Human brains and vision-based robotics require intensive computation to recognize visual pattern features in various contexts and augmentations, known as invariant pattern recognition. The hummingbird hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum) similarly uses pattern features on flowers to select suitable foraging sites, with only a fraction of the ‘computational power’. Aiming to understand how they do so with such efficiency, we will use behavioural, neural, and computational methods to uncover the algorithmic basis of (invariant) pattern recognition in insect pollinators.

In a spacetime we have one time dimensions and multiple space dimensions. In our reality we experience three space-like dimensions. Now in differential geometry, nothing keeps us from considering manifolds with multiple time-like dimensions. In this project we study algebraic structures, in particular the group SO(p,q), which describe the dynamics and the geometry of so-called pseudo-Riemannian hyperbolic spaces with at least one time dimension.

Despite extensive research in personalized medicine, promising personalized therapies still fail to translate into clinical practice. In my research project, I aim to construct a pathway model that predicts the effects of potential therapies by combining mechanistic modeling and experimental approaches to meet ideal criteria for facilitating the translation of research to patients.

Single magnetic molecules can be used as building blocks to construct new artificial spin systems which are interesting for future quantum devices. We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) combined with electron spin resonance (ESR) to construct and investigate such spin systems on a surface. This enables the study of fundamental spin properties on the atomic scale and exploring novel magnetic phenomena in multi-spin systems.

Collaborating with the LV Prasad Eye institute, we investigate sight recovery individuals with a history of transient congenital blindness due to cataracts to unveil the neural mechanisms of sensitive periods in brain development. More specifically, we investigate higher cortical representations and whether and how they emerge if visual input arrives delayed e.g., not before mid-childhood. The present PhD project will focus on object representations and how they emerge in the interaction with other visual areas. We expect a better understanding of how early experience shapes adult brain connectivity.