Animal Tracking and VR Bootcamp, 23-27 Oct 2017

Animal Tracking and VR Bootcamp

23-27 Oct 2017

Hauptstr. 1, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg Germany

Contact: Andrew Straw

The workshop is full to capacity. No further applications can be accepted. Please contact Andrew Straw to place your name on the waiting list in case of cancellation or to register your interest in a possible future workshop.

The goal of the workshop is to train participants in the theory and practice of:

  • realtime image processing
  • multi-camera 3D realtime tracking
  • perspective correct virtual reality for freely moving animals

An emphasis on understanding the principles and using open source tools will be made. Ultimately, participants should come away with knowledge of how to use available software and hardware to run VR experiments in their own lab.

Instructors:

Guest lecturers:

Who should attend:

  • The course is aimed at graduate students, postdocs and PIs.
  • Some participants will already have some experience in animal tracking, virtual reality, or both, but we also welcome motivated beginners.

A large lab space equipped with software and hardware from the lab of Andrew Straw at the Institute of Biology I, University of Freiburg will be available during the workshop. Nicholas Del Grosso (LMU Munich) will be co-instructor for the week. In the lab of Anton Sirota, Del Grosso led the construction of a free-moving rodent VR system and he has substantial experience teaching programming. Together with the Drosophila and zebrafish experience of the Straw Lab and the rodent experience of Del Grosso, the workshop should be of substantial interest to a wide range of behavioral- and neuro-scientists. (During the workshop itself, experiments will primarily be on Drosophila, with the possibility of some fish experiments depending on interest.)

There is a 300 EUR fee, which will be used for costs associated with the co-instructor and additional guest lecturers. (If the registration fee is prohibitive, we may be able to waive it. Please ask.) Participants need to pay for their own hotel, food and travel. According to our research, we expect hotel costs to be about 80 Euros per night.

The workshop will be small - we will limit to a maximum of 10 participants. If successful, we may run the workshop again next year.

Looking forward to seeing you in Freiburg in late October!