Symposium

Sep. 2nd (Fri.) (first day of the meeting) 9:30-12:00

Title of symposium: “Mechanisms of environmental adaptation and the application for robotics engineering”

Organizers: Kanta Treao (Hokkaido Univ., JSPS DC1), Syunsuke Shigaki (Tokyo Tech., JSPS DC1), Hirono Ohashi (Tokyo Metropolitan Univ., JSPS DC2)

The aim of symposium:

Animals change their behavior and morphology adaptively depending on the surrounding environment. In recent years, the details of this adaptation mechanism have been clarified by using genetics technology. In this symposium, therefore, we will introduce the elucidation of behavioral change mechanism based on the experience of reproductive and foraging, and an attempt to apply an environmental adaptation ability to robotics.

Speakers and tiles of talks:

1. Hideyuki Matsumoto (Harvard Univ.)

"Midbrain dopamine neurons signal aversion in a reward-context-dependent manner"

2. Atsushi Ugajin (Tamagawa Univ., JSPS PD)

"Analyses of conserved and unique immediate early genes in honeybee"

3. Saori Yokoi (NIBB, JSPS PD)

"Vasotocin system regulates mate-guarding behavior in medaka fish"

4. Masahiro Shimizu (Osaka Univ.)

"Bio-machine Hybrid Robot Based on Mechanobiology"

Sep. 3rd (Sat.) (second day of the meeting) 10:00-12:30

Title of symposium:“From neurons to bio-inspired flight: toward comprehensive understanding of animal flight”

Organizer: Noriyasu Ando (Tokyo Univ.)

The aim of symposium:

Flapping flight is an important ability for animals to survive, and its stability and maneuverability have been attracted researchers in various fields. The control of animal flight is achieved by multiple factors: neural activities, muscle contractions, wing movements, aerodynamic force production, and body movements interact with environment. The recent progresses in optogenetic neuroscience, imaging techniques, computational simulations, and fabrication technologies have enabled us to understand the control strategies behind animal flight. Focusing on the small-sized flying animals such as insects and hummingbirds, four speakers present the cutting-edge of their works, from neurons to bio-inspired flight. This symposium focuses on the important question in the study on animal locomotion: “what is controlled and what is uncontrolled?” Animal locomotion, as well as flying is achieved by active (neuromuscular system) and passive (body structure and mechanics) processes. The animal flight is an excellent model to understand how small-sized animals avail the passive properties as well as the active physiological mechanisms. Furthermore, the small-sized animal flight is a useful model for the development of bio-inspired micro-air-vehicles; therefore, this symposium will also provide useful inspirations for members who are interested in biomimetics.

Speakers and titles of talks:

1． Shigehiro Namiki (Tokyo Univ. / HHMI Janelia)

“Descending neuron function in fly flight”

2． Noriyasu Ando (Tokyo Univ.)

“Flexible body: how do neurogenic signals control wing kinematics?”

3．Sridhar Ravi (Bielefeld Univ.)

“Rolling with the flow, combining active and passive modes to facilitate flight control in complex winds”

4．Hiroto Tanaka (Tokyo Inst. Tech.)

“Building insect-scale biomimetic flapping-wing robots”

Sep. 4th (Sun.) (third day of the meeting) 9:30-12:00

Title of symposium:“”

Organizer: Mamiko Ozaki

The aim of symposium:

Speakers and titles of talks:

1. Shuji Shigenobu (National Institute for Basic Biology)

"Facing big data: challenges in genomics of non-model organisms"

2. Miki Haseyama (Hokkaido Univ.)

“Associative image search: A new discovery tool for finding relationship between organisms’ microstructures and functions”

3. Tomiki Kazawa (Univ. Tokyo)

"Integrating multimodal knowledge of insect brain via constructing biophysically detailed neural circuit simulations"

Please prepare your own PC for your talk. VAGA and HDMI cables are available. Mac users should prepare an adaptor between PC and VAGA or HDMI connector. If you can not bring your PC, please let us know it.