Our course is a master’s level seminar series on collective behavior research, combined with multiple interactive elements. The course is funded by the Berlin Senate together with the Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence in Berlin.
Course description:
Course Duration:
15 April 2025 – 15 June 2025
Language:
English
Content:
The course is divided into a theoretical and a practical block. The theoretical block consists of ten lectures (10 x 90 mins), a journal club (1 x 60 mins) and an ethics panel discussion (1 x 120 mins). The practical block consists of a two-day programming workshop and a lab tour. Explore the course components in more detail below.
During the lecture series we will cover the following topics:
Collective decision-making in human groups, collective behavior in various animal species, models of collective behavior and motion, the sensory basis of collective behavior, social structures, perception- and cognition-informed models, observing collective animal behavior, heterogeneous systems, swarm robotics, bio-hybrid systems and artificial life
Timeline:
The timeline is updated on a weekly basis. Please see detailed information about the course activities below:
Prerequisites
- Fluency in English
- Basic programming skills in python3
Completion Requirements:
To complete the course and collect 3ECTS (2SWS, not graded), participants are required to fulfill the following criteria:
- 90% in person participation rate on lectures and ethics discussion. (rare exceptions are possible on an individual basis)
- Preparing one question about the ethical considerations of collective behavior research before the ethics discussion.
- One of the following theoretical requirements: EITHER Written ca. two page essay about a selected topic from the lecture series
- OR a short, ca. ten minutes presentation and discussion moderation during the journal club
- Participation in and finishing tasks during the two-day programming workshop. (Can be finished and submitted on the spot or after the workshop remotely)
Schedule and Venue:
Theoretical Lectures and Ethics Discussion:
When: Tuesdays, 14:00-15:30
Where: TU Berlin, MAR Building (Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin), Room 2.057Lab Tour and Practical Sessions:
When: 08.07.2025 and 15.07.2025, 10:00-12:30 and 13:30-17:00
Where: TU Berlin, MAR Building (Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin), Room 2.013Course Organizer:
David Mezey, Email: mezeydavid@gmail.com
In person consultation appointments can be booked via email.Supervising PIs:
Guillermo Gallego, Pawel Romanczuk, Ralf Kurvers
(Cover photo by Francisco Davids from Pexels)
