392237 Olfactory processing in insects: biology, modeling and hardware implementations (S) (WiSe 2012/2013)

Most animals rely on smell as sensory modality for survival and reproduction: it allows them to detect predator, food and mates. The insect olfactory system is an ideal model for the study of information processing in biological neural networks. Knowledge about insect olfaction could be used to improve performances of artificial olfactory systems or Electronic Noses (or ENoses). The technology for artificial smell is still in the early stages of developments, but it has a wide range of possible applications (e.g. quality control in food industry, crime prevention and security, diagnosis in medicine).

In this seminar we will study the insect olfactory system with two main goals:
- Gain insight in biological odor processing;
- Learn about biological inspired artificial olfactory systems.

We will first focus on biological data and understanding the insect olfactory system, especially looking at experimental data from the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Later, we will study models of computation and learning in the insect olfactory system, which will provide a substrate for understanding biological inspired artificial olfactory systems.

Participants will be requested to read beforehand all the literature presented during the seminar and present 1 or 2 papers (depending on the number of participants). A collective discussion will follow the paper presentation. Participants will also be requested to upload a short report about the presented paper on the seminar wiki page.