Click on a speaker to go to their webpage and learn more about them.
NOTE: The short bio's presented here are taken from each respective speaker's website.
Barbara Webb The University of Edinburgh (School of Informatics)
Barry Trimmer - Tufts University (Department of Biology)
Marc Raibert - Boston Dynamics
Keir Pearson - University of Alberta (Department of Physiology)
Kiisa Nishikawa - Northern Arizona University (Department of Biological Sciences)
Ryohei Kanzaki - University of Tokyo (Department of Mechano-Informatics)
Michael Dickinson - California Institute of Technology
Mark Cutkosky - Stanford University (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Ansgar Büschges - Universität zu Köln (Zoologisches Institut)
Hajime Asama - The University of Tokyo/Head of the Mobiligence Project
Hajime Asama - The University of Tokyo/Head of the Mobiligence Project
Dr. Asama is a professor at Service Engineering Group, Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He is the leader of the Mobiligence Project in Japan. "In order to realize sustainable society, paradigm shift is demanded from product-centered industrial structure in a mass-production-mass-consumption manner to service- or knowledge-centered one taking account of the whole life cycle of artifacts. This group focuses on realizing an industrial structure in which service and knowledge play a major role to generate more value added, through research in service engineering as a methodology to increase the service contents within product life cycles. Our research targets building new environments for service production and defining a new dimension of value for more security and safety with individual care."
Ansgar Büschges - Universität zu Köln (Zoologisches Institut)
My group investigates the neural basis of locomotory movements in animals, in particular walking in insects. In walking each leg movement results from the computation of signals from central pattern generating networks (CPG), local feedback from the leg’s sensory neurons about movements and forces generated, coordinating signals from neighboring limbs, and finally, neuromuscular transformation at the output stage of the walking system, the leg muscles. Complexity for generating a walking motor output derives from the fact that limbs of walking animals are multi-segmented and are driven by multiple sets of muscles that need to be activated in a coordinated manner. After our work on the interaction of central pattern generating networks and sensory feedback has yielded some understanding on how a basic motor output for stepping in a single leg is generated, we are presently focusing on those neural mechanisms and pathways that contribute to intersegmental information transfer and the adaptation of the walking motor output to changing behavioral requirements, such as changing walking speed or the direction of walking. Our conceptual and experimental approaches are strongly influenced by ongoing collaborations with theoreticians, roboticists, electrical and mechanical engineers.
Mark Cutkosky - Stanford University (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Cutkosky applies analyses, simulations, and experiments to the design and control of robotic hands, tactile sensors, and force-feedback devices for human/computer interaction. In manufacturing, his work focuses on design tools for rapid prototyping. Recent applications of this work include small, biologically inspired robots with embedded sensors, actuators, and controllers.
Michael Dickinson - California Institute of Technology
Complex and intellectually challenging problems can be so commonplace that they escape our attention. The research in my lab focuses on one such everyday phenomenon - the motion of a fly through the air. While the buzz of fly wings is more likely to elicit a sense of annoyance than wonder, insect flight behavior links a series of fundamental processes within both the physical and biological sciences: neuronal signaling within brains, the dynamics of unsteady fluid flow, the structural mechanics of composite materials, and the behavior of complex nonlinear systems. The aim of my research is to elucidate the means by which flies accomplish their aerodynamic feats. A rigorous mechanistic description of flight requires an integration of biology, engineering, fluid mechanics, and control theory. The long term goal, however, is not simply to understand the material basis of insect flight, but to develop its study into a model that can provide insight to the behavior and robustness of complex systems in general. Students and post-docs fascinated with any aspects of insect flight behavior, physiology, or evolution are invited to join my laboratory. What is more important than an interest in insect flight, however, is a love of complexity and a commitment to interdisciplinary approaches.
Ryohei Kanzaki - University of Tokyo (Department of Mechano-Informatics)
Dr. Kanzaki is a professor at Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo. "Neural networks are responsible for the modification of informationprocessing and motor control in response to variable conditions, experience and environment. We aim to elucidate the general mechanism of these neural networks and to apply it to engineering, medical treatment and agriculture. Especially, in order to clarify the plasticity of an organism and the mechanism of adaptation to the environment as well as the mechanism of emergence of an intelligent behavior, we discuss the sensory fusion, learning and memory and the mechanism of feeling from an engineering's and biological point of view. On the other hand, by developing an intelligent information processing system and a silicon neural network based on real information processing organism, we clarify the structure and mechanism of information treatment of an organism. In order to reach our goals, we hierarchically and synthetically analyze neural networks of organisms such as cell cultures, insects, Aplysia, and rats, by studying all levels (gene, single cell, neural network and behavior)."
Kiisa Nishikawa - Northern Arizona University (Department of Biological Sciences)
The unifying theme of my research is the evolution of behavior. My interest in how behavior evolves has led to interdisciplinary studies in a wide range of fields, including evolutionary ecology, behavioral neuroscience, biomechanics and muscle physiology. My earlier work focused on the ecological and behavioral interactions of salamanders in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. More recent studies have investigated the neural basis of behavior in amphibians, specifically the swimming behavior of frog tadpoles and the visually guided prey capture behavior of salamanders. My current research has three components: 1) evolutionary studies of the biomechanics and neural control of prey capture in frogs; 2) studies of the more general problem of how brains and nervous systems evolve; and 3) studies of the mechanisms of power amplification in muscles that produce ballistic movements, including prey capture and jumping in frogs and prey capture in chameleons. Whereas my research has focused on these questions, I have worked on diverse projects with my graduate students whose research interests range broadly in the areas of neuroethology, comparative physiology and ecomorphology
Keir Pearson - University of Alberta (Department of Physiology)
The general goal of my research is to establish the neuronal mechanisms responsible for generating the motor pattern for walking. Over the past decade my colleagues and I have concentrated on determining how feedback from sensory receptors in muscles is utilized in the production of stepping in the cat. We have also examined how motor patterns for walking are modified by alterations in the leg mechanics, and the mechanisms for functional recovery following injury to the nervous system. This work has relevance to those developing procedures to assist the rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury, as well as to investigators designing walking robots.
Marc Raibert - Boston Dynamics
Barry Trimmer - Tufts University (Department of Biology)
Dr. Trimmer's laboratory is interested in the neural processes that organize sensory and motor information. We use an insect (the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta) as our model system because it has a brain with fewer neurons, many of which can be identified and kept alive outside the animal.
Barbara Webb The University of Edinburgh (School of Informatics)
My main research interest is in perceptual systems for the control of behaviour. The work is largely concerned with building computational and physical models of these mechanisms to explicate and evaluate hypotheses. In particular, I have developed and tested a robot model of the auditory localization behaviour of the cricket. Current work is concerned with integrating additional sensorimotor systems onto the same robot, to study problems of interaction of basic behaviours. I also have an interest in theoretical issues of methodology; in particular the problems of measurement, modeling and simulation.