Fellows

Judit Abdai; MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Hungary

My research primarily focuses on animal-robot interactions, I mainly investigate the behaviour and cognition of family dogs and pet cats. Within animal-robot interaction, I study social perception, investigate what are the important behaviours that can facilitate the acceptance of a robot as a social partner by human and non-human species, and use the animal-robot interaction framework as a methodological approach to investigate animal behaviour and cognition in general.

Opetunde Adepoju; LAUTECH, Nigeria

My previous works are based on the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare and education. My interests include, but are not limited to, the ethics of AI, Africa's adoption of AI for economic growth, and driving indigenous AI innovation for global impact. In my spare time, I do research and write papers. I am open to have a chat with anyone interested in AI or building AI technology for humanity and global impact.

Ruairidh McLennan Battleday; Princeton University

2019 DISI Alum

In my research, I study generalization: how our inference about the novel and unknown is guided by our evolved and encountered past. More broadly, I am interested in furthering our understanding of cognition and intelligence by uniting insights from high-level theories and ideologies of the brain, mind, and computation.

Jonathan Bowen; Rotman Institute of Philosophy; Western University

2019 DISI Alum

I'm interested in developing new ways of thinking about what psychological beings are. My strategy is to re-assemble historical theoretical works and classic empirical studies (principally from the American pragmatists, functionalists, and ecological psychologists) under two guiding convictions that have been historically opposed: first, behaviourism: that the subject matter of psychology is the directly observable, overt activity of organisms; and second, folk psychological realism: that psychological states like beliefs, emotions, intentions, desires, and the like are real and paramount psychological phenomena. This entails trying to re-describe behaviour in a manner that unifies both "thick" intentional idiom and directly observable behavioural dynamics.

Mutale Julius Caesar; Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation (ITFC) Field Station

My work with Bwindi Gorilla research project involves daily gorilla monitoring, collection of social behavior and feeding ecology on Bwindi habituated mountain gorillas for Dr. Martha Robbins of Max Planck Institute. I also manage and supervise the gorilla field team leaders in field data collection and management.

I am mostly interested in exploring how increased habituation and ecotourism of mountains gorillas may affect their behavioral change of primates but also their long-term conservation.

I am also interested in making connections and chatting with other fellows through exchanging ideas that would help in writing grant winning proposals for long term research and conservation of primates.

Devin J. Cornell; Sociology Department, Duke University

2018 DISI Alum

I use computational methods to study cultural processes through which organizations and individuals produce and are shaped by meaning.

Efrén Cruz Cortés; Pennsylvania State University, Department of Statistics

2018, 2019 DISI Alum

I research the effects of automated decision making (mostly enforced by machine learning algorithms) on vulnerable groups of society. In particular, the feedback processes through which inequality, discrimination and oppressive structures in general are reproduced. Understanding such processes allows us to enact policies that reduce such phenomena at a systemic level.

Cristina-Ioana Galusca; CNRS Université Grenoble Alpes

I am a developmental scientist primarily interested in the development of two aspects of human social cognition. My main interest lies in understanding the mechanisms that enable human infants to acquire their complex cultures (language, actions, gestures) effortlessly and efficiently. I am also interested in the role of experience in evaluating the character of individuals from faces and social interactions.

Ketika Garg; University of California Merced

I am a third year Ph.D. student in Cognitive and Information Sciences with an interdisciplinary background in science and a Master's in Biology. My work looks at foraging and general search problems from experimental and theoretical perspectives. I'm largely interested in cognitive evolution, collective dynamics and complex systems.

Patrick House; Kernel.co

I am broadly interested in all the ways people are shaped and the kinds of questions and answers people ask/give, as the shapee. I've researched mind-control parasites, Egyptian cat mummies, and brain-machine interfaces all centered on the idea of how we should consider the divide between self and non-self. To me, there is little to no difference between a tiny protozoan, a computer chip, or a sci-fi short story if they can influence behavior—the question, of course, is how they are doing it.

Harshita (Hershy) Jaiprakash, Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University, Canada

I am a first year PhD student in Philosophy with the aim of investigating the relationship between cognition and existential aspects of selfhood, such as "being-towards-death" and authenticity. With a background in policy and leadership, curriculum development, and crisis intervention, I care about promoting inclusivity and change through novel theoretical approaches to interpreting empirical data. At DISI, I'm interested in beginning new intellectual adventures with a diverse cohort and learning how storytelling can help incite passion and understanding about complex topics.

V. Bleu Knight; Independent Consultant

2018 DISI Alum

I am interested in solving complex problems using data sources that are large and diverse. My PhD research leveraged informatics to understand the biological identity of neural cell subtypes. More recently, I have been using augmented intelligence and quantum computing to solve problems at industry scale.

Tomasz Korbak; Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Poland

My interests span machine learning, cognitive science and philosophy. Right now I work on or think about modeling emergent communication using neural networks, the emergence of compositionality in signaling games and representation learning, active inference, exploration and curiosity in deep reinforcement learning, and control-as-inference.

