UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1076 | Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement

Submission information

Submission Number: 1076

Submission ID: 19976

Submission UUID: 55660a99-53f4-4b69-bf5b-a362a274b921

Submission URI: /urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal

Submission Update: /urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?token=eQTScfN9PXSaLGqz4gI_RZ16zRQQFeyceTMC0jawdFo

Created: Mon, 08/04/2025 - 06:25 PM

Completed: Mon, 08/04/2025 - 06:32 PM

Changed: Mon, 09/15/2025 - 01:29 PM

Remote IP address: 144.174.212.115

Submitted by: Anonymous

Language: English

Is draft: No

Webform: UROP Project Proposal Portal

Submitted to: UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal

Research Mentor Information

Primary Research Mentor Name Emily H. DuVal

Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns she/her

When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific? Dr.

Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) ehduval@bio.fsu.edu

Position Title Faculty

FSU College (if applicable) Arts and Sciences

FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation Biological Science

Headshot (optional) EHD - 2022 Colorado portrait by Will.jpg

Additional Research Mentor(s)

Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above) Juan Pablo Rios

Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns he/him

Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific? Mr.

Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) {Empty}

Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable) {Empty}

Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns {Empty}

Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific? {Empty}

Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) {Empty}

Overall Project Details

Title of the Project Developing machine learning tools to understand animal behavior

Project Keywords bird; animal behavior; courtship; artificial intelligence; machine learning; sexual selection; evolution

Are you currently looking for research assistants? No

Number of Research Assistants Needed 1

Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) Open to all majors; biology, EAOS, math, and computer science students may be particularly interested in this project.

Project Location: On FSU Main Campus

If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation? {Empty}

Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s): In-person

Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work? 6-8

Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work? During business hours

Overall Research Project Description This project investigates variation in display behavior of a small tropical bird, the lance-tailed manakin. In this species and many others, males perform conspicuous courtship displays for females. These displays can involve extreme acrobatic feats, change over time or in response to female behavior, and play an important role in reproductive success. How males perform courtship has an immediate effect on whether they get the chance to pass on their genes to a future generation. During this project, a team of two UROP students will work together with Dr. DuVal and project manager Juan Pablo Rios to apply machine learning in the program Deep Lab Cut to videos of manakin displays. Our goal is to use automated video processing to analyze and compare display performance (1) among males and (2) within the same male over time.

Research Tasks Students learn how to use the machine learning program Deep Lab Cut (DLC), read primary literature related to the use of machine learning in biology, and take part in the (sometimes boring!) annotation of still images from videos to develop a training set of data for the DLC algorithm. They will collect and analyze data focused on one discrete question (of the many we will discuss) and create a poster explaining their findings. Finally, they will generate a written or video-recorded tutorial to help others effectively applying the protocol they identify as best for addressing their chosen question. If schedules allow, students also will take part in a weekly lab meeting that includes readings in the primary literature in the field of Animal Behavior.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: curiosity, interest in animal behavior and computational approaches to understanding behavioral variation, self-motivation, reliability
Recommended: Python or general coding experience, MS Access, experience with video editing software.

Mentoring Philosophy Open communciation is at the heart of my mentoring philosophy. I work with my mentees to customize their research experience to help them achieve their long-term goals, as well as the short-term aims of performing a specific analysis or processing a given piece of data. When something isn't working, I expect that we will discuss and work through it together. All members of my lab, including undergraduates, take full part in weekly lab meetings where we read and discuss articles from the primary literature. All lab members are expect to interact collaboratively, respectfully, and considerately so that we all benefit from the diverse perspectives and experiences that we bring to the table. I expect to learn from you, just as you should expect to learn from me.

Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable): https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/lance-tailed-manakins/

Please add any additional information here (if applicable): https://www.bio.fsu.edu/duval/Publications.html
https://www.bio.fsu.edu/duval/index.html

Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable? Yes

Roundtable times and Zoom links Thursday September 4 11:30am - https://fsu.zoom.us/j/93647692564

Roundtable Info

Day: Thursday, September 4
Start Time: 12:00
End Time: 12:30
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/93647692564

UROP Program Elements

Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes

UROP Performance Evaluation Yes

Materials Grant Yes

UROP Poster Presentation Yes

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Year 2025

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