1. Human-Honeyguide Communication
What are the critical features and minimal cues in human and honeyguide vocalizations that enable inter-species cooperation?
- In collaboration with Prof. Claire Spottiswoode FRS and her team at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithhology at the University of Cape Town, we are using ideas from math, physics, and computer science to study the rare partnership between humans and the greater honeyguide.
2. Adaptability of the Honeycomb Structure
How do honeybees adapt their honeycomb to build coherent structures as their hives?
- Collecting data using carefully designed 3D-printed panels to test the response of the bees.
- Using X-ray Microscopy to identify building modes and patterns in the honeycomb structure built on our experimental frames, under various geometric frustrations.
- Implementing mathematical models that reproduce the patterns observed in our experiments.
3. Collective Resource Distribution in Honeybees
How do honeybees communicate to locate fed individuals during trophallaxis exchanges?
- Collecting in-lab video recordings with two groups of fed and deprived honeybees.
- Using mathematical tools such as topological data analysis to characterize the process of food distribution and detect behavioral regime shifts.
- Developing data-driven agent-based models of the food distribution process to estimate and understand the local rules that govern the resource distribution process.
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