Eliza Kosoy; UC Berkeley

2019 DISI Alum

I am interested in the intersection of artificial intelligence and child development. How do kids learn new concepts so quickly and with so little data? How can we model this to create faster machine learning? I study this in two different domains. One through intersections with Brenden Lake's work on one-shot-learning and Omniglot. The other through curiosity and exploration with various faculty at BAIR (Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research).

Abhilasha Kumar; Washington University in St Louis

I am a PhD candidate in cognitive psychology at Washington University in St Louis. My research focuses on evaluating the psychological plausibility of computational models of language, such as word embeddings, recurrent, and attention-based neural networks, and I am broadly interested in understanding how semantic representations and linguistic context contribute to natural language understanding and higher-level cognition. Outside of work, I enjoy cooking (dough is my best friend) and playing board games!

At DISI, I am most looking forward to learning about language through different lenses, and applying my research and technical experience to understand complex, higher-level cognitive behavior, such as storytelling, conversations, language games, etc.

My research expertise is in semantic/language models, human memory, and search and retrieval processes in humans. My technical expertise is in programming and designing experiments, machine learning, and mixed research methods.

I am most eager to learn about the most recent attempts at modeling language learning in the fields of machine learning and AI (using neural networks, Bayesian methods, reinforcement learning, etc.).

A collaborative project I am interested in pursuing is understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying good storytelling or conversations, and comparing machine learning approaches in the extent to which they contain elements that are found in human stories and conversations.

Rolando Masís-Obando; Princeton University

My current scientific work involves using VR to understand how our brain uses schemas, whether spatial or conceptual to aid memory. My interests run deep, but in brief: I'm curious about how we can leverage memory systems to our advantage unknowingly or knowingly, how we can utilize what we understand from the human brain to improve our current educational system, and how emerging technologies like augmented reality can shape society through benevolent or nefarious use. I'm also excited by organized chaos, music, and film.

James Matharu; New College, University of Oxford

I'm a PhD in Philosophy, at overlaps between metaphysics, language, aesthetics and philosophy of anthropology. I draw conceptual maps of how minds, of varying bodies (or none), grasp hold of objects, real or imaginary, and what this entails for concepts like <objectivity>, <subjectivity>, <identity>, <rightness> . I'm especially interested in objects of mythic and poetic thought, ritual language; and in logics of 'birthing', 'manifesting' and 'transforming' in narratives, artifacts, substances.

McArthur (Mac) Mingon; Dept. of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

I am currently a PhD candidate in Cognitive Science at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. My primary interests are in the general area of ‘Culture and Cognition’; in understanding how cultural practices inform cognitive processes, the processes involved in the cultural transmission of knowledge and know-how, and the role of cumulative culture in the evolution of human cognition. I am also interested in the intersection of movement and memory, and in the kinds of thinking and feeling that can be cultivated through the learning and performance of enculturated and embodied, skills and knowledge. For my PhD research I am utilising cognitive and enactive ethnographic methods to explore the cognitive, affective and epistemic aspects of Haka; a Maori form of dance ritual.

Judit Mokos; Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Eotvos Lorand University Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Hungary; Evolutionary Systems Research Group, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary

2019 DISI Alum

I'm a theoretical and evolutionary biologist, working on human behaviour. My main interest is why humans are so helpful and cooperative even with strangers, and still, seems not being able to solve large-scale cooperative problems, like climate crisis. When I'm less of a serious scientist, I do science communication, write short stories, hike, and read about octopuses and birds.

Maryleen Ndubuaku; University of Derby, UK

I am a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Derby, working at the intersection of Machine Learning and Distributed Systems. My research explores how machines can extract meaningful representations in data to improve overall system performance. I am interested in how machines can function with low communication bandwidth, like humans, by focusing on the most important characteristics of data and making predictions beyond the constrained context. At DISI, I am most looking forward to broadening my understanding of intelligence from the multidisciplinary ideas and perspectives of fellows and faculty.

Cecilia Padilla Iglesias; Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich

I am a PhD student in the Hunter-Gatherer comparative ecology group at the University of Zurich. Broadly, I am interested in the socio-ecological underpinnings of the vast diversity of ways in which human societies are organized, and their implications for cumulative cultural evolution. That is, a form of adaptation that relies on collective intelligence. For my PhD I am trying to understand how hunter-gatherer mobility patterns could have contributed to the creation of forms of social structures that promote cultural accumulation and exchange. I am investigating these issues with a mixture of computational simulations, and the analysis of mobility and cultural dynamics of hunter-gatherer populations in Central Africa. I have also worked on exploring socio-ecological drivers of language socialization practices and how this impacts the evolution of linguistic diversity.

