UROP Project

birds; behavior; video analysis; machine learning; Python
Emily with manakin.jpg
Research Mentor: ehduval@bio.fsu.edu Emily DuVal, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: Florida State University, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: ehduval@bio.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Mr. Juan Pablo Rios Cruz he/him
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: jr24e@fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors; Biology, Scientific Computing, and Computer Science majors may be particularly interested
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 6,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Wednesday September 4, 1:30 - 2:00pm: https://fsu.zoom.us/my/duvaloffice

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. 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: Recommended: Python or general coding experience, MS Access, experience with video editing software.
Required: curiosity, interest in animal behavior and computational approaches to understanding behavioral variation, self-motivation, reliability

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.

Additional Information

https://www.bio.fsu.edu/duval/Publications.html
https://www.bio.fsu.edu/duval/index.html

Link to Publications

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/lance-tailed-manakins/
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