Overview
Norse is a deep learning Python library used for simulating spiking neural networks (SNN)s that leverages PyTorch with bio-inspired neural networks. Norse is maintained
and developed by Christian Pehle and Jens Egholm Pedersen, with funding from the EC Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and the DFG, German Research Foundation. Additionally, Norse is
a community-driven project, encouraging community contributions and development.
Norse is accompanied by extensive documentation, including tutorials on running classification tasks on datasets like MNIST, CIFAR, and cartpole balancing with policy
gradients, showcasing Norse’s compatibility with PyTorch Lightning. While utilizing the PyTorch library for CPU/GPU acceleration, Norse expands it by adding their own spiking
neuron models. This approach leverages the sparse and event-driven nature of biological neural networks to create energy efficient computational models. The framework
provides a variety of different neuron models and is designed to be adaptable, allowing for custom neuron model creation and integration with existing deep learning models.
Norse aims to be a foundational tool for understanding the transition from standard deep learning models to spiking models. It enables the creation of new neural network models
and the adaptation of existing models with spiking capabilities. Norse also acknowledges the resource-intensive nature of spiking neural networks and provides guidance on hardware
acceleration to optimize simulation performance.
