 1.5 million synapses, for simulations of a 30-minute protocol, and using the weight_recorder causes memory errors. Is there a way to record only in specific time instants of the simulation (e.g. every 5 minutes)? Thanks a lot! Cheers, Alice ---------------------------- Alice Geminiani, PhD PostDoctoral Researcher NeuroEngineering And medical Robotics Laboratory - NEARLab Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering - DEIB Politecnico di Milano Neurocomputational laboratory Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences University of Pavia

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weight_recorder with large number of synapses
by Alice Geminiani 11 Nov '22

11 Nov '22

Dear NEST users, I am trying to record weights from a network with about 1.5 million synapses, for simulations of a 30-minute protocol, and using the weight_recorder causes memory errors. Is there a way to record only in specific time instants of the simulation (e.g. every 5 minutes)? Thanks a lot! Cheers, Alice ---------------------------- Alice Geminiani, PhD PostDoctoral Researcher NeuroEngineering And medical Robotics Laboratory - NEARLab Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering - DEIB Politecnico di Milano Neurocomputational laboratory Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences University of Pavia

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how to construct multiple synapse simple integrate-and-fire model
by 王梓瑞 07 Nov '22

07 Nov '22

Hi, I planned to use simple integrate-and-fire model (iaf_cond_beta) to construct the cortico-striatal network, but then it appeared some issues. Since striatum neurons have multiple synapses (AMPA and NMDA for example), ‘iaf_cond_beta’ seemed not to support multiple synapse input. I searched the whole Model directory and found multiple synapse neuron models like “aeif_cond_beta_multisynapse”, “aeif_cond_alpha_multisynapse” and “aeif_psc_alpha_multisynaps”. So I wondered if there’s a multiple synapse version of simple integrate-and-fire model (iaf_cond_beta), or can I construct a multiple synapse simple integrate-and-fire model through nestml. Thank you Best, Zirui

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Nov 7 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 07 Nov '22

07 Nov '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday November 7, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). (note the changed timezone!) Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. Special topic for the in-depth discussion for today is /Eligibility Propagation/ As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-11-07-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Tips for getting a scaled-down version of the Allen Brain V1 model to work using NEST/Sonata/BMTK?
by Russell Jarvis 27 Oct '22

27 Oct '22

I am just wondering if anyone in the Nest community has any tips for running the Allen Brain V1 model? A lot of the code and Sonata/HDF5 files are hosted on DropBox. model_nest_2.20 - Dropbox <https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w5u31m3hq6u2x5m/AAA1ZQrM-4pgfK5dlRtWYdJNa/GLIF%2…> I have been busy trying to get the model to work with PyGeNN and even Julia. It occurred to me that I should probably start with what has been known to work, ie Nest. Thanks for any advice. Russell. -- Russell Jarvis (he/him) PhD Personal Website <https://russelljjarvis.github.io/home/> *I respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and learn, and pay respect to the First Nations Peoples and their elders, past, present and future.* *phone: *614 <623-404-9322>44576301 *email:* russelljarvis(a)protonmail.com

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Dendritic Arbors at Scale
by Ryan O'Loughlin 26 Oct '22

26 Oct '22

Hello NEST community, I am at the outset of a large project and I would like to start off with the right simulator. Perhaps someone here can advise on the viability of NEST for my particular needs. I will be modeling neuromorphic hardware with some unique design constraints, such as: - A complex dendritic arbor - Dendrite potentials may be coupled with their neighbors - Several dendrites may feed into other dendrites (a several-layer-deep dendritic tree) - The arbor eventually feeds into the soma which has typical LIF behavior, with a membrane potential determined by the sum of all directly connected dendrites - The solution for the leaky-integrator term of dendrites must be drawn from a precalculated lookup table The question here is how best to facilitate these dendritic nuances within NEST? Any counsel on whether it makes sense to pursue modeling such a system in NEST would be highly appreciated. We would like to eventually scale to the maximum number of neurons our hardware/clusters and your simulator can facilitate. Thank you, Ryan

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Problems with Github CI on macOS / Temporary solution
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 25 Oct '22

25 Oct '22

Dear NEST Developers, For the last few days, all CI builds on macOS have failed. This is most likely due to Homebrew now providing libomp 15.0 instead of 14.0, see issue #2515 (https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/issues/2515). I have temporarily disabled OpenMP-dependent tests for the macOS builds (#2516). Please pull current master into all open PRs so that most of the macOS tests can run. Please note that considerable recent improvements in the code base (systematic use of nullptr #2496, of "and" and "or" instead of && and || #2498, removal of "void" arguments, systematic use of "override" and removal of "virtual" where not needed #2493; removal of unused imports #2490 as well as #2479) may lead to some merge conflicts. Please resolve them in the spirit of the new style and consult the listed PRs if in doubt about what is the new style. Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Oct 24 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 24 Oct '22

24 Oct '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday October 24, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. Special topic for the in-depth discussion for today are /Compressed Spikes/ As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-10-24-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Oct 10 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 10 Oct '22

10 Oct '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday October 10, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. Special topic for the in-depth discussion for today is the /NEST implementation of eligibility propagation/. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-10-10-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Assertion error during connection when using CopyModel and own neuron model
by Barna Zajzon 07 Oct '22

07 Oct '22

Dear all, I'm encountering the following error python: /home/zbarni/software/packages/nest/znest/nestkernel/model_manager.h:296: nest::Model* nest::ModelManager::get_node_model(nest::index) const: Assertion `m < node_models_.size()' failed. when using the following code: nest.SetKernelStatus({'total_num_virtual_procs':16, 'local_num_threads':16}) nest.Install('my_neuron_module') for iin range(16): nest.CopyModel('MyNeuron', f'MyNeuron_{i}') neurons = nest.Create('MyNeuron_0', 2) nest.Connect(neurons, neurons) The script uses a neuron model that I wrote in C++ and is loaded without errors. The error is thrown upon nest.Connect(), and goes away if I create the neurons using `MyNeuron` and not `MyNeuron_x` (copied) or if the #vp and #threads is 1. I've used the model with NEST 2.20.0 without problems, but I'd like to port the code to the latest version. Maybe I'm just missing something new functionality/API related to CopyModel and multiprocessing - have there been any critical changes in the model requirements? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Barni

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NEST, CMake, Xcode, Eclipse & Co: the magic -G
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 07 Oct '22

07 Oct '22

Dear NEST Developers, I would like to share some insights I gained over the last few days concerning NEST and IDEs. As you might know, we have some instructions for how to use NEST with IDEs (https://nest-simulator-sg.readthedocs.io/en/latest/developer_space/workflow…), but these instructions are at best complicated and at worst awfully outdated. I now discover the magic -G flag for CMake (https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-generators.7.html), where CMake does all the heavy configuration lifting for you. Proceed as follows: - Create a build directory - Prepare your normal cmake invocation and add - for XCode: -GXcode - for Eclipse: -G"Eclipse CDT4 - Unix Makefiles" - Then open the build directory in XCode or Eclipse For other build systems, run cmake –help and see if your system is listed. Unfortunately, VSCode seems unsupported at the moment. In Xcode, you can then choose the "install" target and run it to build NEST and afterwards the "nest" target to run nest—and it will stop in the debugger if you just set a breakpoint or something goes wrong. There are still a few problems, and if any of you have more experience than me with setting up Xcode or Eclipse problems, we can maybe work it out together: 1. In Eclipse, the project will only include files in the build directory, not the source code. How to fix that? 2. Xcode * Files are ordered a bit strangely (subfolders for headers and non-headers) and "libnestutil" is shown as "nestutil" in the folder list * The "installcheck" target does not work because Xcode runs everything in the conda "base" environment—how to either force a "conda activate nest" before each run or explicitly set PYTHONPATH? * I have not yet found out how to run PyNEST from Xcode, which would also depend on conda activate/Pythonpath setting Once we have a little more experience, I will prepare a PR to update the IDE instructions. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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using mpi4py with nest | parallel write to a file
by Aadhar Sharma 28 Sep '22

28 Sep '22

Hi there! I am using the structural plasticity module to simulate large-scale networks on HPC. The way I run these simulations with MPI creates a large number of small data files (.npy) which I organize into a HDF5 file in a post hoc manner. This has hitherto not been a problem, however, I recently increased the size of my simulations and the number of files that I create exceeds my HPCinode quota. So, I have to come up with a way of handling all these files or the way I export them. Ideally, I would like to concurrently write to a file (like zarr) with multiple processes. However, parallel zarr writes are only optimal when the chunk size are uniform. For me, they are not uniform---so, I abandoned the idea of using zarr. Currently, I am trying to use mpi4py to gather the data I want and save it through a mother MPI process. I ran some test simulations and all was fine (see attached script). However, when I use structural plasticity with mpi4py I get an error that: "nest.lib.hl_api_exceptions.DimensionMismatch: ('DimensionMismatch in SetStatus_id: Expected dimension size: 1\nProvided dimension size: 20', 'DimensionMismatch', <SLILiteral: SetStatus_id>, ': Expected dimension size: 1\nProvided dimension size: 20". I believe that mpi4py somehow interferes with nest's internal mpi mechanism. Perhaps it signals nest kernel to use 1 process rather than the mentioned 20. If I remove the mpi4py import call, all works fine. So, I cannot run the simulation using this mpi4py hack. Do you notice something wrong with my approach? I'm just beginning to use mpi4py, so I may be missing something here. Alternatively, could you recommend a way to reduce the number of exported files. For example, through zarr or other file formats which support parallel writes. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks! pyNEST version: 2.20.2 python version: Python 3.7.10 mpiexec/mpirun version: MPI Library for Linux* OS, Version 2021.3 Best, Ady

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[Precise Spikes]small bug in ./pynest/examples/hpc_benchmark.py (nest-3.3)
by Tianxiang Lyu 26 Sep '22

26 Sep '22

Hi, all! I try to replace "iaf_psc_alpha" with "iaf_psc_alpha_ps" and "poisson_generator" with "poisson_generator_ps" for using precise spikes neuron template in the simulation However, there are somethings wrong with the logs related to SLI with which I hadn't been familiar: (If the randomizing of membrane potentials is removed, hpc_benchmark.py could run as usual) Traceback (most recent call last): File "./hpc_benchmark.py", line 456, in <module> run_simulation() File "./hpc_benchmark.py", line 362, in run_simulation sr = build_network(logger) File "./hpc_benchmark.py", line 227, in build_network nest.GetLocalNodeCollection(E_neurons).V_m = random_vm File "/GPUFS/sysu_hpcedu_302/lvtx/tools/nest-simulator/3.3-intel-2021/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/lib/hl_api_types.py", line 543, in __setattr__ self.set({attr: value}) File "/GPUFS/sysu_hpcedu_302/lvtx/tools/nest-simulator/3.3-intel-2021/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/lib/hl_api_types.py", line 477, in set sli_func('SetStatus', self._datum, params) File "/GPUFS/sysu_hpcedu_302/lvtx/tools/nest-simulator/3.3-intel-2021/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 165, in sli_func sli_run(slifun) # SLI support code to execute s on args File "/GPUFS/sysu_hpcedu_302/lvtx/tools/nest-simulator/3.3-intel-2021/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 115, in catching_sli_run raise exceptionCls(commandname, message) nest.lib.hl_api_exceptions.TypeMismatch: TypeMismatch in SLI function SetStatus_id: Expected datatype: doubletype Provided datatype: parametertype How could I fix that? Or another way to implement randomizing of membrane potentials? Tianxiang Lyu Department of Mechanic Sun Yet-Sen University No. 66, Gongchang Road, Guangming District, Shenzhen, 518107, P. R. China

