Obst, OliverTrinchi, AdrianHardin, Simon G.Chadwick, MatthewCole, IvanMuster, Tim H.Hoschke, NigelOstry, DietPrice, DonPham, Khoa N.Wark, Tim2026-07-032026-07-031878-7789ORCID:/0000-0001-6582-1457/work/219176261https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733812509This work describes preliminary steps towards nano-scale reservoir computing using quantum dots. Our research has focused on the development of an accumulator-based sensing system that reacts to changes in the environment, as well as the development of a software simulation. The investigated systems generate nonlinear responses to inputs that make them suitable for a physical implementation of a neural network. This development will enable miniaturisation of the neurons to the molecular level, leading to a range of applications including monitoring of changes in materials or structures. The system is based around the optical properties of quantum dots. The paper will report on experimental work on systems using Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) quantum dots and on the various methods to render the systems sensitive to pH, redox potential or specific ion concentration. Once the quantum dot-based systems are rendered sensitive to these triggers they can provide a distributed array that can monitor and transmit information on changes within the material.Don Price received B.Sc.(Hons) and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Monash University, Australia, in 1966 and 1970 respectively. Since joining CSIRO in 1982, he had been involved in the development of ultrasonic transducers, studies of the physics of linear and nonlinear elastic wave propagation in inhomogeneous materials (with particular emphasis on propagation in planar layered structures), and the development of ultrasonic measurement techniques based on these studies. He was a CSIRO fellow, Divisional Science Leader for CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics, and Project Leader of the Ageless Aerospace Vehicles project, a collaborative investigation, supported by CSIRO and the Non-Destructive Evaluation Sciences Branch of NASA at Langley Research Centre. Don tragically died in a helicopter crash in March 2013.8enEcho state networkQuantum dotRecurrent neural network201310.1016/j.nancom.2013.08.00584887623859