Paul M
- Research Program Mentor
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Expertise
experimental physics, optics, neuroscience, decision making
Project ideas
Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
Simulated phototaxis
Light is bad news for larvae: It puts them at risk of desiccation and increases their chance of predation. As a result, larvae move away from light, down light gradients from brighter areas to darker areas in some probabilistic way. The underlying computation is unknown, but by modeling this dynamic and comparing simulated paths to actual paths, it may be possible to tease out details of how a larva computes whether it is more beneficial to turn or keep going straight when faced with an increase or decrease of light intensity.