Nicolas Oros
Artificial Life, Computational Neuroscience and Robotics
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I am a postdoctoral research scholar in the Cognitive Anteater Robotics Laboratory (CARL)
at the University of California, Irvine since April 2010.
My research focuses on neuromodulatory systems, especially on the way they can modulate attention.
We are using models to study the effects of different neuromodulators originating from the basal forebrain (acetylcholine), the locus coeruleus (norepinephrine), and
the ventral tegmental area (dopamine), on neural activity.
I am also utilizing Android phones as onboard computers and sensing devices for robots. For more information, go here: Android Based Robotics
I did my PhD in the Biological and Neural Computation Research Group at the University of Hertfordshire from November 2006 to March 2010. My PhD research involved the creation of an artificial evolutionary developmental model that generates spiking neural controllers for simulated agents. The model I created can generate neural controllers that can encode information as spatio-temporal patterns. Therefore, the evolved neural networks can use different neural encoding strategies: firing rate, temporal coincidence and delay encoding. As I am interested in how olfactory systems process information, I was studying the evolution of simple neural networks for agents that have to react to different chemicals. I was also studying how these evolved controllers encode simulated odors (elemental and mixtures).
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I am also working on the persistence of sex in evolving self-reproducing cellular automata structures.
- Artificial Life
- Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Neural Networks
- Evolutionary computation
- Robotics
- Cellular automata
- Neural Encoding Strategies
- Olfactory systems
- Neuromodulatory systems
- Self-organization and complex systems
- Origins of life and cognition
My research interests include:
Contact
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Nicolas Oros, Ph.D.
Research Scholar
Cognitive Anteater Robotic Laboratory
Department of Cognitive Sciences
2232 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
nicolasyoros@gmail.com