From Microbes to Machines: Harnessing the multiscale organization of microbial communities for energy-efficient natural computing.

Computing faces a growing energy challenge, driven by the end of Moore’s law and the increasing demands of energy-intensive data centers. In contrast, nature has evolved efficient analog systems, such as microbial communities, that process environmental "inputs," perform computations, and generate actionable "outputs" at minimal energy cost. Microbes, with their complex multiscale organization offer a promising avenue for developing energy-efficient natural computing systems by harnessing Microbe's adaptive and self-organizing properties.

This talk explores the potential of microbial communities to transform energy-efficient computing by serving as analog platforms for solving complex computational problems. We consider a range of modelling approaches to capture the spatio-temporal behavior of microbial communities and view microbial communities as a reservoir computing platform.  By leveraging multiscale insights and the intrinsic capabilities of these systems, we aim to uncover innovative strategies for sustainable, bio-inspired computing and deepen our understanding of nature’s mechanisms for efficient information processing in energy-limited environments.