Project Description :
The human brain is a very powerful computer but it is too complex for scientists to study. To simplify matters, scientists study insect “brains” instead, for processes in brains that do not require much “intelligence”, e.g. low level fusing of information to make sense of the surroundings.

The objective of this multi-disciplinary project is to understand, and learn from nature, how for instance the many “eyes” of a housefly can “see” the different objects from different angles and match and fuse the images to make sense of its surroundings. It is also interesting to study how the fly combines information from its “eyes” with the information from its olfactory system to sense the surrounding. Consequently, the project will see how the mechanisms can be mimicked by technology.

This project requires the student to survey all about the insect “brain”. The survey may include any research on how the insect “brain” associates and matches the different images formed by the eyes and combines the information from the olfactory system to understand (danger, food etc.) the surrounding, how the insect learns and how the memory works.

The student will then select and propose, with the guidance of the mentor, how a particular function of the insect “brain” can be modelled and implemented in Matlab or any other programming language

Pre-requisite :