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Sep 26 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 26 Sep '22

26 Sep '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday September 26, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-09-26-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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How to save and reload an already trained network created with Nest Simulator?
by salvatore.taffara＠phd.unict.it 21 Sep '22

21 Sep '22

Hi, can anyone answer to my question in subject? I am using Nest 3.3. Thanks in advance, Salvo

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which neuron model supports shunting inhibition
by Aadhar Sharma 14 Sep '22

14 Sep '22

Hi all! I want to use investigate the effects of shunting inhibition in one of my experiments. I tried iaf_cond_alpha, but couldn't reproduce the shunting effect. Could someone please suggest which neuron model to use? There should be a way to also change the V_th, V_rest, C_m, tau_m or g_L for this model. I am working with NEST 2.20.2 Best, Ady

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Aug 15 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 12 Sep '22

12 Sep '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday August 15, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-08-15-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Upcoming conference in Computational Neuroscience - Neuromatch 2022
by Alberto Antonietti 30 Aug '22

30 Aug '22

Dear NEST users and developers, I am glad to invite you to the upcoming fifth edition of the Neuromatch Conference (NMC), which will take place online on September 27-28! The scope of NMC 2022 includes computational neuroscience and machine learning work that has a biological link. We are excited to have a slate of excellent speakers and panelists lined up including: - Keynotes from Larry Abbott, Rosa Chan, Ida Momennejad and Mac Shine - Panel on spiking computation: Priya Panda, Katie Schuman, and Peter Suma - Panel on the future of scientific publishing: Tim Behrens, Simine Vazire, and Abeni Wickham - Bridging-the-gap with computational psychiatry: Xiaosi Gu and Quentin Huys Registration costs are set at 15 USD to cover technical costs, and if this is a difficulty, the fee can be waived without questions. **Important dates** September 5, 2022: Abstract submission deadline September 7, 2022: Abstract acceptance and live talk selection news September 22, 2022: Video submission deadline for flashtalks September 27 - 28, 2022: NMC 2022 Each of the two conference days will have two sessions, each of which is 4 hours long. Here are the hours for each of the sessions, as they would occur across five time zones from around the world: Read more at http://conference.neuromatch.io I hope to see many of you there! Best, Alberto

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Spike->Synapse->Update
by lvtx＠mail2.sysu.edu.cn 25 Aug '22

25 Aug '22

I wrote a simple python code(without nest) for a E-I random balanced network with poisson noise stimulus. Then I try to build it on nest. However, the response firing rates are changed.(not a computing error) Is there anything wrong? neurons -> spike synapse -> wait delay post_neurons -> add weight from connected synapses to corresponding input channel neurons -> update ODE each step I figured out that without connections but with poisson noise input, the firing rates of my python code is the same as the code on nest. (Seems that the ODE calculations are the same in my python code and nest) However, the firing rates show differ greatly when I add the connections on both.

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Aug 15 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 15 Aug '22

15 Aug '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday August 15, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-08-15-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Best regards, Hans Ekkehard Plesser ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de<mailto:97938800@vc.dfn.de> - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4 -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Compiling nest-simulator from source
by Daniel Naoumenko 11 Aug '22

11 Aug '22

Hi, I've been trying to compile the latest version on github (c1cebdc) without success. The system is a HPC running RHEL7. Pre-installed software includes gsl-2.7, cmake 3.17.5 and openMPI-1.10.3-gnu, although I have tried variations with similar results. I've created a fresh conda environment with packages necessary for nest and nestml: conda create --name pythonfornestml -c conda-forge boost readline ipython pyqt wxpython cython pip install mpi4py cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/headnode1/dnao/nest-installs/nest3-23.07.2022 \ -Dwith-mpi=ON \ /headnode1/dnao/gitnest/nest-simulator make make fails at 47%. I have uploaded the make output here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FXVsidFLXYvnHk4Tob2zDi4wQJJNW-yw/view?usp=… As well as the output of cmake to show the build configuration: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HWH_KqILEyQYujzd4B1ma4ZrzUXbG231/view?usp=… Thank you in advance for any assistance.

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Fwd: Building nest 3.3
by Mikael Lindahl 05 Aug '22

05 Aug '22

Hi, I am trying to build NEST on debian 11 with cmake 3.16.9 and conda python=3.9. I have attached my installation script asswell as the full logs for make and install steps. ( I run the script with using source to conda activate will play nice) During "make install" I get the following message error -- Set runtime path of "/home/mikael/git/bgmodel/nest/dist/install/nest-simulator-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/nest/pynestkernel.so" to "$ORIGIN/../lib/nest:$ORIGIN/../../lib/nest:$ORIGIN/../../../nest:/home/mikael/opt/anaconda3/envs/nest-3.3/lib" running install_egg_info /home/mikael/opt/anaconda3/envs/nest-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/setuptools/command/install.py:34: SetuptoolsDeprecationWarning: setup.py install is deprecated. Use build and pip and other standards-based tools. warnings.warn( running egg_info creating nest_simulator.egg-info writing nest_simulator.egg-info/PKG-INFO writing dependency_links to nest_simulator.egg-info/dependency_links.txt writing requirements to nest_simulator.egg-info/requires.txt writing top-level names to nest_simulator.egg-info/top_level.txt writing manifest file 'nest_simulator.egg-info/SOURCES.txt' reading manifest file 'nest_simulator.egg-info/SOURCES.txt' writing manifest file 'nest_simulator.egg-info/SOURCES.txt' Copying nest_simulator.egg-info to /home/mikael/git/bgmodel/nest/dist/install/nest-simulator-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/nest_simulator-3.3-py3.9.egg-info Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/mikael/opt/anaconda3/envs/nest-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 477, in get_distribution dist = get_provider(dist) File "/home/mikael/opt/anaconda3/envs/nest-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 353, in get_provider return working_set.find(moduleOrReq) or require(str(moduleOrReq))[0] File "/home/mikael/opt/anaconda3/envs/nest-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 897, in require needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements)) File "/home/mikael/opt/anaconda3/envs/nest-3.3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 783, in resolve raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers) pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'nest-simulator' distribution was not found and is required by the application And for make installcheck i get this error Scanning dependencies of target installcheck Executing NEST's testsuite... make[3]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/build.make:61: CMakeFiles/installcheck] Error 1 make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:524: CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/all] Error 2 make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:531: CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/rule] Error 2 make: *** [Makefile:178: installcheck] Error 2 It took 160 seconds Anyone who knows how to solve this? /Mikael -- Mikael Lindahl Phd Phone: +46735119429 Email: m <lindahlm(a)csc.kth.se>ickelindahl(a)gmail.com

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday Aug 1 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 01 Aug '22

01 Aug '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday August 1, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-08-01-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

How to use the update block in NESTML?
by lea.driessens＠ensea.fr 31 Jul '22

31 Jul '22

Hello, We are trying to plot an exponential synaptic trace in a custom made synapse model made with NESTML, and to do that we are trying to use the print function within the model. But when we try to print something or to change the value of a variable (initialized in the state block) inside the update block, nothing happens. We started with a simple string "Hello", and nothing was printed. We then tried to add 1 to a variable initialized to 0 and its value didn't change. If the print command is written in the onReceive block, it works without problems; as for the variable, its value can be changed in the onReceive block, but if we print its value in the onReceive block and change the value in the update block, we see that the value is not updated from 0. Since we would like to get the value of the synaptic trace to plot its change during simulation, we would need to get the value of the trace not just when a spike is received (there would be no point) but more often. Do you know what we could do? (And why the update block is not working properly?) Best regards, Léa D.

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday July 18 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 18 Jul '22

18 Jul '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday July 18, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-07-18-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

Access weight_recorder data during simulation
by francescojamal.sheiban＠polimi.it 15 Jul '22

15 Jul '22

Dear all, I was wondering if it is possible to access the events collected by a weight_recorder during a simulation: I am able to collect and plot the recorded data once the simulation is over, but I found no information about accessing the device in real-time. Specifically, I would like to know if there is a way to pass the data as input to a custom NESTML synapse model dynamically during a simulation. Best regards, Francesco Sheiban

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Decreased simulation speed using nest v2.20.1 compared to v2.2.2
by Hartmut Schmidt 13 Jul '22

13 Jul '22

Hi, I recently upgraded from nest v2.2.2 to v2.20.1 and experienced a decrease in simulation speed. I tested it using the /brunel_alpha_nest.py/ example script that is available in both versions. For better comparison I set the option /to_file/ in the new version to /False/. Simulating the network for 10s using v2.2.2 I get: 100 %: network time: 9999.0 ms, realtime factor: 0.0672 Simulation finished. Brunel network simulation (Python) Number of neurons : 12500 Number of synapses: 15637600 Exitatory : 12512500 Inhibitory : 3125000 Excitatory rate : 28.84 Hz Inhibitory rate : 28.78 Hz Building time : 5.56 s Simulation time : 149.01 s Using v2.20.1: 100 %: network time: 9999.0 ms, realtime factor: 0.0601 Simulation finished. Brunel network simulation (Python) Number of neurons : 12500 Number of synapses: 15637600 Exitatory : 12512500 Inhibitory : 3125000 Excitatory rate : 28.84 Hz Inhibitory rate : 28.78 Hz Building time : 2.39 s Simulation time : 168.58 s Adding /'total_num_virtual_procs': 48/and running it for 100s on a 48 core node using v2.2.2 I get: Simulation time : 98.49 s Using v2.20.1: Simulation time : 120.08 s Both versions are build with OpenMp support and without mpi. Is this expected or do you have any idea where this behavior comes from? Thank you in advance! Best, Hartmut

1 0

Get MPI time
by 512491013＠qq.com 06 Jul '22

06 Jul '22

Dear all, I used 10 PyNQ nodes to run SNN using mpirun, which is faster than a single node. but I want to know how long each node takes to start MPI and wait for MPI_all_gether to end. Where do I need to print the time in the source code?Or what tools can I use to test MPI communication times?（my nest version is 2.14） Best regards Cong

2 3

NEST mini app?
by itaru.kitayama＠gmail.com 05 Jul '22

05 Jul '22

Hello, I've worked on OpenMP-based offloading of NEST for the past couple of years, but due to the lack of C++ runtime library support on the device, it's no success. If someone in this NEST developer community happens to have a validated minimal NEST code written in C++ with OpenMP, could you share it with me so I can extend it to be offloadable one? Thanks, Itaru.

