News / Notices
2008-2009 Academic Year
EAR Meeting June 19th
June 14, 2009
The theme for this Friday's EAR meeting at Rutgers is: discussion-discussion-discussion. We have some outstanding talks and posters presented by advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that will undoubtedly spark your interest and provide the basis for some interesting conversations. For directions to the Busch Campus go to URL: http://maps.rutgers.edu/directions/nb.aspx. Our sponsors this year are Springer Publications, Advanced Bionics, and the Rutgers School of Arts & Sciences. Thanks to their generous support, attendees will be provided with a book raffle and display, notebooks & pens, a continental breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and an elegant dinner.
More Info: www.earmeeting.org
Contact Info:
Robin L. Davis
rldavis@rci.rutgers.edu
EAR Meeting Extended registration deadlines
April 19, 2009
The registration deadlines for the June 19th EAR meeting at Rutgers University have been extended. May 15th is the new deadline to submit an abstract for a poster or seminar presentation. June 1st is the deadline to register for the meeting (without a presentation).
More Info: www.earmeeting.org
Contact Info:
Robin L. Davis
rldavis@rci.rutgers.edu
8th Annual Eastern Auditory Retreat
March 3, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009 Rutgers University. Please mark the date on your calendar. The EAR Program Committee is inviting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to submit abstracts for either poster or seminar presentations. The abstract deadline will be May 1, 2009, but registration for the meeting (without a presentation) will be open until June 1, 2009. I hope that you will be able to join us at Rutgers University for a retreat that promises to be both informative and interactive.
More Info: www.earmeeting.org
Contact Info:
Robin L. Davis
rldavis@rci.rutgers.edu
Dr Moss on sabbatical at the Institute for Advanced Study of Berlin
August 1, 2008
During my fellowship year at the Wissenschaftskolleg, I plan to develop a model of auditory scene analysis by echolocation in the bat, an animal that relies on acoustic information to perceive its surroundings. Scene analysis involves the perceptual organization of sensory events to enable the identification and tracking of stimuli in the environment. The echolocating bat uses biological sonar to analyze auditory scenes. It broadcasts high frequency sounds and builds spatial representations of objects in the world from echo "snapshots", whose characteristics depend on the duration, intensity, bandwidth, and directional aim of its sonar cries. The bat adaptively adjusts the features of its sonar vocalizations as it probes the environment, and these dynamic signals provide a window to the bat's behavioral state and perception. It is noteworthy that the bat's echolocation system shares characteristics with the primate visual system: high spatial resolution, sequential scanning, and active sensorimotor control for perception. These shared characteristics between bat echolocation and primate vision suggest opportunities to bridge work on scene analysis in vision and audition. My model will build its framework from studies of both vision and audition in a variety of species and draw details from acoustic, behavioral, and neurophysiological data from the echolocating bat. My project will benefit from close collaboration with the Auditory and Visual Scene Analysis focus group, as we will work collectively to deepen our understanding of the representation of complex spatial information obtained through the senses. Our focus group is composed of biologists, psychologists, computer scientists, and neuroscientists. It is our goal not only to collect and organize information from the published literature, but to make new discoveries about scene analysis through critical analysis of published data, in combination with our own computational modeling and experimental work.
Contact Info:
Cynthia F. Moss
cmoss@psyc.umd.edu
Volunteering as a field assistant to work in Australia
August 1, 2008
Each year we recruit volunteer field assistants to help us with our studies of satin bowerbirds in Australia. The assistants' primary responsibility is to help run cameras that are mounted at the bowers of each bird on the study site. Each assistant is responsible for maintaining 5-7 bowers and making observations at these bowers. The work includes carrying recharged car batteries to bowers to power cameras. This is tough and demanding work that requires highly motivated and good natured assistants. There are poisonous snakes, land leeches and ticks on the study site and these are potentially dangerous. We live in rustic conditions and keep meal preparation simple as most of our day is devoted to working on the birds. The great majority of assistants find the work demanding but rewarding and there are many benefits to being at Wallaby Creek, not the least being the wide array of interesting wildlife. We begin recruiting assistants in for work in the Fall (September through December). Assistants are expected to pay their own way to the field site. We house them and provide food. Working as an assistant is an outstanding opportunity to learn about field work and is strongly encouraged for anyone interested in applying as a graduate student to work on bowerbirds in the Borgia lab. This work is not for everyone, but if you are interested please contact Gerald Borgia.
More Info: http://www.life.umd.edu/biology/borgialab/
Contact Info:
Gerald Borgia
borgia@umd.edu
UM Study Shows Sonar Did Not Harm Fish
August 1, 2008
A new University of Maryland study in the July issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America reports that high powered sonar, like that used by U.S. Navy ships, did not harm test fish, including their hearing, in a controlled setting.
More Info: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1464
