Welcome 2017 Backyard Brains Fellows!
From left to right: Top: Greg Gage (Not a Fellow), Zachary, Jaimie, Spencer, Nathan, Ilya Bottom: Joud, Christy, Haley
It’s early on a warm Ann Arbor morning and the office is buzzing with excitement! Our Summer 2017 research fellows are here! Today, our fellows are getting to know the staff and space at Backyard Brains, but more importantly, they’re planning, because for the next ten weeks they will be working on neuroscience and engineering research projects. The projects include work with Squids, Songbirds, Dragonflies, Mosquitoes, EEG recordings, and Electric Fish. The fellows work to create inexpensive, DIY methodology (the BYB way) to tackle their research problems and then present their findings at a poster presentation and in a journal publication. The fellows also develop experimental-grade versions of their projects so that other students and teachers can perform the experiments themselves!
Meet the Fellows, See the Projects
The fellows are off to a great start! Check out their blog posts introducing their projects:
- Zach – Identifying Bird Songs
- Ilya – Octopus Learning and Behavior
- Spencer –Optogenetics with the FlyPad
- Jaimie – Electrophysiology of Dragonflies
- Nathan – Decoding Images in the Brain
- Christy – Behavioral Study of Baby Squids
- Joud – Improving Memory Formation During Sleep
- Haley – Learning about the Mosquito Love Song
Progress
The team has been working hard to bring their projects to life. Check out these blog posts on their rig construction and data collection efforts!
- Zach – When Computers Hear the Birds Sing
- Ilya – Studying Aggressive Behavior in Octopodes
- Spencer –The Taste Preferences of Fruit Flies
- Jaimie – Recording from the Visual Neurons in a Dragonfly
- Nathan – Detecting the Detection of Faces
- Christy – Recording the Behavior of Squid Hatchlings
- Joud – Learning and Deep Sleep
- Haley – Harmonics of Mosquito Mating
After a morning of introductions and orientation, we took a quick break for lunch, then hurried back to the office to perform some recordings. For many of our fellows, working with our SpikerBoxes was their first opportunity to perform real neuron recordings! This is just the beginning of a summer of hands on science, rapid prototyping, troubleshooting, and data collection.
Quick Italian Buffet for Lunch
Recording from Earthworm neurons. Spikes!
As part of the fellowship, the students will be keeping you updated with frequent blog posts. These posts are a great window in the world of research! From start to finish, you can follow along with our fellows as they experience the triumphs and pitfalls of scientific inquiry.
You’ll be hearing a lot about our fellows and their projects for the next ten weeks. They’re excited to introduce themselves and their projects to you soon. Keep an eye out here, on our Facebook page, and Twitter for project updates and more!