[alife] PhD Student Place, Denmark, modelling insect and fish hair sensors

[Titus Brown]

Open Ph.D. position associated with the CILIA project, start date 1 
September 2006.

	Deadline for Applications: 12:00 on 1 August 2006.

	Please follow the application procedure described on the main
	University of Southern Denmark web site:

		http://www.jobs.sdu.dk/vis_stilling.php?id=2735&lang=eng

	and clearly mark your application "CILIA PROJECT STUDENTSHIP"
	_and_ Job Id. 064001.


How do insects detect and escape from predators? How do fish sense
approaching predators or prey? The CILIA project (www.cilia-bionics.org)
is investigating the use of hairs (cilia) for sensing flow in fluid
surrounding an insect or fish in order to identify the properties of those
natural sensors and the potential for applying their principles in
engineering.  The ultimate goal is to be able to map the structure of an
insect or fish sensory organ to its functional properties, and vice versa.

A Ph. D. position is available at the Maersk Institute, University of 
Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense, associated with CILIA.  Work at SDU 
focusses on modelling of insect and fish sensors, in particular the 
modelling of the interaction between the hairs and the surrounding fluid, 
modelling the nerve cells of the sensor system and their interconnections, 
and modelling the properties of arrays of hair sensors and their 
associated neural cells; and using these models to infer the function of a 
given animal's sensor system from its structure and to infer the structure 
appropriate to particular specified functional characteristics.

Applicants must have a good MSc degree in a discipline relevant to 
computational modelling of neural systems (e.g. computational 
neuroscience, artificial intelligence, artificial life) and should have 
experience of computer programming.

The CILIA consortium comprises experts in insect biology, fish biology, 
biomechanics, computational modelling, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, 
and robotic modelling, spread across a consortium of 8 partners.  The 
working language of the project is English. The appointed Ph. D. student 
should expect considerable interaction with other groups in the 
consortium. The principal supervisor will be Dr.  John Hallam of the 
Maersk Institute, with co-supervision from other consortium members where 
appropriate.

The position is funded jointly and equally by the CILIA project, the 
Faculty of Engineering of the University of Southern Denmark, and the 
Danish Research Academy though the Graduate School in Sense Organs, 
Nervous Systems, Behaviour and Communication (SNAK -- 
http://www.biology.sdu.dk/Center_for_Lydkommunikation/dk/SNAK%20GB/Index.html).