2 1

Problem with "import nest"
by Xavier Otazu Porter 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Hello, I have instaled NEST 3.3 (on a Rocky Linux 8.5) from source. After entering python and executing "import nest" I receive the following error. It looks like cannot load some neuron models. I tried to install last git version, but problem persist. Please, some idea? Thanks a lot in advance Xavier python: /home/neurobit/src/nest-simulator/nestkernel/model_manager.h:321: size_t nest::ModelManager::get_num_connection_models() const: Assertion `connection_models_[ 0 ].size() <= invalid_synindex' failed. [dcccluster:979935] *** Process received signal *** [dcccluster:979935] Signal: Aborted (6) [dcccluster:979935] Signal code: (-6) [dcccluster:979935] [ 0] /usr/lib64/libpthread.so.0(+0x12c20)[0x7f8c3a3cdc20] [dcccluster:979935] [ 1] /usr/lib64/libc.so.6(gsignal+0x10f)[0x7f8c398a337f] [dcccluster:979935] [ 2] /usr/lib64/libc.so.6(abort+0x127)[0x7f8c3988ddb5] [dcccluster:979935] [ 3] /usr/lib64/libc.so.6(+0x21c89)[0x7f8c3988dc89] [dcccluster:979935] [ 4] /usr/lib64/libc.so.6(+0x2fa76)[0x7f8c3989ba76] [dcccluster:979935] [ 5] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libnestkernel.so.3(+0x1aad22)[0x7f8c2a878d22] [dcccluster:979935] [ 6] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libnestkernel.so.3(_ZN4nest12ModelManager26register_connection_model_EPNS_14ConnectorModelE+0x32d)[0x7f8c2a80f07d] [dcccluster:979935] [ 7] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libmodels.so.3(_ZN4nest12ModelManager25register_connection_modelINS_24vogels_sprekeler_synapseEEEvRKNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEEENS_28RegisterConnectionModelFlagsE+0x171)[0x7f8c2b04d071] [dcccluster:979935] [ 8] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libmodels.so.3(_ZN4nest12ModelsModule4initEP14SLIInterpreter+0x2c14)[0x7f8c2afa0404] [dcccluster:979935] [ 9] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libsli.so.3(_ZN9SLIModule7installERSoP14SLIInterpreter+0x59)[0x7f8c29a22369] [dcccluster:979935] [10] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libsli.so.3(_ZN14SLIInterpreter9addmoduleEP9SLIModule+0x44)[0x7f8c299c29f4] [dcccluster:979935] [11] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../nest/libnest.so.3(_Z11neststartupPiPPPcR14SLIInterpreterNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEEE+0x13cc)[0x7f8c2b6d37ec] [dcccluster:979935] [12] /home/neurobit/local/nest_3.3/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/nest/pynestkernel.so(+0x42475)[0x7f8c2b920475] [dcccluster:979935] [13] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(+0x1d8faf)[0x7f8c3a9dcfaf] [dcccluster:979935] [14] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x976)[0x7f8c3a9e5406] [dcccluster:979935] [15] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x1bf)[0x7f8c3a9a37af] [dcccluster:979935] [16] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x5da)[0x7f8c3a9e506a] [dcccluster:979935] [17] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalCodeWithName+0x3e7)[0x7f8c3a9a23c7] [dcccluster:979935] [18] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(PyEval_EvalCode+0x23)[0x7f8c3a9a35a3] [dcccluster:979935] [19] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(+0x25114b)[0x7f8c3aa5514b] [dcccluster:979935] [20] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(+0x1667e0)[0x7f8c3a96a7e0] [dcccluster:979935] [21] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(PyVectorcall_Call+0x70)[0x7f8c3a96f390] [dcccluster:979935] [22] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x68d9)[0x7f8c3a9eb369] [dcccluster:979935] [23] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalCodeWithName+0x3e7)[0x7f8c3a9a23c7] [dcccluster:979935] [24] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x422)[0x7f8c3a9a3a12] [dcccluster:979935] [25] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x54d9)[0x7f8c3a9e9f69] [dcccluster:979935] [26] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x1bf)[0x7f8c3a9a37af] [dcccluster:979935] [27] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x976)[0x7f8c3a9e5406] [dcccluster:979935] [28] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x1bf)[0x7f8c3a9a37af] [dcccluster:979935] [29] /usr/lib64/libpython3.8.so.1.0(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x5da)[0x7f8c3a9e506a] [dcccluster:979935] *** End of error message *** Aborted (`core' generado) Computer Vision Center<http://www.cvc.uab.cat> CONFIDENTIALITY WARNING<http://www.cvc.uab.es/?page_id=7475>

3 2

Problem with NEST 3.3 installation
by Petia Koprinkova 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Hi,Could you help us with NEST 3.3. installation? The final (check) state give the following error: Executing NEST's testsuite... CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/build.make:70: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/installcheck' failed make[3]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck] Error 1 CMakeFiles/Makefile2:446: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/all' failed make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/all] Error 2 CMakeFiles/Makefile2:453: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/rule' failed make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/installcheck.dir/rule] Error 2 Makefile:179: recipe for target 'installcheck' failed make: *** [installcheck] Error 2 We have Ubuntu desctop with installed NEST 2.18 and it works. But for some reason NEST 3.3. failed. Best regards,Petia Koprinkova-Hristova

4 11

Invalid SpikeEvent variables - e.get_sender_node_id()
by Barna Zajzon 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Dear NEST community, I was wondering if there have been some changes from NEST 2.x -> 3.x regarding how the SpikeEvent variables are set and their availability in the handle(SpikeEvent& e) function. With 2.20.0, I could access the sender ID from inside the handle() function. With the current master branch, however, this is not possible anymore (or likely I'm doing it wrong). The following one-line addition to the iaf_cond_exp model (the exact model doesn't really matter): void nest::iaf_cond_exp::handle( SpikeEvent& e ) { assert( e.get_delay_steps() > 0 ); std::cout << "iaf_cond_exp >> e.get_sender_node_id(): " << e.get_sender_node_id() << std::endl << std::flush; if ( e.get_weight() > 0.0 ) ... fails with: python: /home/zbarni/software/packages/nest/znest/nestkernel/event.h:1336: nest::index nest::Event::get_sender_node_id() const: Assertion `sender_node_id_ > 0' failed. Furthermore, the SpikeEvent seems invalid (?), as the e.is_valid() call returns a 0. Is this the expected behavior, and if so, are there any alternatives to access the ID of the sender node in the handle() function? Thank you, Barna -- Barna Zajzon PhD Candidate Computation in Neural Circuits Group Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) JARA Institute Brain Structure-Function Relationships (INM-10) Jülich Research Centre and JARA 52425 Jülich, Germany http://www.fz-juelich.de/inm/inm-6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neugierige sind herzlich willkommen am Sonntag, den 21. August 2022, von 10:00 bis 17:00 Uhr. Mehr unter: https://www.tagderneugier.de

2 1

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday July 4 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday July 4, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-07-04-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

Reminder: Free online CNS*2022 satellite tutorials: June 27--July 1
by Ankur Sinha 23 Jun '22

23 Jun '22

Dear all, Apologies for the cross-posts. A final reminder of next week's CNS*2022 free online satellite tutorials (from June 27--July 1): https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/pages/software-wg-satellite-tutorials-at-… Free registration remains open at: https://framaforms.org/incfocns-software-wg-cns2022-satellite-tutorials-reg… To prevent spam/zoom crashing, links to zoom meetings for the tutorial sessions will be limited to registrants only. Therefore, while registration is free, it is required. The satellite tutorials feature sessions on: - Arbor - Brian2 - Introduction to containers - EBRAINS - GeNN - Keras/TensorFlow - LFPy - MOOSE - Neo + Elephant - NEST - NetPyNE - neurolib - NeuroML - NEURON - OSBv2 - RateML Please spread the word, and we look forward to seeing you there. -- Thanks, Regards, Ankur Sinha (He / Him / His) | https://ankursinha.in Research Fellow at the Silver Lab, University College London | http://silverlab.org/ Free/Open source community volunteer at the NeuroFedora project | https://neuro.fedoraproject.org Time zone: Europe/London

1 0

Compartment neuron model - which NEST version?
by Petia Koprinkova 23 Jun '22

23 Jun '22

Hi, Could you tell me which version of NEST supports compartment neuron model?We have installed 2.18 but cm_default is not included. Regards,Petia Koprinkova-Hristova

2 2

Acceleration problem-data transmission
by 叶钧超 20 Jun '22

20 Jun '22

Dear all, Recently, I used software and hardware to accelerate the SNN network based on IZHIKEVICH model on the nest platform. The first step of acceleration is to transport the corresponding neurons to the designated storage place, and then use hardware acceleration. The results show that the hardware acceleration is very effective, but it will lead to extra handling time and high overhead.In order to solve this problem,  I want to know some parameters that change during simulation in which source file is the value of this assigned? Such as: b_ Spikes_ Get_ Value (lag); Best wishes, Chao yjchao1110 yjchao1110(a)qq.com  

2 1

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday June 20 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 20 Jun '22

20 Jun '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday June 20, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-06-20-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

How to implement double-exponential functions for synapses in C++
by Ravichandran-Schmidt, Pirathitha (SRH Hochschule Heidelberg) 15 Jun '22

15 Jun '22

Dear NEST Community, is there a good way to implement a double-exponential function for synapses in C++ within a nest module? [cid:image001.jpg@01D87B3E.2D9BE590] As I need to implement my own neuron model in C++, I adapted the code from extraction the information from other neuron models (for example: iaf _cond_beta.cpp) and used the following lines f[S::DG_EXC] = -y[ S::DG_EXC ] / node.P_.tau_synAMPA_on; f[S::G_EXC ] = y[ S::DG_EXC ] - y[ S::G_EXC ] / node.P_.tau_synAMPA_off At first, it seemed to work pretty good. But when I swap the values for rise und decay time, the evolution of g_ADP did not change at all (for example: rise_time = 1ms, decay_time = 100ms). I would be happy to get any feedback on it. Thanks, Pira

3 3

About the Izhikevich model
by jcye 10 Jun '22

10 Jun '22

Dear NEST Community, When I use NEST, I find that Izhikevich model has no refractory period. Whether there is a specific reason for this setting or whether the model itself does not have this refractory period? After all, according to my understanding, all neurons in biology have the characteristics of refractory period. I would be happy to get any feedback on it. Thanks, Chao.

3 3

回复：Re: About the Izhikevich model
by jcye 10 Jun '22

10 Jun '22

Dear Professor Hans Ekkehard， Thank you for your answer, which gives me a deeper understanding of Izhikevich model. There is a delay when firing a spike between neurons. If there is an refractory period, can I think that only one spike will be sent in this delay interval. Best wishes, Chao. ------------------ 原始邮件 ------------------ 发件人: "NEST User Mailing List" <hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no>gt;; 发送时间: 2022年6月10日(星期五) 下午4:57 收件人: "NEST User Mailing List"<users(a)nest-simulator.org>gt;; 主题: [NEST Users] Re: About the Izhikevich model   Hi Chao,   In real neurons, the refractory period arises from a combination of biophysical mechanisms. After firing an action potential, the cell needs to recover before it can fire another one. In simplified neuron models, such as most integrate-and-fire models, which do not include these recovery mechanisms, one usually adds an explicit refractory period to capture the effect of the biophysical recovery mechanisms in a mathematically or computationally simple way.   But if a neuron model includes (slow) recovery variables that will prevent it from spiking for some period after firing a spike, adding an explicit refractory period may not be required. Izhikevich decided that this was the case for his model, and thus there is no explicit refractory period that could be set as a parameter. The neuron model has its refractoriness simply "built in", with details depending on the parameters.   Best regards, Hans Ekkehard   --   Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science   Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway   Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser       On 10/06/2022, 09:31, "jcye" <jc.ye(a)foxmail.com> wrote:   Some people who received this message don't often get email from jc.ye(a)foxmail.com. Learn why this is important   Dear NEST Community,   When I use NEST, I find that Izhikevich model has no refractory period. Whether there is a specific reason for this setting or whether the model itself does not have this refractory period? After all, according to my understanding, all neurons in biology have the characteristics of refractory period. I would be happy to get any feedback on it. Thanks, Chao.