Oisín Parkinson-Coombs; University of California San Diego

I am a doctoral student in Cognitive Science at University of California, San Diego. I am interested in the development of mathematics, accounting for the rigidity, precision, and inspiration for formal mathematical ideas as they are grounded in our domain general cognitive capacities and the interaction of the developers and community with external symbolic inscriptions and representations. I also love to rock climb and explore through the mountains.

Nicolas Restrepo; Duke University

In my work, I seek to understand how individuals come to espouse moral convictions and to analyze the instances in which they might re-examine them and even change them. Broadly, I am interested in the circumstances in which agents – human and nonhuman – are receptive towards novel information and are motivated to re-consider the habits that have served them well in the past.

Manvir Singh; Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse

I am an anthropologist fixated on two core questions: (1) How do complex cultural practices including marriage, shamanism, and music compare across the world? (2) How do our minds and societies give rise to both profound similarities and striking differences in these practices? To answer these questions, I integrate insights from cognitive science and cultural evolution with methodologies from anthropology, psychology, and computational social science.

Ash Eliza Smith; University of Nebraska, Lincoln

I am an artist-researcher who uses storytelling, simulation, and worldbuilding to shape new realities. I work across art + science, between fact + fiction, and with human + non-human agents to re-imagine systems, perception, and embodiment.

Gabriella Smith; Hunter College (CUNY)

2019 DISI Alum

I am a May 2020 graduate from Hunter College (CUNY)'s Master's program of Animal Behavior and Conservation. In my my thesis project, I studied contrafreeloading in African Grey parrots. Inspired by DISI 2019, the future directions of my project involve collaborating in an interspecies comparison of contrafreeloading of African Grey parrots and kea parrots at the University of Auckland. I am interested in animal sociality, communication, and theory of mind.

Evy van Berlo, MSc; Leiden University, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Comparative Psychology and Affective Neuroscience Lab (CoPAN)

I am a PhD student at Leiden University in The Netherlands, working in Comparative Psychology and Affective Neuroscience lab (CoPAN) of dr. Mariska Kret. In my studies I compare how bonobos and humans process emotions of familiar and unfamiliar others using touchscreen- and eye tracker-based psychological paradigms. I am interested in why bonobos appear to be more xenophilic than other apes, and what they can teach us about hominid evolution. In a broader perspective, I am passionate about affective consciousness in animals and finding out new ways in which we can test it. I am eager to learn from and get inspired by all the other scientists and storytellers at DISI 2020!

Catarina Vila Pouca; Zoological Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden; Behavioural Ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands

I am interested in understanding how brains and cognitive abilities have evolved. I am currently using fish as a model system to understand (1) the role of certain selective pressures, such as predation risk, in generating brain and cognitive plasticity; and (2) if mechanisms that drive genetic diversity, e.g. hybridisation, might also drive the evolution of novel cognitive traits. Much of this work comes from laboratory experiments with guppies and other poeciliid fish, but I am also known to be walking through Trinidad's freshwater streams with a butterfly net observing and catching wild fish.

Skyler Wang; University of California, Berkeley

2019 DISI Alum

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Broadly, I am interested in how the proliferation of online networks and technologies shape cultural schemas and interpersonal relationships. My dissertation explores how and when individuals rely on algorithmic-thinking to make decisions on commitment in the age of digital romance. By comparing online daters who use spreadsheets and apps to track and rate potential matches with those who resist quantification, I underscore the diverse strategies singles today use to help make decisions about love and relationships.

Troy Weekes; Florida Institute of Technology

2019 DISI Alum

I am a doctoral research assistant with the Harris Institute for Assured Information at Florida Tech. I am currently pursuing a PhD in human-centered design with an emphasis on human augmentation with artificial intelligence. My research focuses on visualizing the effects of teaming humans with intelligent agents that monitor their mental and emotional states, and use biofeedback stimulation to help them achieve high performance outcomes.

Emily Winokur; University of California San Diego

I am currently a PhD student in the Cognitive Science program at UC San Diego. My research explores the interplay between intentions, helping behavior, behavioral phenotypes, and social relationships in rats. More specifically, I study individual consistencies in prosocial behavior across paradigms, reciprocal helping behavior, and how rats adjust their behaviors depending on the perceived helping intentions of a conspecific.

Emanuela Yeung; University of Copenhagen

DISI 2019 Alum

I am a postdoc at the Centre for Early Childhood Cognition at the University of Copenhagen working with Victoria Southgate. My research examines the ontogenetic foundations of social understanding and I am currently working on a project that examines infants’ experiences of perspective conflict and its relation to a developing sense of self.

Chen Zheng; Columbia University

2018 DISI Alum

I am interested in the cognitive and neurological mechanisms by which individuals coordinate and collaborate with one another in joint actions. My work focuses on normal human adults, but I would love to learn how coordination unfolds ontogenetically and phylogenetically in humans and other species. Another thread of my interest resides in creative arts - where creativity comes from and how art makes sense to their audience and/or consumers (or not).