The Fellows Summer Experience: Tigers Game and July Fourth Parade

One of the most attractive things about a BYB Summer Fellowship is the chance to spend a summer in colorful Ann Arbor. We changed the program name from an internship to a fellowship because of the lasting connections made throughout the summer, and these connections are made possible by the things we all do together! Before we get to some project updates, here’s a little bit about our summer together so far.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Last summer, we sponsored a student whose visa required participation in a “cultural appreciation” event, so we piled into a bus and headed over to Comerica Park for some of America’s favorite sport, baseball. It was such a hit, we went again this year! Luckily, Backyard Brains signature color  (orange!) matches pretty well with the Tigers brand 😉

Fourth of July Parade

Another celebrated BYB Summer Fellowship pastime is the Jaycee’s Fourth of July Parade! Each year, the fellows design and build a costume representing their summer research and wear it as BYB walks in the annual parade! Check out some of the looks from this year:

Meet the Fellows, See the Projects

Catch up with our Fellows! Since our Fellowship started, each fellow has been hard at work on their summer research. Check out these posts introducing each Fellowship research track:

• Jess – No Nose, No Mouth, No Problems: the Silkmoth Story
• Jessica – Introducing Pavlov’s…Plants?
• Yifan – Know Your Birds
• Ilya – Neurorobot Vision
• Aaron – Nothing In Life Is Free
• Dan – Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em…Shrimps?!
• Anusha – Creating Professor X
• Molly – Bee-search: How Do Bees See
• Maria – Electric Relaxation
• Anastasiya – Secret Life of Jellyfish
• Ben – Python

First Progress Reports:

If you’ve been dying for an update on what we’ve been researching, fret no more! Feast your eyes on our first batch of updates!

• Jess – Becoming a #MothMom
• Jessica – Plant Nanny: If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try, try again
• Yifan – Human, Quiet, Crow: Teaching Computers to Distinguish Birdsong
• Ilya – Neurorobot on Wheels
• Dan – Mantis Shrimp: I Want You To Do Me A Favor. I Want You To Hit Me As Hard As You Can
• Molly – Bee-lieve You Can and You’re Halfway There: The Prototyping Process
• Aaron – Is It Actually My Choice To Not Title This Post?
• Anusha – In Search of the Mu Rhythm 
• Anastasiya – Jellies, and GUIs, and Costumes, Oh My!
• Maria – Meditation Data or Bust

Second Progress Reports:

Science marches ever onward! The Fellows have kept plugging away on their research in between all the fun and games, and here are their newest updates!

• Jess – Silk Moths, Enter The Arena: Binary Choice Paradigm
• Jessica – A Peagrim’s Progress, or, “Let’s get down to pea-zness”
• Ilya – Neurorobot Video Transmission In Progress
• Yifan – Volume Threshold for Songbird Audio
• Dan – Houston, we have a datum
• Molly – Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder: studies with a hive begin!
• Aaron– We don’t have free will. Change my mind.
• Anastasiya – On Set in the New Jellyfish Mobile Recording Chamber
• Anusha – …And I Almost Read His Mind!
• Maria – Fresh, organic, locally sourced meditation research

Conclusions:

The summer is winding down, and with it our Fellowship. While scientific exploration is never really finished, here are some wrap-ups from our Fellows on the projects they have devoted their inquiry to over the past weeks.

• Jess – Finishing the Silkmoth Story
• Jessica – New kid on the block
• Ilya – Quicker and Smarter: Neurorobot on the Hunt
• Yifan – Take a Step Back and look into the future
• Dan – Shrimp! Heaven! Now!
• Molly – From bee-fuddled to a bee-stower of knowledge: the end of my bee journey
• Anusha – Movement Mind Reader: Hopefully not the end…
• Ben – Summer Summary
• Anastasiya – The End of My Jellyfish Summer (Or Is It?)

Bee-lieve You Can and You’re Halfway There: The Prototyping Process

In my last post I claimed my tunnel was done and ready for testing, but boy was I wrong! I’ve spent the last week or so adding supports, finding a way to cover it to prevent the bees from escaping, covering the surroundings to eliminate landmarks (anything in the environment that lets bees keep track of where they are), and setting up my camera for recording and subsequent tracking.

My original tunnel setup

My mesh tunnel covering

My original cardboard landmark removal setup

           At first I tried mesh to keep the bees in the tunnel, but still allow recording without glare. Unfortunately, I found that bees liked to crawl on the mesh rather than fly, and it was tricky to keep them from escaping. I then tried acrylic covers sprayed with hairspray to reduce glare, and once I moved the light source that worked well. It was a bit unstable, so I had to glue most of the tunnel together. To eliminate landmarks, I first tried using cardboard with white paper glued to it, but that proved too unstable. I then suspended black cloth above the tunnel, and that seems to be working well. Finally, I built a camera stand to suspend a GoPro above the tunnel.