1 0

Free registration is now open for CNS*2022 satellite tutorials: June 27--July 1
by Ankur Sinha 08 Jun '22

08 Jun '22

Dear all, Apologies for the cross-posts. The INCF/OCNS Software Working Group is happy to announce that the schedule for the CNS*2022 satellite tutorials from June 27--July 1 has now been published here: https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/pages/software-wg-satellite-tutorials-at-… Free registration is also now open at: https://framaforms.org/incfocns-software-wg-cns2022-satellite-tutorials-reg… To prevent spam/zoom crashing, links to zoom meetings for the tutorial sessions will be limited to registrants only. Therefore, while registration is free, it is required. The satellite tutorials feature sessions on: - Arbor - Brian2 - Introduction to containers - EBRAINS - GeNN - Keras/TensorFlow - LFPy - MOOSE - Neo + Elephant - NEST - NetPyNE - NeuroLib - NeuroML - NEURON - OSBv2 - RateML Please spread the word, and we look forward to seeing you there! -- Thanks, Regards, Ankur Sinha (He / Him / His) | https://ankursinha.in Research Fellow at the Silver Lab, University College London | http://silverlab.org/ Free/Open source community volunteer at the NeuroFedora project | https://neuro.fedoraproject.org Time zone: Europe/London

1 0

No NEST Developer Video Conference (Pentecost)
by Dennis Terhorst 06 Jun '22

06 Jun '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! Due to the Pentecost holidays in many countries following the Gregorian calendar we skip today's meeting. Our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference will be in two weeks on Monday June 20, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Best, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

Nest dry_run
by 512491013＠qq.com 03 Jun '22

03 Jun '22

Dear all, In the paper“The NEST Dry-Run Mode: Efficient Dynamic Analysis of Neuronal Network Simulation Code”(2017), I found an article about the description of NEST Dry-run Mode, which I am very interested in. However, I don't seem to find relevant information about how to use dry-run in the document. May I ask if there are any relevant examples of using dry-run? best, Cong

1 0

Re: Nest 3.3
by Steffen Graber 01 Jun '22

01 Jun '22

1 1

I can not install Nest 3.3 simulator in Ubuntu 18.04
by salvatore.taffara＠phd.unict.it 01 Jun '22

01 Jun '22

Hi to the community, In order to install Nest 3.3 in Ubuntu 18.04 WITHOUTH the Docker, I followed two ways: 1) I downloaded the source zip file from "https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/tags", then I followed the guide in "https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.3/installation/linux_install.ht…", in particular the "Installation from source without a virtual Python environment" version. What I obtain is an error in the terminal: salvo@salvo-Aspire-GX-781:~/Downloads/nest-simulator-3.3-build$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/home/nest /home/salvo/Downloads/nest-simulator-3.3-build/ -- Host triple: x86_64-pc-linux -- Target triple: x86_64-pc-linux CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:230 (message): Could NOT find Python (missing: Python_INCLUDE_DIRS Python_LIBRARIES Development Development.Module Development.Embed) (found suitable version "3.8.13", minimum required is "3.8") Call Stack (most recent call first): /usr/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:594 (_FPHSA_FAILURE_MESSAGE) /usr/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindPython/Support.cmake:3192 (find_package_handle_standard_args) /usr/share/cmake-3.23/Modules/FindPython.cmake:519 (include) cmake/ProcessOptions.cmake:367 (find_package) CMakeLists.txt:129 (nest_process_with_python) -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! See also "/home/salvo/Downloads/nest-simulator-3.3-build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log". See also "/home/salvo/Downloads/nest-simulator-3.3-build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log". salvo@salvo-Aspire-GX-781:~/Downloads/nest-simulator-3.3-build$ 2) I also tried to force the following Ubuntu commands to obtain, from the ppa repository, the Nest version that I need (this is the ppa nest site: https://launchpad.net/~nest-simulator/+archive/ubuntu/nest): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nest-simulator/nest sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install nest=3.2-0~202202100714~ubuntu18.04.1 But is seems that the only package that is downloaded from this ppa is nest 2.20, in particular: 2.20.1-0~202103121402~ubuntu18.04.1. What can I do to install Nest 3.3 in my Ubuntu 18.04? Best, Salvo

2 1

CNS*2022 satellite tutorials: free online sessions: June 27--July 1
by Ankur Sinha 31 May '22

31 May '22

Dear all, Apologies for the cross posts. https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/pages/software-wg-satellite-tutorials-at-… The INCF/OCNS Software working group is organising 5 days of free online satellite tutorials ahead of the CNS*2022 conference. These tutorials will run from June 27--July 1 and feature sessions on: - Arbor - Brian2 - Introduction to containers - EBRAINS - GeNN - Keras/TensorFlow - LFPy - MOOSE - Neo + Elephant - NEST - NetPyNE - NeuroLib - NeuroML - NEURON - OSBv2 - RateML More information on the schedule and (free) registration will be published in the next week or so. Please do mark your calendars and spread to word to your colleagues, students, and anyone else who these may interest. For more information on the INCF/OCNS Software working group and how you can join our community, please visit our website: https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/ -- Thanks, Regards, Ankur Sinha (He / Him / His) | https://ankursinha.in Research Fellow at the Silver Lab, University College London | http://silverlab.org/ Free/Open source community volunteer at the NeuroFedora project | https://neuro.fedoraproject.org Time zone: Europe/London

1 0

Integration between ROS node and NEST
by salvatore.taffara＠phd.unict.it 30 May '22

30 May '22

Dear Nest community, I should import numerical data (not spiking data) obtained from a dynamic simulator called CoppeliaSim (ex VRep) into a Nest script. To do this I thought of using a ROS subscriber node that receives the data using a topic. I ask you, how do I interface Nest with Ros in order to import the data? Greetings, Except

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Test NEST performance
by 512491013＠qq.com 30 May '22

30 May '22

Dear all, Recently, I've been trying to test NEST's performance(with and without MPI). But with PyNEST, it's hard to do more detailed testing with tools like Gprof. Only some print-time and memory methods can be inserted into the C++ source code for testing. Is there a C++ front-end interface that can call NEST C++ source code for testing? Of course, I used some of Python's performance testing tools, but only to the interface, not C++ in action. I'd appreciate any tips on how to test NEST's performance! Cong

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday May 23 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 22 May '22

22 May '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, tomorrow Monday May 23, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also if it's just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-05-23-Open-NEST-Developer-… Since I will not be available for the meeting, Hans Ekkehard Plesser has kindly agreed to chair the meeting. Looking forward to seeing you again soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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NEST Conference 2022 - Extension of abstract submission deadline
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 10 May '22

10 May '22

Dear all, The abstract submission deadline for the (virtual) NEST Conference 2022 has been extended to Wednesday, 25 May. We are looking forward to your contributions! The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. This year's conference will again take place as a virtual conference on Thursday/Friday 23/24 June 2022. We are inviting contributions to the conference, including talks, "posters" and workshops on specific topics. Important dates 25 May 2022 — Deadline for submission of contributions 03 June 2022 — Notification of acceptance 17 June 2022 — Registration deadline 23 June 2022 — NEST Conference 2022 starts For more information on how to submit your contribution, register and participate, please visit the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser and the conference organizing committee -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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NEST Conference 2022 - Extension of abstract submission deadline
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 10 May '22

10 May '22

Dear all, The abstract submission deadline for the (virtual) NEST Conference 2022 has been extended to Wednesday, 25 May. We are looking forward to your contributions! The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. This year's conference will again take place as a virtual conference on Thursday/Friday 23/24 June 2022. We are inviting contributions to the conference, including talks, "posters" and workshops on specific topics. Important dates 25 May 2022 — Deadline for submission of contributions 03 June 2022 — Notification of acceptance 17 June 2022 — Registration deadline 23 June 2022 — NEST Conference 2022 starts For more information on how to submit your contribution, register and participate, please visit the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser and the conference organizing committee -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Job opportunity
by Elena Pastorelli 09 May '22

09 May '22

Dear NEST developers, I would like to share with you a job opportunity that could be of interest for the community. APE Lab (Rome, Italy) is looking for a motivated and enthusiast candidate for activities aimed at system software development and application porting on advanced HPC platforms, in the framework of the RED-SEA <https://jobs.dsi.infn.it/borseassegni/pdf/getfile.php?filename=24338.pdf> project. Application submission details <https://jobs.dsi.infn.it/borseassegni/pdf/getfile.php?filename=24338.pdf> here (English version in the second part of the document), deadline: 20/05/2022 APE Lab is a INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physic) initiative started in 1984 with the goal of connecting theoretical physics and technology through the development of custom distributed and parallel computing systems. Since then, APE Lab has generated unique know-how, enabling cutting-edge research in HPC (High Performance Computing) with leading roles in the HPC community. APE Lab has participated in several EU-funded projects, the last of which being RED-SEA. The RED-SEA project prepares a new-generation European Network Interconnect, capable of powering the EU Exascale systems to come, leveraging efficient European interconnect technology (BXI) associated with a standard and mature technology (Ethernet), in full coordination with other EU-funded initiatives. The INFN task in RED-SEA is two-fold: 1. to design and implement the network interface card (APEnetX) based on PCIe interface to communicate with CPU and GPU accelerators, and prototyped exploiting Xilinx Alveo FPGAs. 2. to support the co-design approach for network design activities focusing in particular on NEST application as a benchmark. Job Details Task: contribution to development of scalable network simulator based on Omnet++ framework as well as to the Linux Kernel Driver of the Network Interface Card. Requirements: 24 months of demonstrated experience in software development and knowledge/development of linux kernel driver. Knowledge of simulator architectures, coding and use of MPI framework would be an advantage. Best, Elena Pastorelli -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday May 9 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 09 May '22

09 May '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday May 9, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-05-09-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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NEST Conference 2022 — Abstract submission deadline Wednesday 11 May
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 04 May '22

04 May '22

Dear Colleagues, I would like to remind you that the deadline for abstract submission to the virtual NEST Conference 2022 is approaching fast: You have until next Wednesday, 11 May 2022, to submit your contribution (talk, "poster", or workshop) via the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference. The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. We explicitly encourage young scientists to participate in the conference! This year's conference will again take place as a virtual conference on Thursday/Friday 23/24 June 2022. Important dates 11 May 2022 - Deadline for submission of contributions 03 June 2022 - Notification of acceptance 17 June 2022 - Registration deadline 23 June 2022 - NEST Conference 2022 starts We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser and the conference organizing committee -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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problems with step_current_generator parallelization
by Jan Střeleček 28 Apr '22

28 Apr '22

Dear NEST developers, In our group, we're working on a model of the primary visual cortex and use step_current_source generators to simulate the input current of the LGN neurons. We noticed that the simulation time of our model was very sensitive to the number of step_current_sources. When trying to narrow down the cause, we found out that this might be due to an issue with the parallelization of the step_current_source_generators. The resulting simple system in which the problem can be observed is attached below, simple_example.py. It essentially creates NSstep_current_generators and injects them into NLneurons with fixed indegree. The iaf_cond_exp neuron model is used here. The increment in the number of step_current sources does not benefit from a multithreading performance boost as one would expect. This is compared to the performance boost for the number of neurons; see the technical details below. Our estimated guess is that the difference between 1 and 32 threads is 10 to 20 times slower than the parallelization suggests. Technical details: The relative slowdown due to the parallelization of step_current_sources was measured using linear regression over simulation time = a NL + b NS. See slowdown_example.png. The ratio b/a was then calculated. This ratio was then measured in dependence on the number of threads. A bigger difference between the ratio for 1 thread and 32 threads means a greater problem in parallelization in step_current_generators. Some additional results: - interval_dependence.png - the slowdown does not depend on amplitude_times in the step_current_source function - indegree_dependence.png - the slowdown depends on the indegree of nest.Connect(source, neurons). Specifically, the slowdown is worse for low indegree values. This shows the slowdown depends on the number of step_current_sources created, not on the injections themselves. Are you aware of some lack of parallelization of the step_current_source or current the injection itself? If so, are there any plans for improving it? best regards, Jan Střeleček

