Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2022: Saccades – the fastest human movement

To perceive the world around us, we constantly make rapid eye movements called saccades. Despite being the fastest and most frequent of all human movements, we remain largely unaware of them. To observe this, just try to detect your own saccades in the mirror. Using high-speed recording and presentation devices, we can make your saccades

For the Public

Joint “Meet the scientist” talk with all of Berlin’s seven clusters at Humboldt Labor exhibition, “Die Soziale Intelligenz von Tieren”

Viele Tiere zeigen erstaunliche kognitive Leistungen. Am Beispiel von Fischen wird Dr. Bierbach einige der beachtlichen Geistesleistungen von Tieren aufzeigen – vom Antizipieren des zukünftigen Verhaltens bekannter Artgenossen über das Kopieren bei der Partnerwahl bis zum Synchronschwimmen im Schwarm.

PI Lecture

Pawel Romanczuk, “Modeling of flocking & swarming with stochastic agent-based models”

Abstract: Collective behavior, as exhibited by bird flocks, fish schools or insect swarms, is a fascinating example of self-organized behavior in biology. Mathematical models of flocking were key for the development of our current understanding on how complex complex group-level behaviors may emerge from simple local rules of interaction of close-by individuals. In this lecture

Thursday Morning Talk

Katharina Scheiter (University of Potsdam), “Multimodal learning: Underlying processes and how to support them”

Abstract:Theories of learning from multimodal sources (e.g., combinations of text and pictures, aka multimedia) posit that in order to effectively learn from multimedia, students need to select information from text and pictures, organize the information in memory, and most importantly, integrate the information into one mental model. In the first part of my presentation, I

External Event

MEET THE SCIENTIST at HU Labor with Martin Rolfs, “Movement in the eye of the beholder. How looking shapes visual perception”

Abstract: The eyes are the Marco Polo of the human body — they travel incessantly across the visual world in front of us, curious for interesting or even insightful information. Tracking someone’s eye movements, therefore, provides insights into their perception and cognition — the eyes are indeed a window to the mind. That eye movements

Distinguished Speaker Series

Daniel M. Wolpert (Columbia University), “Contextual inference underlies the learning of sensorimotor repertoires”

Abstract: Humans spend a lifetime learning, storing and refining a repertoire of motor memories. However, it is unknown what principle underlies the way our continuous stream of sensorimotor experience is segmented into separate memories and how we adapt and use this growing repertoire. Here we develop a principled theory of motor learning based on the

PI Lecture

Linda Onnasch (HU), “Effects of Anthropomorphism on Trust and Behavior in work-related HRI”

Abstract:   Anthropomorphic robot features are intended to trigger the activation of social scripts from human-human interaction, thereby offering an intuitive approach to interact with robots. Whereas this seems to be a valid design option for the social domain leading to an increased acceptance of robots, trust and willingness to interact, other domains of human-robot interaction

External Event

Berlin Summit on Robotics 2022

The Berlin Summit on Robotics is a three-days event funded by SCIoI that brings together leading researchers in robotics and related areas to discuss and tackle strategic challenges in robotics research. While conferences and other professional meetings are hectic and dominated by conversations about technical details, the Berlin Summit aims to create an atmosphere in

PI Lecture

SCIoI Open Day 2022 (hybrid event)

This Thursday 15 September (2-5pm) is SCIoI’s Open Day! On this day, SCIoI offers visitors the chance to catch a glimpse of our cluster, its activities, and open positions. During our Open Day, prospective applicants as well as other interested persons can visit the cluster, have a (virtual or physical) look around the spaces and

Thursday Morning Talk

Alan Tump, Dominik Deffner, David Mezey (Science of Intelligence), “How cognitive computational modeling can help us better understand principles underlying collective intelligence”

Abstract: Collective dynamics play a crucial role in everyday decision-making. Whether social influence promotes the spread of accurate information, and ultimately results in collective intelligence, or leads to false information cascades and maladaptive social contagion depends on the cognitive mechanisms underlying social interactions. In our talk, we will argue that cognitive modeling, in tandem with

PI Lecture

Jens Krause (HU Berlin), “Mexican Waves: The Adaptive Value of Collective Behaviour”.

Abstract The collective behaviour of animals has attracted considerable attention in recent years, with many studies exploring how local interactions between individuals can give rise to global group properties. The functional aspects of collective behaviour are less well studied, especially in the field and relatively few studies have investigated the adaptive benefits of collective behaviour

Thursday Morning Talk

David Bierbach (Science of Intelligence), “Anticipation in fish-robot interactions”

Abstract: I will present our current research involving the Robofish. I will put a special focus on our latest research paper that found live fish to be able to anticipate predictably behaving Robofish both in regard to final movement locations as well as movement dynamics. This talk will take place in person at SCIoI