CIS Department Talk - February 11, 2008
The Department of Computer and Information Science & The Society of
Computer Science Present
| Speaker: | Alfredo Weitzenfeld, PhD, Computer Engineering Department, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico(ITAM)
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| Topic: | Biologically-Inspired Robotics: Learning from Nature
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| Date: | February 11th 2008, 2:30PM |
| Place: | John Mulcahy Hall, Room 132 |
Abstract:
Scientists have studied biology and other disciplines for thousands of years as a way to understand our world. These studies have inspired the development of numerous technologies including robotic systems. These biologically-inspired robotic systems have also helped us better understand animal ethology, i.e. behavior represented by higher-level brain processes, and to some extent also animal neuroethology, i.e. behavior mapped to underlying neural structures.
The work to be presented in this talk overviews a number of biologically-inspired robotic models developed by our group. These models are described using a multi-level schema and neural networks approach that lets us to represent both high level and lower level brain processes in a unifed computational system. Two particular robotic models are described: learning to detour in frogs and toads, and learning spatial tasks in rats.
This work has been funded by a number of national and international research collaborations.
For more information, contact:
Ms. Danielle Aprea (718) 817-4480; (aprea@cis.fordham.edu)
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