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Tsodyks model, examples, burst generation
by Dennis Terhorst 28 Apr '22

28 Apr '22

Dear all, in the past weeks there was some on- and off-list discussion around the Tsodyks models and examples in NEST and I want to put some files out here that might be interesting for more people. Around 2019 we were trying to port some old scripts to more recent versions of NEST and did some basic plots. There are descriptions and PyNEST examples available in the docs Model Directory [1, 2, 3], and the example Notebook in the docs runs with NEST 3.x. Additionally the short-term burst behavior can be reproduced with the attached scripts (taken from the pre-3.x repository and updated to 3.x syntax, still a bit untidy), but to my knowledge this was not yet transferred into a PyNEST version. There has also been some discussion on the mailing list some time ago [4], but I couldn't find any results that have surfaced on the list here, though I know of some work going on in this direction in different groups. It would be interesting to hear about your perspective and see where we can combine experience! best, Dennis [1]: https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.3/models/index.html#short-term-… [2]: https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.3/models/tsodyks_synapse.html [3]: https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.3/models/tsodyks2_synapse.html [4]: https://nest-simulator.org/mailinglist/hyperkitty/list/users@nest-simulator… -- Dipl.-Phys. Dennis Terhorst Coordinator Software Development Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) Computational and Systems Neuroscience & Theoretical Neuroscience, Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Jülich Research Centre, Member of the Helmholz Association and JARA 52425 Jülich, Germany Building 15.22 Room 4004 Phone +49 2461 61-85062 Fax +49 2461 61- 9460 d.terhorst(a)fz-juelich.de

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Any objections to renaming hh_cond_*_traub models?
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 25 Apr '22

25 Apr '22

Dear NEST Users, As discussed a long time ago (see towards the end of the discussion in https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/issues/329), the hh_cond_exp_traub model included in NEST is far from the model by Traub and Miles (1991) which inspired it. The model in NEST was implemented as part of the work on the Brette et al (2007) review paper. I am considering to create a pull request that will 1. rename the models to hh_brette_2007* in keeping with NEST naming guidelines for paper-specific models 2. change the threshold parameter V_T to be the actual threshold for spike emission (currently the criterium is V_m >= V_T + 30 and falling V_m) I was therefore wondering if anyone of you 1. uses the hh_cond_* models at all 2. would object to those changes? Depending on whether the models are being used or not, I'd either implement the renaming via deprecation or directly. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday April 25 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2)
by Dennis Terhorst 25 Apr '22

25 Apr '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday April 25, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Special feature today will be a discussion of the available, but maybe not so widely known astrocyte model implementation in NEST. Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion * Astrocyte models in NEST The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-04-25-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Developer info: calibrate() is now called pre_run_hook()
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 21 Apr '22

21 Apr '22

Dear NEST Developers! If you are just using NEST, you can ignore this message. If you are coding models at the C++ level, I just want to share this information to reduce the risk of confusion: The good old calibrate() method found in all neuron models has now been renamed to pre_run_hook(), see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/pull/2336. Thanks to Pooja for implementing this. I'd suggest that you merge the master branch into any open development branches to bring them up to date on this change. Best, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Re: Kernel death when recording from 300+ cells for 2mins+
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 19 Apr '22

19 Apr '22

Hello Rachael, Could you post a minimal script or Jupyter notebook reproducing the problem? Does the problem only occur on the Neurorobotics platform or can you reproduce it locally on your computer as well? Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser On 13/04/2022, 13:20, "Rachael Stentiford" <rachael.stentiford(a)brl.ac.uk<mailto:rachael.stentiford@brl.ac.uk>> wrote: Some people who received this message don't often get email from rachael.stentiford(a)brl.ac.uk. Learn why this is important<http://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> Apologies for so many emails. Looks like i jumped the gun a little and i am still having this issue. So if anyone does have any ideas, I would welcome the help. Cheers, Rachael ________________________________ From: Rachael Stentiford <rachael.stentiford(a)brl.ac.uk> Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2022 11:46 AM To: users(a)nest-simulator.org <users(a)nest-simulator.org> Subject: Re: Kernel death when recording from 300+ cells for 2mins+ Looks like i have solved this issue now. For those interested in the solution, i have switched from using the efficient method for splitting a simulation into multiple intervals described in the docs, which has the clean up functions outside of the loop, to just using nest.Simulate() in the loop so the clean up functions are called each time. Cheers, Rachael ________________________________ From: Rachael Stentiford <rachael.stentiford(a)brl.ac.uk> Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 6:32 PM To: users(a)nest-simulator.org <users(a)nest-simulator.org> Subject: [NEST Users] Kernel death when recording from 300+ cells for 2mins+ Dear all, I hope you are doing well. I am having an issue using pyNEST which i haven't come across before and have been unable to find answer to elsewhere. I am working with Python 3.8 and Nest 2.18 (which is the version currently used by the Neurorobotics platform). I have a network of 6 x 360 neurons, and i am trying to record spikes from 360 of these. However, I am finding that if i try to simulate for more than ~2 mins i run into problems. In jupyter notebooks I get a kernel death error, but even just running a standard python script NEST dies. I can simulate for longer if i only record from a single neuron. Previously I have used networks of 4 x 180 neurons and recorded from 180 for 10+ minutes without an issue. I have tried splitting up the simulation into multiple intervals, as explained in the docs, and saving spikes in between. This would mean there are fewer spikes to save each time, but this doesn't appear to help. Ideally i would like to record from 360 cells for around 30 mins. Have any of you come across a similar issue in the past, or have any suggestions for how I could fix this issue? Thanks for your help! Rachael ------------------------- Dr Rachael Stentiford (she/her) Research Associate in Neurobotics Bristol Robotics Laboratory University of the West of England Bristol BS16 1QY

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Kernel death when recording from 300+ cells for 2mins+
by Rachael Stentiford 13 Apr '22

13 Apr '22

Dear all, I hope you are doing well. I am having an issue using pyNEST which i haven't come across before and have been unable to find answer to elsewhere. I am working with Python 3.8 and Nest 2.18 (which is the version currently used by the Neurorobotics platform). I have a network of 6 x 360 neurons, and i am trying to record spikes from 360 of these. However, I am finding that if i try to simulate for more than ~2 mins i run into problems. In jupyter notebooks I get a kernel death error, but even just running a standard python script NEST dies. I can simulate for longer if i only record from a single neuron. Previously I have used networks of 4 x 180 neurons and recorded from 180 for 10+ minutes without an issue. I have tried splitting up the simulation into multiple intervals, as explained in the docs, and saving spikes in between. This would mean there are fewer spikes to save each time, but this doesn't appear to help. Ideally i would like to record from 360 cells for around 30 mins. Have any of you come across a similar issue in the past, or have any suggestions for how I could fix this issue? Thanks for your help! Rachael ------------------------- Dr Rachael Stentiford (she/her) Research Associate in Neurobotics Bristol Robotics Laboratory University of the West of England Bristol BS16 1QY

1 2

Nest 3.0 conda installation issue using source code
by Maryada Maryada 13 Apr '22

13 Apr '22

Dear NEST users, After trying multiple ideas, I am still facing the issue where my installation is successful with an error message: -- Configuring done CMake Warning at cmake/UseCython.cmake:100 (add_library): Cannot generate a safe runtime search path for target pynestkernel because files in some directories may conflict with libraries in implicit directories: runtime library [libgomp.so.1] in /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/9 may be hidden by files in: /home/<user>/miniconda3/envs/nestConda/lib Some of these libraries may not be found correctly. Call Stack (most recent call first): cmake/UseCython.cmake:283 (python_add_module) pynest/CMakeLists.txt:28 (cython_add_module) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This leads to the failure of multiple tests. The summary of the tests and logs for the failed tests is attached. I must mention that I tested the installation by creating a neuron and it works fine. It would be nice to get rid of the error, please see error_msg file to see where it fails. -- Thanks and Regards *Maryada*

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday April 11 11:30 CEST (UTC+2 !!!)
by Jessica Mitchell 11 Apr '22

11 Apr '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday April 11, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-04-11-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Jessica Mitchell Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Volker Rieke Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neugierige sind herzlich willkommen am Sonntag, den 21. August 2022, von 10:00 bis 17:00 Uhr. Mehr unter: https://www.tagderneugier.de

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NEST Conference 2022 - call for contributions is open
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 07 Apr '22

07 Apr '22

Dear Colleagues, The NEST Initiative is excited to invite everyone interested in Neural Simulation Technology and the NEST Simulator to the NEST Conference 2022. The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. We explicitly encourage young scientists to participate in the conference! This year's conference will again take place as a virtual conference on Thursday/Friday 23/24 June 2022. Submission of contributions is now open! We are inviting contributions to the conference, including talks, "posters" and workshops on specific topics. Please register and submit your contribution(s) via the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference. Important dates 30 April 2022 - Deadline for NEST Initiative membership applications eligible for fee reduction 11 May 2022 - Deadline for submission of contributions 03 June 2022 - Notification of acceptance 17 June 2022 - Registration deadline 23 June 2022 - NEST Conference 2022 starts We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser and the conference organizing committee -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Reproducing "Synchrony generation in recurrent networks with frequency-dependent synapses"
by Sebastian Schmitt 07 Apr '22

07 Apr '22

Dear NEST users! I've found an implementation of "Synchrony generation in recurrent networks with frequency-dependent synapses" Tsodyks, Uziel, Markram 2000 in https://github.com/uahic/Nest_2_10_release/blob/d3a7b0b8105622b40ef87d8a5ba… but it's missing in the latest versions of NEST. Is there a comparable implementation in a recent NEST release? Preferably in Python? Thanks in advance, Sebastian

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Position as NEST Developer at NMBU / Deadline 26 April 2022
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 05 Apr '22

05 Apr '22

Dear colleagues, We are looking for a new NEST developer to join the NEST team at NMBU in Ås, Norway, as head engineer or senior engineer. The position is funded by the Human Brain Project, available immediately and limited to 30 September 2023. Application deadline is 26 April 2023. For details, please see https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/224028/head-engineer-senior-… or get in touch with me. Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday March 28 2022 11:30 CEST (UTC+2 !!!)
by Dennis Terhorst 28 Mar '22

28 Mar '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday March 14, 11.30-12.30 CEST (UTC+2). /Note/ that we changed to daylight savings time (aka "summer time") and are now UTC+2. Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion * Inclusion of NEST-GPU by Golosio et al. The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-03-28-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Creating a new NodeCollection from Mask or by global_ids
by Kempter, Miriam 22 Mar '22

22 Mar '22

Dear Nest Team, working with Python 3.8 and Nest 3.2 my goal is, after creating a spatial NodeCollection "neurons", to create a new NodeCollection containing a selection of the node from "neurons". To achieve this I tried two different approaches: 1. Create a Mask object and use nest.SelectNodesByMask() nodes_in_mask = nest.SelectNodesByMask(neurons, ctr_position, mask_obj) 2. Transform the NodeCollection into a list of node ids, pick 3 random ids, and create a new NodeCollection containing those 3 Nodes neurons_list = neurons.tolist() for x in range(0, 3): center = random.choice(neurons_list) node_ids.append(center) node_ids.sort() new_collection = nest.NodeCollection(node_ids) But with both approaches I get the same problems that some Information (of the positions) seems to go missing. This shows in different ways. First the new NodeCollections are no longer spatial (nodes_in_mask.spatial and new_collection.spatial return none). Second trying to get the node Positions results in an Error: nest.GetPosition(nodes_in_mask) -> Error #1 nest.lib.hl_api_exceptions.LayerExpected: LayerExpected in SLI function GetPosition_g: And last, trying to Plot the Layer also results in an Error: fig = nest.PlotLayer(nodes_in_mask) -> Error #2 TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable I attached a .txt file containing py code showing the problems. Why do those Problems occur and what can I do to solve them? Is there a way to create an empty NodeCollection s.t. I can add the wished nodes one by one? What exactly does the metadata of a Nodecollection represent? Is there a way to set it manually for example to spatial? Thank you in advance for your Answers, Miriam

2 1

NESTML, 'UnknownNode' model
by Alexander Kozlov 14 Mar '22

14 Mar '22

Hi, Any neuron model built with NESTML and installed via nest.Install('mymodule') receives 'UnknownNode' as the value for 'model': > nrn.get('model') > 'UnknownNode' Can this be ignored by users? Is it possible to set the value in .nestml file for compatibility with standard models? Best regards, Alex.

