Workshop: Behavioral Informatics: A Beginning in Bloomington, IN

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal is to host a workshop bringing together animal behavior and information technology experts to design an on-line computer database of behavioral information. The database might include, for example, videotaped images or audio-recordings of animals engaged in various types of behavior, measurements of the frequencies and contexts with which different sorts of behavior are produced, and useful techniques for collecting behavioral data from different species. It would also include software tools to link and extract information from existing databases, as well as to visualize and analyze the behavioral data effectively. The resulting database will help animal behavior researchers share their data with each other (n a search for general patterns), with researchers in other fields (e.g., genomics, neurobiology, ecology), and with the general public who are often fascinated by animal behavior. Funds will be used to host the workshop (travel expenses), to produce a prototype version of the database, and to share this prototype database with other behavioral researchers.