Study projects in Autonomous Robotics
We announce study projects for the study program Angewandte Informatik together with all others study projects in an official event every semester.
Available Theses & Projects
Autonomous Robotics
Computational Neuroscience
Closed-loop brain-behavior system
Closed-loop brain-behavior system
Examining the role of spatial representations in navigation learning
In this project we combine insights from state-of-the-art machine learning and modern neuroscience experiments, to study the role of spatial representations that emerge in a reinforcement learning agent when learning a biologically inspired navigation task.
Necessary and Sufficient Behavioral Evidence for Episodic Memory Traces
The goal of this project is to identify what behavioral evidence would be necessary and sufficient to claim that a nonhuman species possesses episodic memory traces. The project requires background knowledge of memory and experience in developing philosophical analyses.
Databases and Information Systems
Deep Learning for Optimization of Spatial Light Modulators
Spatial Light Modulators can be used to modulate the effective shape of light, e.g., a laser beam. They are thus useful in industrial applications like laser cutting where beam shapes need to be adapted quickly. However, generating complex shapes is time-consuming and error-prone using current algorithms based on Fourier transformations. In this work, a deep learning approach that automatically generates the correct modulations to obtain the desired shape should be explored. The Thesis is conducted in cooperation with the company LIDROTEC(https://www.lidrotec.de/).
Query Optimization using Graph Neural Networks
This thesis involves integrating a new method for estimating cardinality into query engines to assess its effectiveness in improving query optimization.
Neural Data Science
Reinforcement learning models of spatial cognition in pigeons
A famous computational challenge is the Travelling Salesman Problem, in which a traveller needs to find the shortest route to visit a set of cities. Humans and other animals are very good at finding efficient solutions to practical tasks related to the Traveling Salesman Problem, but we do not know which strategies or algorithms they use to solve the problem. In computer science promising approaches to find an optimal solution include (deep) reinforcement learning [1]. Do humans and other animals use a strategy, similar to a reinforcement learning approach? In this project you will implement a reinforcement learning model of animal behaviour and compare the behaviour of the model with the animal behaviour to identify the underlying strategy and algorithm.
Transient oscillations in the brain during decision making
Neural oscillations are a key feature of brain activity and have been studied extensively in the context of cognitive functions and sensorimotor processing. However, recent studies have highlighted that oscillations in the brain are often transient in nature, consisting only of a few oscillation cycles, rather than being sustained throughout performing a cognitive task. In this project you will analyse oscillations recorded in the local field potential of mice performing a decision-making task (using open neural data from the International Brain Laboratory). The results of this project are important to better understand how transient oscillations contribute to information processing in the brain and affect behaviour.
Optical Imaging Group
Einfluss von Serotonin auf die Informations-Verarbeitung im visuellen Kortex der Maus - Master-Thesis in Physics/Biology
Master-Arbeit zu vergeben in Kooperation mit Prof. Stefan Herlitze, Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Zoologie und Neurobiologie
Optical Imaging Projects, Master-Thesis in Physics/Biology
Einfluss der Extrazellulärmatrix auf die Aktivitätsausbreitung im visuellen Kortex der Maus
PhD position - JOINT RESEARCH, EU funded Project, ERA-Net Neuron
"I-See" - Improving intracortical visual prostheses. Our multidisciplinary EU-funded project brings together scientists from different fields and complementary experimental and theoretical know-how. The project part of the PhD position comprises electrical stimulation in the mouse brain combined with cutting-edge (optogenetic) voltage imaging techniques (Knöpfel Lab, Imperial College London). The aim of our international consortium (Switzerland, Canada, UK, and Germany) is to improve the ability of cortical prostheses to 'mimic' the language of the brain and increase the safety and longevity of visual prosthetic devices.
PhD position - RUB-China Scholarship Council (CSC)
Our lab participates in a new call offered by the RUB to attract students from China. This is also to strengthen existing education and research cooperation with Chinese universities and research institutions. The China Scholarship Council (CSC) offers scholarships to highly qualified Chinese candidates who wish to study and/or carry out research at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
Research Training Group (RTG) - "MoNN&Di" - Monoaminergic Neuronal Networks & Disease
The goal of MoNN&Di is to create a focused 4 year doctoral training programme that enables scrutiny of how monoaminergic neuromodulators influence neuronal circuits and shape behavioral responses.
Theory of Neural Systems
Is predictive coding enough to learn sufficiently rich representations?
Implementation and analysis of a predictive coding model
The Institut für Neuroinformatik (INI) is a central research unit of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. We aim to understand the fundamental principles through which organisms generate behavior and cognition while linked to their environments through sensory systems and while acting in those environments through effector systems. Inspired by our insights into such natural cognitive systems, we seek new solutions to problems of information processing in artificial cognitive systems. We draw from a variety of disciplines that include experimental approaches from psychology and neurophysiology as well as theoretical approaches from physics, mathematics, electrical engineering and applied computer science, in particular machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer vision.
Universitätsstr. 150, Building NB, Room 3/32
D-44801 Bochum, Germany
Tel: (+49) 234 32-28967
Fax: (+49) 234 32-14210