3 2

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday March 14 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 14 Mar '22

14 Mar '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday March 14, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-03-14-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

INCF/OCNS Software working group survey on software usage
by Ankur Sinha 11 Mar '22

11 Mar '22

Dear all, Apologies for the cross-posts. We, the INCF/OCNS Software working group, are conducting a short anonymous survey to collect information on the usage of common software tools in comp-neuro. Could we please request you to spend 2 minutes of your time to fill it out here: https://forms.gle/NXWv2CwtWBSB9BXv9 The information gathered in the survey will be used to organise sessions/workshops related to the software, and improve awareness about them and their maintenance. On behalf of the Software WG, -- Thanks, Regards, Ankur Sinha (He / Him / His) Research Fellow at the Silver Lab | http://silverlab.org/ Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, & Pharmacology University College London, London, UK Time zone: Europe/London

1 0

NESTML, error in the generate_nest_target function
by Salvo T 03 Mar '22

03 Mar '22

Dear NESTML Users, when I try the NESTML Izhikevich tutorial, I have a problem in the generate_nest_target function. The output in the terminal is the following: *** -- N E S T -- Copyright (C) 2004 The NEST Initiative Version: UNKNOWN Built: Jan 18 2022 13:53:41 This program is provided AS IS and comes with NO WARRANTY. See the file LICENSE for details. Problems or suggestions? Visit https://www.nest-simulator.org Type 'nest.help()' to find out more about NEST. -- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 9.3.0 -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ - skipped -- Detecting CXX compile features -- Detecting CXX compile features - done ------------------------------------------------------- nestml_izhikevich_module Configuration Summary ------------------------------------------------------- C++ compiler : /usr/bin/c++ Build static libs : OFF C++ compiler flags : NEST compiler flags : -std=c++11 -O2 -Wall -fopenmp -pthread -fdiagnostics-color=auto NEST include dirs : -I/opt/nest/include/nest -I/usr/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/include -I/opt/music-install/include -I/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openmpi/include/openmpi -I/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openmpi/include -I/usr/include NEST libraries flags : -L/opt/nest/lib/nest -lnestutil -lnest -lsli -lnestkernel -fopenmp /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libltdl.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libreadline.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncurses.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgsl.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgslcblas.so /opt/music-install/lib/libmusic.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openmpi/lib/libmpi_cxx.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openmpi/lib/libmpi.so ------------------------------------------------------- You can now build and install 'nestml_izhikevich_module' using make make install The library file libnestml_izhikevich_module.so will be installed to /opt/nest/lib/nest The module can be loaded into NEST using (nestml_izhikevich_module) Install (in SLI) nest.Install(nestml_izhikevich_module) (in PyNEST) CMake Warning (dev) in CMakeLists.txt: No cmake_minimum_required command is present. A line of code such as cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22) should be added at the top of the file. The version specified may be lower if you wish to support older CMake versions for this project. For more information run "cmake --help-policy CMP0000". This warning is for project developers. Use -Wno-dev to suppress it. -- Configuring done -- Generating done -- Build files have been written to: /tmp/nestml-component [ 16%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/nestml_izhikevich_module_module.dir/nestml_izhikevich_module.o In file included from /opt/nest/include/nest/connector_base.h:35, from /opt/nest/include/nest/connection_manager.h:36, from /opt/nest/include/nest/connection_manager_impl.h:26, from /tmp/nestml-component/nestml_izhikevich_module.cpp:26: /opt/nest/include/nest/sort.h:36:10: fatal error: boost/sort/spreadsort/spreadsort.hpp: No such file or directory 36 | #include <boost/sort/spreadsort/spreadsort.hpp> | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ compilation terminated. make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/nestml_izhikevich_module_module.dir/build.make:76: CMakeFiles/nestml_izhikevich_module_module.dir/nestml_izhikevich_module.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:112: CMakeFiles/nestml_izhikevich_module_module.dir/all] Error 2 make: *** [Makefile:156: all] Error 2 *** While the Jupyter notebook output is the following: *** Warning: PyGSL is not available. The stiffness test will be skipped. Warning: No module named 'pygsl' Option "nest_path" does not exist in builder --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CalledProcessError Traceback (most recent call last) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/codegeneration/nest_builder.py in build(self) 149 try: --> 150 subprocess.check_call(make_all_cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, shell=shell, 151 cwd=str(os.path.join(target_path))) /usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py in check_call(*popenargs, **kwargs) 363 cmd = popenargs[0] --> 364 raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd) 365 return 0 CalledProcessError: Command '['make', 'all']' returned non-zero exit status 2. During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: GeneratedCodeBuildException Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-2-f7696df63255> in <module> ----> 1 generate_nest_target(input_path="izhikevich_solution.nestml", 2 target_path="/tmp/nestml-component", 3 module_name="nestml_izhikevich_module", 4 suffix="_nestml", 5 logging_level="ERROR", /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in generate_nest_target(input_path, target_path, install_path, logging_level, module_name, store_log, suffix, dev, codegen_opts) 181 A dictionary containing additional options for the target code generator. 182 """ --> 183 generate_target(input_path, target_platform="NEST", target_path=target_path, logging_level=logging_level, 184 module_name=module_name, store_log=store_log, suffix=suffix, install_path=install_path, 185 dev=dev, codegen_opts=codegen_opts) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in generate_target(input_path, target_platform, target_path, install_path, logging_level, module_name, store_log, suffix, dev, codegen_opts) 150 FrontendConfiguration.set_codegen_opts(codegen_opts) 151 --> 152 if not process() == 0: 153 raise Exception("Error(s) occurred while processing the model") 154 /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in process() 278 options=FrontendConfiguration.get_codegen_opts()) 279 if _builder is not None: --> 280 _builder.build() 281 282 if FrontendConfiguration.store_log: /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/codegeneration/nest_builder.py in build(self) 151 cwd=str(os.path.join(target_path))) 152 except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e: --> 153 raise GeneratedCodeBuildException('Error occurred during \'make all\'! More detailed error messages can be found in stdout.') 154 155 # finally execute make install GeneratedCodeBuildException: Error occurred during 'make all'! More detailed error messages can be found in stdout. *** I installed Boost with 'sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev' from the terminal. Can you help me? Best, Salvo

2 2

Error in NESTML when I run the 'NESTML Izhikevich tutorial'
by Salvo T 28 Feb '22

28 Feb '22

Dear NESTML Users, In the last post I fixed a problem that was related to the fact that in the 'izhikevich_solution.nestml' the first line was commented. Now, after following the guide in "https://nestml.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html" related to the NESTML installation, I tried to follow the NESTML Izhikevich tutorial in "https://nestml.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/izhikevich/nestml_izhikev…". After installing the cmake with "pip install cmake", when I execute the following part of the tutorial: generate_nest_target(input_path="izhikevich_solution.nestml", target_path="/tmp/nestml-component", logging_level="ERROR", codegen_opts={"nest_path": NEST_SIMULATOR_INSTALL_LOCATION}) I obtain the following error: Warning: PyGSL is not available. The stiffness test will be skipped. Warning: No module named 'pygsl' Option "nest_path" does not exist in builder --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CalledProcessError Traceback (most recent call last) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/codegeneration/nest_builder.py in build(self) 149 try: --> 150 subprocess.check_call(make_all_cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, shell=shell, 151 cwd=str(os.path.join(target_path))) /usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py in check_call(*popenargs, **kwargs) 363 cmd = popenargs[0] --> 364 raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd) 365 return 0 CalledProcessError: Command '['make', 'all']' returned non-zero exit status 2. During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: GeneratedCodeBuildException Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-2-f0909be085f4> in <module> ----> 1 generate_nest_target(input_path="izhikevich_solution.nestml", 2 target_path="/tmp/nestml-component", 3 module_name="nestml_izhikevich_module", 4 suffix="_nestml", 5 logging_level="ERROR", /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in generate_nest_target(input_path, target_path, install_path, logging_level, module_name, store_log, suffix, dev, codegen_opts) 181 A dictionary containing additional options for the target code generator. 182 """ --> 183 generate_target(input_path, target_platform="NEST", target_path=target_path, logging_level=logging_level, 184 module_name=module_name, store_log=store_log, suffix=suffix, install_path=install_path, 185 dev=dev, codegen_opts=codegen_opts) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in generate_target(input_path, target_platform, target_path, install_path, logging_level, module_name, store_log, suffix, dev, codegen_opts) 150 FrontendConfiguration.set_codegen_opts(codegen_opts) 151 --> 152 if not process() == 0: 153 raise Exception("Error(s) occurred while processing the model") 154 /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in process() 278 options=FrontendConfiguration.get_codegen_opts()) 279 if _builder is not None: --> 280 _builder.build() 281 282 if FrontendConfiguration.store_log: /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/codegeneration/nest_builder.py in build(self) 151 cwd=str(os.path.join(target_path))) 152 except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e: --> 153 raise GeneratedCodeBuildException('Error occurred during \'make all\'! More detailed error messages can be found in stdout.') 154 155 # finally execute make install GeneratedCodeBuildException: Error occurred during 'make all'! More detailed error messages can be found in stdout. So, the "nest_path" keyword does not exist. Can anyone help me? Best, Salvo

2 4

Error in NESTML when I run the 'NESTML Izhikevich tutorial'
by Salvo T 28 Feb '22