My final tunnel setup with acrylic covers and camera stand

           The logical next step was to test bees in my new and improved tunnel, so I had to learn how to catch them. Luckily, my yard has a plentiful supply of flowering bushes and my roommate had a delightfully eccentric childhood hobby of catching bees (shout out to the younger version of fellow Fellow Maria!) After some coaching and moral support, I got pretty good at catching our pollinating friends without harming them, and releasing them after a few hours of testing.

Catching bees in my yard

When bees don’t want me to catch them

           A couple days ago, I finally got a bee to fly in the tunnel and forage at the feeder, the behavior I’d been looking for. The bee showed up well on the camera and we were able to track its movement. However, catching bees outside won’t get me enough numbers for my experiment, so I’ve been lucky enough to meet a local beekeeper who will let me set up outside his hives and look for some foraging in action. Hoping I get to do that soon!

                                                  Local beehives!

Learning the basics of bee-ing a beekeeper!

Tech Trek and Fellow Updates

Fresh, organic, locally sourced meditation researchLast Friday, Backyard Brains once again opened our doors (even wider–they’re always open during business hours!) to our fellow and aspiring citizen scientists as a part of this year’s Ann Arbor Tech Trek!  Dozens of local tech companies had their doors open to the public that evening and we, like our friends around town, had people streaming in from open to close! BYB has participated for the last few years, and it is always a hit.

For four hours on Friday afternoon, we were packed with people from all walks of life who were interested in learning about Backyard Brains and neuroscience! It was a day of education, outreach, and new connections. In the office, we demonstrated our classic, the Human to Human Interface, as well as The Claw, and we even helped people control Mario with their eye blinks!

Our Summer Fellows also got in on the action, presenting their work down in the Makerspace at All Hands Active. This was the first chance our fellows got to share their science with the community, letting people in on their secrets and experiment rigs. For example, Silkmoth Fellow Jess was running experiments on a cockroach antenna during Tech Trek: Some kids were watching when she used different odors to try to get a reaction in the antenna, as pictured below:

It was definitely a unique opportunity, full of its own trials. According to Mantis Shrimp Fellow Dan, “I was trying to collect behavioral data with the mantis shrimp while his implants were falling out, and people would come by who obligingly ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the prep and politely listened to my spiel about EMGs and the strike. I’ve never presented about my research while actively conducting it.”

Meet the Fellows, See the Projects

Catch up with our Fellows! Since our Fellowship started, each fellow has been hard at work on their summer research. Saw a cool project and you want to know more? Check out these posts introducing each Fellowship research track:

• Jess – No Nose, No Mouth, No Problems: the Silkmoth Story
• Jessica – Introducing Pavlov’s…Plants?
• Yifan – Know Your Birds
• Ilya – Neurorobot Vision
• Aaron – Nothing In Life Is Free
• Dan – Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em…Shrimps?!
• Anusha – Creating Professor X
• Molly – Bee-search: How Do Bees See
• Maria – Electric Relaxation
• Anastasiya – Secret Life of Jellyfish
• Ben – Python

First Progress Reports:

If you’ve been dying for an update on what we’ve been researching, fret no more! Feast your eyes on our first batch of updates!

• Jess – Becoming a #MothMom
• Jessica – Plant Nanny: If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try, try again
• Yifan – Human, Quiet, Crow: Teaching Computers to Distinguish Birdsong
• Ilya – Neurorobot on Wheels
• Dan – Mantis Shrimp: I Want You To Do Me A Favor. I Want You To Hit Me As Hard As You Can
• Molly – Bee-lieve You Can and You’re Halfway There: The Prototyping Process
• Aaron – Is It Actually My Choice To Not Title This Post?
• Anusha – In Search of the Mu Rhythm 
• Anastasiya – Jellies, and GUIs, and Costumes, Oh My!
• Maria – Meditation Data or Bust

Second Progress Reports:

Science marches ever onward! The Fellows have kept plugging away on their research in between all the fun and games, and here are their newest updates!

• Jess – Silk Moths, Enter The Arena: Binary Choice Paradigm
• Jessica – A Peagrim’s Progress, or, “Let’s get down to pea-zness”
• Ilya – Neurorobot Video Transmission In Progress
• Yifan – Volume Threshold for Songbird Audio
• Dan – Houston, we have a datum
• Molly – Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder: studies with a hive begin!
• Aaron – We don’t have free will. Change my mind.
• Anastasiya – On Set in the New Jellyfish Mobile Recording Chamber
• Anusha – …And I Almost Read His Mind!
• Maria – Fresh, organic, locally sourced meditation research

Conclusions:

The summer is winding down, and with it our Fellowship. While scientific exploration is never really finished, here are some wrap-ups from our Fellows on the projects they have devoted their inquiry to over the past weeks.

• Jess – Finishing the Silkmoth Story
• Jessica – New kid on the block
• Ilya – Quicker and Smarter: Neurorobot on the Hunt
• Yifan – Take a Step Back and look into the future
• Dan – Shrimp! Heaven! Now!
• Molly – From bee-fuddled to a bee-stower of knowledge: the end of my bee journey
• Anusha – Movement Mind Reader: Hopefully not the end…
• Ben – Summer Summary
• Anastasiya – The End of My Jellyfish Summer (Or Is It?)