Keynote Speakers

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Haui-Ti received his first degree in physics and biology at University of Massachusettes Amherst. Then he obtained his PhD from Tufts University in the areas of biomechanics and bio-inspired robotics. His PhD focused on soft mechanics and the development of soft robotics. Since then, Huai-Ti dived into visual guidance research in his postdoctoral training first in avian flight at Harvard University and then in dragonfly prey interception at Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus. Combining his training in biomechanics, soft robotics, behaviour modelling, animal flight, and systems neuroscience, he started his lab in 2017 at Imperial College London focusing on visual guidance in insect aerial interactions and the neuromechanics of flexible wings.

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My work focuses on how animals turn the noisy sensory world into useful signals that help them survive. I am particularly interested in strategies that may underlie the magnetic sense, the sensory mechanisms and processing of which is not yet well characterized in any animal. I received my PhD in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2025 for my research into this problem in the Caribbean spiny lobster.

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Nak-seung Patrick Hyun is an assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. His research focuses on the control-theoretic aspects of bio-inspired robots, emphasizing systems with extreme behaviors, such as flapping vehicles and impulsive systems. He is interested in the broad range of nonlinear control, including optimization-based control, geometric control, and contraction-based control. His research program provides a cyclic learning cycle between biology, mathematical system theory, and robotics. He was formerly a research associate at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory. He received a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in 2018, an M.S. degree in mathematics in 2013, and an M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 2013 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award at Purdue ECE department in 2024. His previous research at Georgia Tech addresses a new framework of causal modeling of impulsive systems and optimal safe path planning for multi-agent systems.

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Yash Sondhi is an incoming assistant professor in biology at Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio, currently finishing up a postdoc at Georgia Tech with Dr. Simon Sponberg. He earned his PhD at Florida International University in Miami with Dr. Jamie Theobald, studying how moths and butterflies see the world—specifically, how moth eyes and brains are adapted to function exceptionally well under dim light. He uses multiple techniques, including genetics, animal behaviour, and neuroethology, to examine how the senses—sight, hearing, and smell—have evolved in day- and night-flying insects. The lab will focus on how artificial light disorients insects at night and alters their circadian activity, vision and flight, while also testing strategies to mitigate light pollution.

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Dr Ryan Palmer is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the University of Bristol’s School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology. His expertise lies in interdisciplinary collaborative research, having used applied mathematics and data science to advance biological theories, healthcare planning, and industrial practices. Ryan has predominantly worked in sensory biology focussing on the mechanical sensory systems of arthropods and how they detect and use electrical fields as sensory cues. His work in fluid dynamics has covered several topics in complex coupled fluid-body interactions. These two areas of expertise unite in his current work towards a theoretical and practical theory of the multi-sensory, multi-scale processes of arthropod hair sensing.

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Payel did her PhD from NCBS, India under the guidance of Sanjay Sane. In Sanjay 's lab, she worked with hawkmoths and looked at the sensory feedback mechanisms underlying gaze stabilization through behavioral investigations. She is currently doing her post-doctoral work in Brad Dickerson's lab at Princeton Neuroscience Institute where she is exploring the sensory control of head movements in Drosophila through genetic and imaging tools.

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Matthew Yedutenko is a postdoctoral researcher in bioinspired AI at MAVLab, TU Delft. With a background in neuroscience, his research focuses on applying neuroscientific principles to robotics and AI to develop advanced robotic systems and deepen understanding of neuroscience.

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Perrin E Schiebel is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Montana State University where she uses a combination of animal biomechanics and robotics experiments to improve the capability of all-terrain robots via intelligent mechanical design. Prior to MSU she was a postdoc in the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory with Robert J Wood, and earned her Ph.D. in Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology working with Daniel I Goldman.

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Jack received a BSc in Biochemistry at Imperial College London, and a PhD investigating the neuroethology of predatory flying insects at the University of Cambridge. After his PhD, Jack returned to Imperial College to work as a postdoc in Professor Krapp’s lab in the Department of Bioengineering, where he investigates the relationship between optic flow processing and goal-oriented behaviour in butterflies.

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Ariane is a VENI independent postdoc at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, working on insect flight in turbulence. Her research aims at probing atmospheric turbulence characteristics using insect flight kinematics and evolution. During her PhD at the ENS de Lyon, France, she worked on fundamental aerodynamics studying a wind-swept pendulum. Parallelly to her main research line, her long-standing interest for zoology led her to develop a couple projects on animal flight among which one on butterfly flight in microgravity. Started in 2019, this project has now finally taken flight onboard the AirZeroG plane from Novespace this April and tackles the question of how lift requirements shapes butterfly flapping patterns.

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I'm a research scientist (formerly postdoc) in the Riffell Lab at University of Washington. I’m interested in insect sensory systems (especially the visual system), how these sensory systems affect the behavioral choices of insects, and how these choices structure the distribution of these insects in space and time. I’ve worked on aspects of visual ecology in several insects including cabbage white butterflies, stable flies and most recently mosquitos. My current project investigates how olfactory cues can shape the visual preferences of mosquitos resulting in different visual preferences during nectar-seeking, host-seeking and oviposition behaviors.

Ben completed his undergraduate degree in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, specialising in control theory. While there, he led a team of 60 student engineers in designing and building an electric race car from the ground up, and his work on a sensorless motor controller was recognised with the award for best electrical master's project. Looking to apply his skills to a new area, he pursued a PhD with Holger Krapp and Huai-Ti Lin, exploring control in insects and insect-inspired systems—which he is due to complete this summer.