Universidad Buenos Aires Researcher Yair Barnatan seconds to Newcastle University

Universidad Buenos Aires PhD researcher Yair Barnatan recently completed a 4 month secondment for ULTRACEPT at partner Newcastle University (UNEW) in the UK from July to November 2022.

During my secondment at project partner UNEW in the UK, I undertook research on ULTRACEPT’s Work Packages 1 and 2 Visual Neural Systems Modelling for near range emergent collision detection and Brain-inspired vision systems for long-range hazard perception.

Yair Barnatan from Universidad Buenos Aires visiting Newcastle University
Yair Barnatan from Universidad Buenos Aires visiting Newcastle University

The secondment provided me with an opportunity to meet and work with UNEW ULTRACEPT lead Dr Claire Rind and her colleagues at the Biosciences Institute. I was able to further progress my research by making use of the Electron Microscopy Research Services facilities such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). During my time at UNEW I carried out:

  • Sectioning with ultramicrotomy embedded crab’s brains.
  • Section of ultrathins and montage on grids
  • Grids preparation
  • TEM sessions
  • Preparation of result figures of the taken pictures.
  • Discussion of the results with both of my supervisors.
Yair Barnatan with Newcastle University ULTRACEPT researchers Claire Rind and Peter Simmons
Yair Barnatan with Newcastle University ULTRACEPT researchers Claire Rind and Peter Simmons

In addition, I spent time preparing my conference poster,  ‘Functional evidence of the role of the crab lobula plate as optic flow processing center’ to present at the 2022 Congress for Neuroethology held in Portugal.

During my secondment at UNEW, I also attended an online ULTRACEPT sandpit session facilitated by Dr Jiannan Zhao on ‘Looming Detection: A unique instance of motion detection, from Neural Computing to Drone Applications’.

I enjoyed my time at UNEW, and hope to return in the near future to complete more secondment months.

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