28 Feb '22

Hi, after following the guide in "https://nestml.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html" related to the NESTML installation, I tried to follow the NESTML Izhikevich tutorial in "https://nestml.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/izhikevich/nestml_izhikev…". After installing the cmake with "pip install cmake", when I execute the following part of the tutorial: generate_nest_target(input_path="izhikevich_solution.nestml", target_path="/tmp/nestml-component", logging_level="ERROR", codegen_opts={"nest_path": NEST_SIMULATOR_INSTALL_LOCATION}) I obtain the following error: line 3:2 extraneous input 'state' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 4:4 extraneous input 'v' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 8:2 extraneous input 'equations' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 9:4 extraneous input 'v' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 10:4 extraneous input 'u' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 11:2 extraneous input 'end' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 13:2 extraneous input 'parameters' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 14:4 extraneous input 'a' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 20:2 extraneous input 'input' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 21:4 extraneous input 'spikes' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 22:4 extraneous input 'I_e' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 23:2 extraneous input 'end' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 25:2 extraneous input 'output' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 27:2 extraneous input 'update' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 28:4 extraneous input 'integrate_odes' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 31:4 extraneous input 'v' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 34:4 extraneous input 'if' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 35:6 extraneous input 'v' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 36:6 extraneous input 'u' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 37:6 extraneous input 'emit_spike' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 38:4 extraneous input 'end' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 40:2 extraneous input 'end' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} line 42:0 extraneous input 'end' expecting {<EOF>, NEWLINE, 'neuron', 'synapse'} [5,GLOBAL, ERROR]: Error occurred during parsing: abort --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CalledProcessError Traceback (most recent call last) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/codegeneration/nest_builder.py in build(self) 149 try: --> 150 subprocess.check_call(make_all_cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, shell=shell, 151 cwd=str(os.path.join(target_path))) /usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py in check_call(*popenargs, **kwargs) 363 cmd = popenargs[0] --> 364 raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd) 365 return 0 CalledProcessError: Command '['make', 'all']' returned non-zero exit status 2. During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: GeneratedCodeBuildException Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-5-5d459438a659> in <module> ----> 1 generate_nest_target(input_path="izhikevich_solution.nestml", 2 target_path="/tmp/nestml-component", 3 logging_level="ERROR", 4 codegen_opts={"nest_path": NEST_SIMULATOR_INSTALL_LOCATION}) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in generate_nest_target(input_path, target_path, install_path, logging_level, module_name, store_log, suffix, dev, codegen_opts) 181 A dictionary containing additional options for the target code generator. 182 """ --> 183 generate_target(input_path, target_platform="NEST", target_path=target_path, logging_level=logging_level, 184 module_name=module_name, store_log=store_log, suffix=suffix, install_path=install_path, 185 dev=dev, codegen_opts=codegen_opts) /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in generate_target(input_path, target_platform, target_path, install_path, logging_level, module_name, store_log, suffix, dev, codegen_opts) 150 FrontendConfiguration.set_codegen_opts(codegen_opts) 151 --> 152 if not process() == 0: 153 raise Exception("Error(s) occurred while processing the model") 154 /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/frontend/pynestml_frontend.py in process() 278 options=FrontendConfiguration.get_codegen_opts()) 279 if _builder is not None: --> 280 _builder.build() 281 282 if FrontendConfiguration.store_log: /opt/data/nestml/pynestml/codegeneration/nest_builder.py in build(self) 151 cwd=str(os.path.join(target_path))) 152 except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e: --> 153 raise GeneratedCodeBuildException('Error occurred during \'make all\'! More detailed error messages can be found in stdout.') 154 155 # finally execute make install GeneratedCodeBuildException: Error occurred during 'make all'! More detailed error messages can be found in stdout. I can't solve it. Can anyone help me?

2 4

Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday February 28 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 28 Feb '22

28 Feb '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday February 28, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-02-28-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

1 0

Retrieving states and parameters variables from NodeCollection
by m.benelhedi＠fz-juelich.de 28 Feb '22

28 Feb '22

Hey Nest Team, Calling "NodeCollection.get" returns a dictionary containing the user declared "States" and "Parameters" with other keys such as "global_id", "recordables", and "synaptic_elements". In this context, I want to ask if there is a function in "nest" that returns exactly only the model declared "States" or "Parameters" without having these extra keys, and of course without having a prior knowledge of the "nestml" file from which the model was originated. Best, Ayssar

3 2

Use of std::thread in rand generators in NEST
by Itaru Kitayama 28 Feb '22

28 Feb '22

Hi, Am I correct in thinking that all rand generators provided for NEST use std::thread? If I am not mistaken, it's an extension of POSIX threads and I'd like to avoid it for my target offloading work. Thanks, Itaru.

2 1

Neuron models with Tsodyks synapse
by Alexander Kozlov 21 Feb '22

21 Feb '22

Hello, Documentation for `tsodyks_synapse` says it is only compatible with `iaf_psc_exp` or `iaf_psc_exp_htum` neuron models. Would it be possible to use it with other `_exp`-type models with postsynaptic currents or conductances with exponential decay (for example, `aeif_cond_exp`)? If not, what could be a work around? With best regards, Alexander Kozlov, CST EECS KTH.

3 4

NEST Conference 2022 - registration is open
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 17 Feb '22

17 Feb '22

Dear Colleagues, The NEST Initiative is excited to invite everyone interested in Neural Simulation Technology and the NEST Simulator to the NEST Conference 2022. The NEST Conference provides an opportunity for the NEST Community to meet, exchange success stories, swap advice, learn about current developments in and around NEST spiking network simulation and its application. We particularly encourage young scientists to participate in the conference! This year's conference will again take place as a virtual event on Thursday/Friday 23/24 June 2022. Register now! For more information please visit the conference website https://nest-simulator.org/conference We are looking forward to seeing you all in June! Hans Ekkehard Plesser and colleagues -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Neuron models with NMDA channels
by cagnol＠ksvi.mff.cuni.cz 15 Feb '22

15 Feb '22

Hello, We would like to use neurons models with NMDA channels in our spiking neuron model. We're still unsure whether we will use a native neuron model in Nest or whether we will implement our own one in NESTML. My understanding is that the only model in Nest which does that is the Hill - Tononi model, which seems rather complex. How fast would you roughly expect a Hill - Tononi neuron network to run compared to a network made of aeif_cond_exp neurons? Do you know by any chance any example of adex NESTML models which implement NMDA and Gaba_B channels? Also, one last question not really related to the previous ones: Is there any way to model synaptic reliability in Nest? Thanks a lot, Remy,

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WOIV'22: Extended Deadline -- 6th International Workshop on In Situ Visualization
by Tom Vierjahn 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

Hi all, we have extended the submission deadline for WOIV’22 until March 7. And we have added a 3rd submission type: lightning presentations (2 to 4 pages, published via Zenodo). Please find the updated CfP below and on the webpage https://woiv.gitlab.io Cheers, Tom ----- # WOIV'22: 6th International Workshop on In Situ Visualization * Held in conjunction with ISC 2022 * Hamburg, Germany, June 2, 2022 ## Scope Large-scale HPC simulations with their inherent I/O bottleneck have made in situ visualization an essential approach for data analysis, although the idea of in situ visualization dates back to the golden era of coprocessing in the 1990s. In situ coupling of analysis and visualization to a live simulation circumvents writing raw data to disk for post-mortem analysis – an approach that is already inefficient for today’s very large simulation codes. Instead, with in situ visualization, data abstracts are generated that provide a much higher level of expressiveness per byte. Therefore, more details can be computed and stored for later analysis, providing more insight than traditional methods. We encourage contributed talks on methods and workflows that have been used for large-scale parallel visualization, with a particular focus on the in situ case. Presentations on codes that closely couple numerical methods and visualization are particularly welcome. Speakers should detail if and how the application drove abstractions or other kinds of data reductions and how these interacted with the expressiveness and flexibility of the visualization for exploratory analysis. Presentations on codes that closely couple numerical methods and visualization are particularly welcome. Speakers should detail frameworks used and data reductions applied. They should also indicate how these impacted the flexibility of the visualization for exploratory analysis. Of particular interest to WOIV and its attendees are recent developments for in situ libraries and software. Submissions documenting recent additions to existing in situ software or new in situ platforms are highly encouraged. WOIV is an excellent place to connect providers of in situ solutions with potential customers. For the submissions we are not only looking for success stories, but are also particularly interested in those experiments that started with a certain goal or idea in mind, but later got shattered by reality or insufficient hardware/software. Areas of interest for WOIV include, but are not limited to: * Techniques and paradigms for in situ visualization. * Algorithms relevant to in situ visualization. These could include algorithms empowered by in situ visualization or algorithms that overcome limitations of in situ visualization. * Systems and software implementing in situ visualization. These include both general purpose and bespoke implementations. This also includes updates to existing software as well as new software. * Workflow management. * Use of in situ visualization for application science or other examples of using in situ visualization. * Performance studies of in situ systems. Comparisons between in situ systems or techniques or comparisons between in situ and alternatives (such as post hoc) are particularly encouraged. * The impact of hardware changes on in situ visualization. * The online visualization of experimental data. * Reports of in situ visualization failures. * Emerging issues with in situ visualization. ## Submissions We accept submissions of short papers (6 to 8 pages), full papers (10 to 12 pages) and lightning presentations (2 to 4 pages) in Springer single column LNCS style. Please find LaTeX and Word templates at https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/template. `Submissions are exclusively handled via EasyChair: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/submit. The review process is single or double blind, we leave it to the discretion of the authors whether they want to disclose their identity in their submissions. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field, and will be evaluated according to relevance to the workshop theme, technical soundness, thoroughness of success/failure comparison, and impactfulness of method/results. Accepted short and full papers will appear as post-conference workshop proceedings in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series; lightning presentations will be published via Zenodo. The submitted versions will be made available to workshop participants during ISC. ## Important Dates * Submission deadline (extended): March 7, 2022, anywhere on earth * Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2022 * Final presentation slides due: May 10, 2012, anywhere on earth (subject to change) * Workshop: June 2, 2022 * Camera-ready version due: July 1, 2022 (subject to change, extrapolated from previous years) ## Chairs * Peter Messmer, NVIDIA * Tom Vierjahn, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt, Germany ## Steering Committee * Steffen Frey, University of Groningen, The Netherlands * Kenneth Moreland, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA * Thomas Theussl, KAUST, Saudi Arabia * Guido Reina, University of Stuttgart, Germany * Tom Vierjahn, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt, Germany ## Website, Venue, Registration * Website: https://woiv.gitlab.io * Submission system: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/submit * Template: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/template * Venue: https://www.isc-hpc.com (ISC 2022) * Workshop registration: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/register ## Contact E-Mail: woiv(a)googlegroups.com

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday February 14 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday February 14, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-02-14-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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Webinar Invitation: ""Embodied Large Scale Spiking Neural Networks in the Neurorobotics Platform"
by Benedikt Feldotto 09 Feb '22

09 Feb '22

Dear all, NEST is a powerful tool to simulate biologically derived spiking Neural Networks. Besides the ever improving model details, learning paradigms and computational complexity, there are two complementary components necessary in order to simulate a (full) biologically plausible mammalian brain: Running simulations at large scale and embodying the brain simulation in a (virtual) body. In frame of the Fenix Infrastructure Webinar series I am going to present "Embodied large scale spiking neural networks in the Neurorobotics Platform" with a focus on the deployment on High Performance Computing Infrastructure next week Thursday. The presentation showcases the joint work of developers from NEST and the Neurorobotics Platform, the CSCS Swiss National Supercomputing centre and researchers in the RoboBrain project. Check out the details and registration at: https://fenix-ri.eu/events/14th-fenix-infrastructure-webinar-ebrains-servic… Looking forward to see you there, Benedikt -- Benedikt Feldotto M.Sc. Research Assistant Human Brain Project - Neurorobotics Technical University of Munich Department of Informatics Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems Room HB 2.02.20 Parkring 13 D-85748 Garching b. München Tel.: +49 89 289 17628 Mail: feldotto(a)in.tum.de https://www6.in.tum.de/en/people/benedikt-feldotto-msc/ www.neurorobotics.net

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Synapse labels and connection rules
by Barna Zajzon 02 Feb '22

02 Feb '22

Dear NEST community, When trying to pass a `synapse_label` parameter in the syn_spec dictionary, in conjunction with the `one_to_one` rule and node ids passed as arrays, I get the following error with NEST 3.0: File "/home/zbarni/code/projects/lif_sorn_seqlearn/lif-sorn-nest-implementation/remote/test_nestml_multith.py", line 29, in <module> nest.Connect([1], [2], conn_spec={'rule': 'one_to_one'}, syn_spec={'synapse_model': 'static_synapse_lbl', 'synapse_label': 1}) File "/home/zbarni/software/installed/miniconda3/envs/del-lif-sorn-nestml-check_py390/lib/python3.9/site-packages/nest/ll_api.py", line 228, in stack_checker_func return f(*args, **kwargs) File "/home/zbarni/software/installed/miniconda3/envs/del-lif-sorn-nestml-check_py390/lib/python3.9/site-packages/nest/lib/hl_api_connections.py", line 255, in Connect connect_arrays(pre, post, weights, delays, synapse_model, syn_param_keys, syn_param_values) File "pynestkernel.pyx", line 360, in pynestkernel.NESTEngine.connect_arrays nest.lib.hl_api_exceptions.TypeMismatch: TypeMismatch in SLI function connect_arrays It works when using the `all_to_all` rule. Is this the expected behavior or for some reason it's not possible to use synapse_label and the one_to_one rule (yet)? Thank you, Barna

