Research
Here is an overview of my work and collaborations, descriptions of my ongoing projects are given below.
My manuscripts and publications can be found in my home page and on Google scholar.
Current Projects:
Individual heterogeneity & collective motion across species (2G-SWARM)
I have been leading the 2G-SWARM project of Andrew King (Swansea University), studying the effect of individual heterogeneity in the collective behavior of several animal groups (i.e. baboon troops, fish schools, goat herds, and bird flocks), aiming to create new bio-inspired algorithms for swarm robotics. Our methods include the analysis of spatial data (mainly GPS trajectories) and the development of species-specific agent-based models.
More about the project here.
Behavioural individuality and leadership in bio-hybrid groups of clonal fish
As part of my FSBI Postdoctoral International Travelling Fellowship, in January 2024 I visited the group of Jens Krause and David Bierbach at Humboldt University of Berlin to study leadership dynamics in fish schools using the RoboFish.
Some more info about the project can be found here.
Collective escape in bird flocks:
disentangling complex patterns
In this project, in collaboration with Charlotte K. Hemelrijk and Hanno Hildenbrandt (University of Groningen), we investigate how complex patterns of collective escape emerge in bird flocks. Our study species include pigeons, corvids and starlings. We use video and GPS data of bird flocks escaping a predator in the field to drive the development of agent-based models in a pattern oriented way, aiming to describe the emergent mechanism of the observed patterns.
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More about the project here.
Dynamics of flocking and collective escape in heterogeneous flocks of birds
As part of the project "FALCOROBOT: Collective and individual responses of avian flocks to robotic predators", I am investigating the link between individual heterogeneity & experience on the collective movement (homing) and escape of large flocks of pigeons attacked by the RobotFalcon. The empirical side of the project is led by Claudio Carere (Tuscia University), in collaboration with Giulia Cerritelli, Dimitri Giunchi (University of Pisa), and Diego Rubolini (University of Milan).​
Animal groups into the Swarm-Verse
Sociality in primates
In collaboration with Simon Garnier (New Jersey Institute of Technology) and Andrew King (Swansea University), we developed an R package that automates the analysis of collective motion data, to support and promote comparative work across species and ecological contexts. ​​The package is continuously being developed and extended, the first version is now available on CRAN. If you are interested in further functionalities feel free to get in touch.
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For more info see:
I collaborate with primatology experts to disentangle the dynamics of aggressive interactions within troops and investigate the evolution of social and mating systems. Specifically, with Ines Fürtbauer (Swansea University), we are studying a troop of chacma baboons in South Africa, developing algorithms to identify behaviour from GPS trajectories. With Nikolaos Smit (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), inspired by gorilla populations, we are investigating group formation and mating dynamics through agent-based modelling.​
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Bio-herding: harnessing collective behaviour to resolve human-wildlife conflicts
I am involved in projects that aim to develop practices for the use of artificial predators, robots and UAVs (drones) to drive animal groups away from sites in which they act as pests (e.g. bird flocks away from airports) and in which they are threatened by human activity.
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More info coming soon.
Science of science
Science itself can be described as a 'complex, self-organizing, and evolving network of scholars, projects, papers, and ideas' (Fortunato et al. 2018). I am particularly interested in the evolution of research fields, as well as the role of gender in academic collaborations, research output, and impact. By analysing big datasets of scientific articles using natural language processing and machine learning, with Andrea Afruni (University of Florence) we are currently aiming to gain a quantitative understanding of the scientific impact of genders across disciplines. ​​​