Activities

New

Interactive site · Paper companion

Neural Noise Enables Accurate Internal Simulation of Rare Events

Companion site for the paper · with Pawel Herman & Zenas C. Chao · Sept 2026

Play with the model in your browser: turn the noise knob, watch the rare events come out right. Also in Chinese and Japanese.

Poster · NEURO2026

Noise-Driven Internal Simulation Facilitates Learning of Low-Probability Events in Predictive Neural Networks

NEURO2026 · Kobe · Aug 1, 2026

Poster 3P-465 at Japan's biggest neuroscience meeting. Try the model yourself on the companion site.

Poster · IRCN–NTU Joint Symposium

Noise-Enhanced Replay Facilitates Learning of Rare Event and Temporal Correlations in Brain-like Neural Network

IRCN–NTU Joint Symposium · Singapore · Feb 3, 2026

An early version of the noise-and-rare-events story, shown on the IRCN trip to NTU.

Talk & Poster · IRCN Retreat

Bio-inspired Hybrid Predictive Model for Robust Visual Scene Understanding

IRCN Retreat · Odawara · Oct 23, 2025

Talk and poster at the annual retreat: a reservoir plus Hebbian prototypes for robust vision.

Poster · Photonic Computing Symposium

Spatial Relativity: Robust AI for Approximate Computing

Photonic Computing Symposium · NICT, Koganei · Dec 17, 2024

Poster with the Vargas lab on self-organizing dynamics for photonic reservoirs.

Talk · AICCC 2022

Understanding SyncMap's Dynamics and Its Self-organization Properties: A Space-time Analysis

AICCC 2022 · Osaka · Dec 17, 2022

My first conference talk, on how SyncMap organizes itself over space and time. Certificate included.

Research Interests

Self-Organizing Dynamical Equations

Self-Organizing Dynamical Equations (SODE)

Bio-inspired systems for complex sequential learning using self-organization and nonlinear dynamics. Enables adaptive learning without backpropagation.

Robust Bio-inspired Vision Systems

Robust Bio-inspired Vision Systems

Unsupervised image segmentation systems that maintain performance under severe noise and corruption, mimicking human visual perception.

Xenovert Adaptation

Xenovert: Adaptive Distribution Shift

Biologically-inspired algorithm for real-time adaptation to distribution shifts using tree-based mapping structures.

Reservoir Computing

Advancing Reservoir Computing

Bio-inspired sparse recurrent neural networks leveraging high-dimensional dynamics for temporal and spatial processing.

Temporal Learning Systems

Neuro-like Temporal Learning Systems

BCPNN-based attractor networks for rare-event learning in temporal data streams with modular hypercolumn architecture.

Selected Works

Preprint

Neural Noise Enables Accurate Internal Simulation of Rare Events

Heng Zhang, Pawel Herman, Zenas C. Chao

arXiv preprint arXiv:2609.18033 (q-bio.NC), September 2026

Conference

RECAP: Local Hebbian Prototype Learning as a Self-Organizing Readout for Reservoir Dynamics

Heng Zhang

2026 9th Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing Conference (AICCC), ACM, Tokyo, December 18-19, 2026

Under Review

SyncMapV2: Robust and Adaptive Unsupervised Segmentation

Heng Zhang, Zikang Wan, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2026

Under Review

Self-Organizing to Learn Dynamical Hierarchies

Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas, Tham Yik Foong, Heng Zhang

Scientific Reports, 2025

Under Review

Adapting to Covariate Shift in Real-time by Encoding Trees with Motion Equations

Tham Yik Foong, Heng Zhang, Mao Po Yuan, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

In Submission, 2025

Conference

Sketch Generation with Reservoir Computing trained by Evolutionary Computation

Masato Osugi, Heng Zhang, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

IPSJ 86th National Convention (情報処理学会第86回全国大会), Kanagawa University, Yokohama, March 2024

Journal Article

Symmetrical SyncMap for imbalanced general chunking problems

Heng Zhang, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena (Top 6%/9% in Mathematics/Nonlinear Dynamics), IF: 3.7, 2023

Journal Article

Magnum: Tackling high-dimensional structures with self-organization

Mao Po Yuan, Yikfoong Tham, Heng Zhang, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

Neurocomputing (Top 4%/7% in Cognitive Neuroscience/Computer Science), IF: 5.7, 2023

Review Article

A survey on reservoir computing and its interdisciplinary applications beyond traditional machine learning

Heng Zhang, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

IEEE Access (Top 8% in General Engineering), IF: 3.5, 2023 — 110+ citations

Conference

Understanding SyncMap's Dynamics and Its Self-organization Properties: A Space-time Analysis

Heng Zhang, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas

5th Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing Conference (AICCC), Osaka, 2022

Conference

Comparison of Disturbance Rejection Performance between Three Types of UAV Linear Controllers

Chao Huang, Heng Zhang

2020 7th International Conference on Information Science and Control Engineering (ICISCE), IEEE, 2020

Presentations

Poster

Noise-Driven Internal Simulation Facilitates Learning of Low-Probability Events in Predictive Neural Networks

NEURO2026, the 49th Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society (Poster 3P-465), Kobe Convention Center, Kobe, Japan, August 1, 2026

Talk

Internal Simulation with Noise and Rare Events

IRCN Team Salon Talk, IRCN, The University of Tokyo, Japan, May 27, 2026

Poster

Noise-Enhanced Replay Facilitates Learning of Rare Event and Temporal Correlations in Brain-like Neural Network

The Third IRCN International Joint Symposium (IRCN-NTU), Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, February 3, 2026

Talk

Bio-inspired Hybrid Predictive Model for Robust Visual Scene Understanding

IRCN Retreat, Odawara, Japan, October 23, 2025

Talk

Introduction to Robust and Adaptive AI Paradigm

AI Incubator Salon Talk, IRCN, The University of Tokyo, Japan, October 18, 2025

Poster

Spatial Relativity: Robust AI for Approximate Computing

Second Open Symposium on Photonic Computing, NICT, Koganei, Japan, December 17, 2024

Talk

Understanding SyncMap's Dynamics and Its Self-organization Properties: A Space-time Analysis

5th Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing Conference (AICCC), Osaka, Japan, December 17, 2022

External Funding Contributions

UTokyo Global Activity Support Program for Young Researchers • 2026–2027

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WPI-IRCN Retreat Brainstorming Awards, UTokyo • 2025–2026

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The Telecommunications Advancement Foundation • 2025–2026

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JSPS, MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) • 2022–2026

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Leading Company • 2023–2025

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JSPS, Grant in Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory) • 2022–2023

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Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) • 2021–2024

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More of me

Get in Touch

Location International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN)
The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan 113-0033
Email rogerzhangheng [at] gmail [dot] com