NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

Udiani Oyita, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Postdoctoral Fellow: Oyita Udiani Proposal Number: 1610889 This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to PI Oyita Udiani is 'Learning in models of animal behavior: a novel game-theoretical approach.' The host institution for this fellowship is the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Nina Fefferman. The goal of this project is to develop a novel game theory framework incorporating adaptive heuristics ('rule of thumb' strategies) to guide animal behavior in complex environments. A central question in behavioral ecology is how natural selection shapes animal behavior in environments where the success of one's actions depends on the strategy of others. Evolutionary game theory provides a framework to study this question. Traditional models tend to focus on games where 'players' follow genetically determined strategies, and ask how selection acts on competing genotypes in a population. But these models have limited scope for understanding how social interactions shape behavior as part of the ongoing life history of an individual. A more realistic approach is to focus on games where players can assess their situation in each interaction and make active choices, which in turn produce payoffs that contribute to their reproductive success. However, existing models of this caliber typically make unrealistic assumptions about players' rationality, assumptions that are most likely violated in nature where animals face cognitive constraints, time costs, and other stochastic factors that limit what they can know about others. The Fellow is developing a novel framework to analyze games where players instead use adaptive heuristics such as reinforcement learning to guide their behavior. By doing so, the Fellow is expanding the existing formalism and analytical toolkit for studying games with learning, thus opening it up to new and exciting areas of application in biology. The Fellow is receiving extensive training in mathematical optimization and computational modeling for biological applications. He is also developing a publically available web-based tutorial explaining applications of game theory in the study of animal behavior and social evolution. In order to broaden participation of groups underrepresented in biology, the Fellow is collaborating with the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (housed at the host institution) on a pre-college outreach program, providing mentoring activities at local public schools around the Knoxville, TN area. In this way the Fellow serves as a role model to increase the visibility of minorities leading cutting edge science research.