To aid and support the continued collaboration and knowledge exchange of the ULTRACEPT researchers, the consortium hosts online quarterly ‘Sandpit Sessions’. The aim of these sessions is to provide researchers an opportunity to share their work in an informal forum where they can raise and discuss issues and challenges in order to gain support and feedback from the group.
Researchers Xuelong Sun, a student of the University of Lincoln, and Dr Qingbing Fu, Postdoc at Guangzhou University, recently hosted an online Sandpit Session on the 14h May 2021. The theme of the session was ‘What we can learn from insect: Unveil insect navigation mechanism’.
Sandpit Session 3: What we can learn from insects: Unveil insect navigation mechanism
- Date: Friday, 14th May 2021
- Time: UK 10:00; China 17:00; Germany 11:00; Argentina 06:00; Malaysia 17:00; Japan 18:00.
- Facilitators: Xuelong Sun, PhD student, University of Lincoln, Qinbing Fu, Postdoc, Guangzhou University (chair)
- Location: MS Teams
| Sandpit Schedule | ||
| UK Time | Item | Presenters |
| 10:00-10:05 | Arrival and welcome | Qinbing Fu,
Xuelong Sun |
| 10:05-10:35 | Insect navigation
Many insects are highly capable navigators, with abilities that rival those of mammals and other vertebrates. I will give a review of insect navigation from the following three aspects: 1) the rich array of insect navigation behaviours, 2) the known brain regions and neuropils related to navigation tasks and 3) computation models aiming to unravel the neural mechanism of insect navigation. Then, from the computation model point of view, I will report our work filling the current gaps of understanding insect navigation especially the visual navigation and optimal cue integration. Thus, the potentially useful role that computation model plays in understanding biology system will be demonstrated, which closes this session and opens the topic to be discussed in next session. |
Xuelong Sun |
| 10:35-11:10 | Group discussion about the session topic:
What’s the role of computation model and biorobotics in understanding biology system? A group discussion where attendees can raise questions and discuss the topic of research and potential cooperation that was presented. |
Facilitated by Qinbing Fu and Xuelong Sun |
| 11.10-11.25 | Open forum discussion
An opportunity for attendees to ask the group for advice regarding any challenges they are facing with their own research. |
Facilitated by Qinbing Fu and Xuelong Sun |
| 11:25-11:30 | Final comments & volunteer for a facilitator for the next session
We are planning our next sandpit session for July 2021. |
Xuelong Sun |
You can learn more about Xuelong’s research on his post about his 12 month ULTRACEPT secondment to Guangzhou University.