| Date (and Location) |
Speaker | Title and Abstract |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct |
Frank W. Grasso
Associate Professor Department of Psychology Brooklyn College, CUNY |
Modeling Control of Object Manipulation in Cephalopods: Big Brains, Soft Bodies the Hyper-Redundant Path-Not-Taken by Vertebrates Modern cephalopods are an evolutionary success story based on brain and body architectures that are fundamentally different from those of vertebrates like mammals, birds and even fish. Large-brained with soft bodies, and sophisticated learning, sensory and motor capabilities their modern forms, the coleiods, are descended from behaviorally sophisticated ancestors that precede the most primitive vertebrates in the fossil record and precede the boney fishes by hundreds of millions of years. Those eons of competition with and predation on the diverse forms of marine life have lead to cumulative specializations of morphology, neural circuitry and behavior that offer a plethora of existence proofs for the feasibility of soft, hyper-redundant of robotic systems. This talk will discuss both in vivo studies and in studies with artificial models of two such highly derived cephalopod adaptations: the octopus sucker and the squid tentacle. These studies aim to advance our understanding of the coordination and control of dexterous soft limbs and appendages. The sucker, acting in coordination with the arm enables fine and forceful manipulation of objects by the octopus. The tentacle enables a high-speed, accurate and ballistic grasp of relatively distant objects by the squid. This talk will introduce some of the under-appreciated aspects of the biomechanics and neural architecture that support these abilities and will also describe studies using the Artificial and Biological Soft Actuator Manipulator Simulator (ABSAMS), a physically and physiologically constrained computer simulation environment employed to study 3d models of soft systems and their control. Results from simulations of the squid tentacle strike and octopus sucker attachment as modeled in ABSAMS and the insights those simulations offer into controlling soft, hyper-redundant appendages will be discussed and compared with results from in vivo studies. Finally, I will discuss implications these studies present for the development of flexible object manipulation devices with cephalopod-like properties in man-made technologies. |
| 4 Nov |
Natalio Krasnogor
University of Nottingham |
Steps Towards a Unified Model Prototyping Strategy for multi-(proto)cellular computing.
This talk presents an approach based on "Executable Biology" (also called "Algorithmic Systems/Synthetic Biology") for the specification, execution and analysis of multi-(proto)cellular systems. The methodology consists of the formal specification of models of individual (proto)cells as stochastic P systems. These specifications can be made modular through the use of libraries of modules representing recurrent biological motifs or well-characterised synthetic biological parts, e.g. transcriptional logic gates, that can be reused in different contexts. A second level of modularity is afforded by the specification of individual cells , which can then be distributed in space describing different topological arrangements for multi cellular systems. Specifications are then executed with multicompartmental Gillespie-like algorithms and Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations. Time permitting, i will briefly mention challenges and opportunities for evolutionary algorithms research in relation to the above themes. |
| 18 Nov | Gianluca Tempesti |
Self-replication in programmable logic
In the context of designing bio-inspired digital systems capable of healing and adaptation, a crucial step is the definition of a mechanism that allows the implementation of a process analogous to that of cellular division in biological organisms. Even if this idea has a long history, going back as far as John von Neumann's work on self-replicating cellular automata, it is only relatively recently that FPGAs have provided a platform where such a process can be even approximated. The application of self-replication mechanisms to programmable logic, however, requires an approach that is quite distinct from the mostly theoretical research traditionally used to investigate this topic. In this talk, I will present an attempt at defining a self-replication process that can be applied to programmable logic, keeping in mind many of the parameters imposed by an efficient implementation in an electronics context. |
| 2 Dec |
Dafyd Jenkins
Warwick |
Investigating the evolution of resource management and complexity using biologically realistic gene regulatory network models Biological systems, such as gene regulatory networks, exhibit complex structures or topologies and behaviours. Such systems evolve through the process of natural selection over billions of years. Whilst the fundamental physical processes underlying natural selection are understood, the interaction between these processes producing the emergent architectures and behaviours are not. As we cannot directly observe the evolution of these systems on a realistic timescale, nor produce suitably controlled environments, we must use alternative techniques to test hypotheses about the evolutionary process. This leads to the use of realistic in silico models of biological systems as a method for simulating more appropriate timescales and environments. I will introduce a computational model of gene regulatory networks, incorporating processes such as transcription, translation and protein-DNA interaction, and crucially, energetic costs for such processes and a biological fitness function. Evolving these models, using the processes of gene duplication/loss and mutation, under different environmental conditions yields a number of biologically realistic topologies and phenomena, ranging from basic energy signalling to activate pathways, up to hierarchical "global regulation", the role of stochastic dynamics in genome size, and the key emergent property of resource management in driving the function and structure of gene regulatory networks. |
| 16 Dec | ||
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| 20 Jan |
James Dyke
Institute for Complex Systems Simulation Agents, Interaction and Complexity University of Southampton |
Is the complex Earth system a homeostatic system?
The Earth system - its oceans, rocks, atmosphere and life is undeniably complex. Its evolution over some 4.5 billion years shows episodes of profound sometimes violent change, and also periods or relative stability. To what extent the Earth system, in particular its climate, is stable or even self-regulating and homeostatic, is one of the great scientific questions of our age. Anthropogenic climate change, the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere by humans is just one example of how life has affected the Earth system. This effect appears destabilising and disruptive. It is possible that life features in negative feedback loops that actually stabilise aspects of the Earth system. In this talk I present new results inspired by an old model, Daisyworld, that explores the possibility that complex systems can self organise into homeostatic states that feature negative feedback. This is contrary to some initial and perhaps still held intuitions about how such systems should behave. |
| 3 Feb | ||
| 17 Feb |
Kieran Alden
|
Pairing experimentation and computer simulation to further our understanding of lymphoid organ development The use of traditional experimental techniques has provided significant insight into how our immune system develops. However, current approaches leave a number of interesting questions unanswered, many of which are very difficult or impossible to address in a laboratory. To further our understanding of how the immune system forms, we are seeking to combine current laboratory techniques with computer simulation. Specifically, we explore the role of different tissue inducer cell populations in the formation of lymphoid organs. These organs, which include lymph nodes, Peyer's Patches, and the spleen, are situated throughout the body and have a key role in triggering an immune response when infection is encountered. In this talk I will describe how we have developed a model of Peyer's Patch development which replicates emergent behaviours that are statistically similar to that observed in the laboratory. I will then demonstrate how we have used the simulator to explore how organ development is affected by changes in physiological conditions, with the aim of both furthering our understanding of the biological system and generating hypotheses which could later be tested using experimental approaches. |
| 2 Mar | Paul Andrews |
The Resilient Futures Project: Demonstrating Future Resilience of UK Critical Infrastructure Resilient Futures is an on-going inter-disciplinary EPSRC funded project investigating the resilience of transport and energy infrastructures to natural and malicious threats in a range of possible future scenarios. Based on simulation models of inter-connected networks, we aim to develop an interactive demonstrator system to operationalise resilience for a range of decision makers and stakeholders. In this talk I will provide an overview of the achievements of the project to date, and describe my role in developing the demonstrator tool that will communicate our understanding of infrastructure resilience, allowing the users to explore the resilience implications of their decision making. |
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| 18 May | Jon Timmis | ROBOT LAB TOUR |
| 1 June | ||
| 15 June | Natasha Jonoska | |
| 29 June | ||