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday January 31 2022 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday January 31, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-01-31-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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NMBU / Associate Professors in Machine Learning and Scientific Computing / Deadline 15 Feb 2022
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 27 Jan '22

27 Jan '22

Dear Colleagues, The Department of Data Science at NMBU is currently looking for two full-time permanent associate professors in machine learning and scientific computing, respectively. We are also looking for adjunct professors (20%, 4 years) to cover ethical and legal aspects of data science and data security, respectively. I'd appreciate if you would pass this information on to colleagues who may be interested in any of the positions. As we currently are mostly male faculty members, we'd in particular appreciate applications by women. * Associate professor in Data Science (Machine Learning) - Deadline: Tuesday, February 15, 2022<https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/217579/associate-professor-i…> * Associate professor in Scientific Computing - Deadline: Tuesday, February 15, 2022<https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/217590/associate-professor-i…> * Professor II/Associate professor II in Ethics and Law of Data Science - Deadline: Tuesday, February 15, 2022<https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/217629/professor-ii-associat…> * Professor II/Associate professor II in Data Security - Deadline: Tuesday, February 15, 2022<https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/217607/professor-ii-associat…> Best regards, Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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log data into data_path
by Benedikt Feldotto 21 Jan '22

21 Jan '22

Dear all, quick question about data logging to a specified folder: with nest.SetKernelStatus({"data_path": '/opt/data/log'}) I can specify the path, where data is logged to. If I do not specify a path, where does data get saved, or is it not saved to file if I do not specify 'data_path'? Thanks! Benedikt -- Benedikt Feldotto M.Sc. Research Assistant Human Brain Project - Neurorobotics Technical University of Munich Department of Informatics Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems Room HB 2.02.20 Parkring 13 D-85748 Garching b. München Tel.: +49 89 289 17628 Mail: feldotto(a)in.tum.de https://www6.in.tum.de/en/people/benedikt-feldotto-msc/ www.neurorobotics.net

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Open NEST Developer Video Conference Monday January 17 2021 11:30 CET (UTC+1)
by Dennis Terhorst 17 Jan '22

17 Jan '22

Dear NEST Users & Developers! I would like to invite you to our next fortnightly Open NEST Developer Video Conference, today Monday January 17, 11.30-12.30 CET (UTC+1). Feel free to join the meeting also just to bring your own questions for direct discussion in the in-depth section. As usual, in the Project team round, a contact person of each team will give a short statement summarizing ongoing work in the team and cross-cutting points that need discussion among the teams. The remainder of the meeting we would go into a more in-depth discussion of topics that came up on the mailing list or that are suggested by the teams. Agenda * Welcome * Review of NEST User Mailing List * Project team round * In-depth discussion The agenda for this meeting is also available online, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/wiki/2022-01-17-Open-NEST-Developer-… Looking forward to seeing you soon! Cheers, Dennis Terhorst ------------------ Log-in information ------------------ We use a virtual conference room provided by DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz). You can use the web client to connect. We however encourage everyone to use a headset for better audio quality or even a proper video conferencing system (see below) or software when available. Web client * Visit https://conf.dfn.de/webapp/conference/97938800 * Enter your name and allow your browser to use camera and microphone * The conference does not need a PIN to join, just click join and you're in. In case you see a dfnconf logo and the phrase "Auf den Meetingveranstalter warten", just be patient, the meeting host needs to join first (a voice will tell you). VC system/software How to log in with a video conferencing system, depends on you VC system or software. - Using the H.323 protocol (eg Polycom): vc.dfn.net##97938800 or 194.95.240.2##97938800 - Using the SIP protocol:97938800@vc.dfn.de - By telephone: +49-30-200-97938800 For those who do not have a video conference system or suitable software, Polycom provides a pretty good free app for iOS and Android, so you can join from your tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile, available from AppStore/PlayStore). Note that firewalls may interfere with videoconferencing in various and sometimes confusing ways. For more technical information on logging in from various VC systems, please see http://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.3.4

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how do I record events emitted by "sinusoidal_poisson_generator"
by thierry nieus 03 Jan '22

03 Jan '22

Dear all, first of all, happy new year! I am using nest 2.2 (installed by conda) and I have set up a simple network of 20-100 neurons based on the ht_neuron model. I am delivering some noise to all neurons with the sinusoidal_poisson_generator (I can switch to another) and the simulation produces the results I am looking for. However I would like now to have a look at the spikes entering the network and therefore I need to access all events generated by the random generator. A sample of my code is: import nest receptors=nest.GetDefaults('ht_neuron')['receptor_types'] nest.CopyModel("sinusoidal_poisson_generator",'sin_pois',{'amplitude':50.,'rate':15.0 }) nest.CopyModel("static_synapse","AMPAnoise",{"receptor_type":receptors["AMPA"],"weight":10. }) neurons=nest.Create("ht_neuron",1) noise=nest.Create('sin_pois',1) g = nest.Create('sin_pois', 1) # current pulse dc_gen = nest.Create("dc_generator") nest.SetStatus(dc_gen, {"amplitude": 20., "start": 400, "stop": 1050}) nest.Connect(dc_gen, neurons, 'one_to_one') # recorders detect_noise = nest.Create('spike_detector', 1) nest.Connect(noise, neurons, 'one_to_one', syn_spec="AMPAnoise") nest.Connect(noise, detect_noise, 'one_to_one') ''' the latest does not work Creation of connection is not possible because: All outgoing connections from a device must use the same synapse type. ''' Is there a way to record those spikes ? Thanks in advance for any help Best

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Thank you for 2021!
by Hans Ekkehard Plesser 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Dear NEST Users and Developers! I would like to thank you all for your engagement for high-quality computational neuroscience and research software in 2021. We have made some major steps forward with the release of NEST 3, NEST Desktop 3 and NESTML 4. A few days ago, PyNN 0.10 also brought support for NEST 3, nicely wrapping up the year of NEST 3. We also moved to quarterly releases with the release of NEST 3.0. If you wonder what happened to NEST 3.2 in that scheme of things don't worry, it will come in Januar. The combination of holiday season, new COVID restrictions and an important reporting deadline in the Human Brain Project—the major source of funding for NEST development in recent years—unfortunately left too little time to wrap everything up in time. 2022 promises to be an exciting year for NEST, including the deeper integration of NEST Desktop (so far mainly developed by Sebastian Spreizer) and NEST GPU (so far mainly developed by Bruno Golosio as NeuronGPU) into the NEST development process and community. Don't forget to block out 23/24 June in your calendars for the NEST Conference 2022 (this time on a Thursday and Friday)! On behalf of the NEST Initiative, I wish you happy holidays and all the best for 2022! Hans Ekkehard -- Prof. Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Head, Department of Data Science Faculty of Science and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences PO Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway Phone +47 6723 1560 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser(a)nmbu.no<mailto:hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no> Home http://arken.nmbu.no/~plesser

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Call for Papers: WOIV'22: 6th International Workshop on In Situ Visualization
by Tom Vierjahn 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Hi all, we will organise another edition of the in situ visualization workshop (https://woiv.gitlab.io) at ISC (https://isc-hpc.com). If you are working on visualizing results of neural simulations while these are still running, you might want to consider submitting your work to the workshop … Please find the CfP below. Cheers, Tom ----- # WOIV'22: 6th International Workshop on In Situ Visualization * Held in conjunction with ISC 2022 * Hamburg, Germany, June 2, 2022 ## Scope Large-scale HPC simulations with their inherent I/O bottleneck have made in situ visualization an essential approach for data analysis, although the idea of in situ visualization dates back to the golden era of coprocessing in the 1990s. In situ coupling of analysis and visualization to a live simulation circumvents writing raw data to disk for post-mortem analysis – an approach that is already inefficient for today’s very large simulation codes. Instead, with in situ visualization, data abstracts are generated that provide a much higher level of expressiveness per byte. Therefore, more details can be computed and stored for later analysis, providing more insight than traditional methods. We encourage contributed talks on methods and workflows that have been used for large-scale parallel visualization, with a particular focus on the in situ case. Presentations on codes that closely couple numerical methods and visualization are particularly welcome. Speakers should detail if and how the application drove abstractions or other kinds of data reductions and how these interacted with the expressiveness and flexibility of the visualization for exploratory analysis. Presentations on codes that closely couple numerical methods and visualization are particularly welcome. Speakers should detail frameworks used and data reductions applied. They should also indicate how these impacted the flexibility of the visualization for exploratory analysis. Of particular interest to WOIV and its attendees are recent developments for in situ libraries and software. Submissions documenting recent additions to existing in situ software or new in situ platforms are highly encouraged. WOIV is an excellent place to connect providers of in situ solutions with potential customers. For the submissions we are not only looking for success stories, but are also particularly interested in those experiments that started with a certain goal or idea in mind, but later got shattered by reality or insufficient hardware/software. Areas of interest for WOIV include, but are not limited to: * Techniques and paradigms for in situ visualization. * Algorithms relevant to in situ visualization. These could include algorithms empowered by in situ visualization or algorithms that overcome limitations of in situ visualization. * Systems and software implementing in situ visualization. These include both general purpose and bespoke implementations. This also includes updates to existing software as well as new software. * Workflow management. * Use of in situ visualization for application science or other examples of using in situ visualization. * Performance studies of in situ systems. Comparisons between in situ systems or techniques or comparisons between in situ and alternatives (such as post hoc) are particularly encouraged. * The impact of hardware changes on in situ visualization. * The online visualization of experimental data. * Reports of in situ visualization failures. * Emerging issues with in situ visualization. ## Submissions We accept submissions of short papers (6 to 8 pages) and full papers (10 to 12 pages) in Springer single column LNCS style. Please find LaTeX and Word templates at https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/template. Submissions are exclusively handled via EasyChair: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/submit. The review process is single or double blind, we leave it to the discretion of the authors whether they want to disclose their identity in their submissions. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field, and will be evaluated according to relevance to the workshop theme, technical soundness, thoroughness of success/failure comparison, and impactfulness of method/results. Accepted papers will appear as post-conference workshop proceedings in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. The submitted versions will be made available to workshop participants during ISC. ## Important Dates * Submission deadline: February 13, 2022, anywhere on earth * Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2022 * Final presentation slides due: May 10, 2012, anywhere on earth (subject to change) * Workshop: June 2, 2022 * Camera-ready version due: July 1, 2022 (subject to change, extrapolated from previous years) ## Chairs * Peter Messmer, NVIDIA * Tom Vierjahn, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt, Germany ## Steering Committee * Steffen Frey, University of Groningen, The Netherlands * Kenneth Moreland, Sandia National Labs, USA * Thomas Theussl, KAUST, Saudi Arabia * Guido Reina, University of Stuttgart, Germany * Tom Vierjahn, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt, Germany ## Website, Venue, Registration * Website: https://woiv.gitlab.io * Submission system: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/submit * Template: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/template * Venue: https://www.isc-hpc.com (ISC 2022) * Workshop registration: https://woiv.gitlab.io/woiv22/register ## Contact E-Mail: woiv(a)googlegroups.com

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