Bing Brunton, a Washington Research Foundation Innovation Assistant Professor and NIFTI faculty member in Neuroengineering, was featured in a recent College of Arts and Sciences newsletter. The article, titled “What Insects can Teach us about Data,” was published in March of 2019.
Brunton researches the ability of flying insects to make tiny but critical adjustments with small amounts of data. She is specifically working to develop a sparse sensor algorithm to mimic sensors on the wings of a hawk moth. These tiny mechanoreceptor neurons on the moth wings allow the moth to track environmental impacts such as wind and adjust the wings accordingly. By understanding how the these neurons are able to take in data, process it, and produce micro-adjustments in real time, Brunton hopes to determine how to mimic this process artificially.
Dr. Bing Brunton has been previously featured in a College of Arts and Sciences article in September of 2016 about her work to analyze large sets of neural data. She has also been recently awarded a highly competitive multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) award from the Department of Defense.