Orit Peleg

Orit Peleg selected as a 2024 Schmidt Science Polymath

Alexandra Grace Wilson — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 16:17:13 +0000

Orit Peleg selected as a 2024 Schmidt Science Polymath Alexandra Grac… Tue, 09/10/2024 - 10:17

Grace Wilson

Orit Peleg, associate professor of computer science and Biofrontiers Institute faculty member at CU �鶹ӰԺ is one of six researchers recognized for their boundary-pushing work by the prestigious Schmidt Sciences Polymath Program.

Each researcher will receive a total of up to $2.5 million over five years, joining a global community of 21 Polymaths from six countries.

The Polymath Program provides significant, flexible multi-year grants to enable awardees to pursue risky, novel theories that would otherwise be difficult to fund.

Peleg will focus on the evolutionary origins and diversification of communication across different animal species and how it manifests in group cognition of social animals.

"This award validates my belief that some of the most exciting discoveries lie at the intersections of diverse fields," Peleg said. "I am deeply grateful to my mentors and mentees for their inspiration and guidance along the way, and to Schmidt Sciences for their generous support."

This year, the program received 117 applications from 65 nominating universities and partners that were evaluated by senior scientists, prior Polymath awardees and other experts.

The six recipients were selected based on both their past achievements—including a demonstrated capacity for high-impact research and high-variance thinking—and their ideas for boundary-breaking future projects.

In Peleg's lab, her mentees research how biological communication signals are generated and interpreted. While the channel may change - whether chemical, sound, or light - the living creatures of our world all encode high-dimensional biological features into low-dimensional communication patterns.

“Curiosity doesn’t operate in a silo, and neither should science,” said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences. “That’s why we support several initiatives to enable researchers to pursue interdisciplinary hypotheses, in collaboration. The Schmidt Sciences Polymath Program allows bold, creative thinkers to pursue knowledge across boundaries and in doing so, to help all of us better understand the deep interconnections between people, planet and universe.”

The Polymaths benefit from a network of winners that convenes annually to develop ideas for collaboration, funding and further study. The recipients represent the top 5 percent of applicants who are given funding to pursue research within three years after being awarded tenure.

“We are delighted to support the Polymaths to pursue what excites them. Through our funding, we hope to achieve breakthroughs and transform the way science is conducted,” said Stu Feldman, chief scientist at Schmidt Sciences.

�鶹ӰԺ Schmidt Sciences

Schmidt Sciences supports interdisciplinary researchers across scientific fields, geographies and career levels through Schmidt Science Fellows, Schmidt Polymaths and other initiatives. The Polymath program began in 2021 with awards to two scientists.

Peleg will receive a total of up to $2.5 million over five years to pursue the origins of animal communication and how it influences the group cognition of social animals.

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Witnessing the spectacle of synchronous fireflies is ‘like magic’ (NPR)

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2024 16:59:52 +0000

Witnessing the spectacle of synchronous fireflies is ‘like magic’ (NPR) Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/28/2024 - 10:59

Computer science associate professor Orit Peleg provides insight into why some vast swarms of fireflies flash in unison.

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Five questions for Orit Peleg

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 17:58:46 +0000

Five questions for Orit Peleg Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/13/2023 - 10:58

With help from community scientists, CU �鶹ӰԺ educator finds illumination in fireflies’ code

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Orit Peleg explains to TEDxCU how fireflies communicate

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 19:55:55 +0000

Orit Peleg explains to TEDxCU how fireflies communicate Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/22/2023 - 13:55

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeA8TBg2px0]

Step into the enchanting realm of fireflies as scientist Orit Peleg takes you on an awe-inspiring journey deep into the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Amidst the mesmerizing displays of these radiant creatures, her team unveils the captivating mystery of flash synchronization. With their innovative technology and adventurous spirits, they capture the fireflies' fleeting brilliance and delve into the profound beauty and intricate complexity of their synchronized dance. Their remarkable discoveries reveal the interconnectedness of our world, where these tiny creatures harmonize in captivating unity, echoing the splendor of celestial wonders.

Dr. Orit Peleg is an Assistant Professor at the �鶹ӰԺ and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Her interdisciplinary lab is focused on understanding the generation and interpretation of biological communication signals using firefly and bee swarms as model systems. Dr.

Peleg's multidisciplinary background includes a Bachelor's degree in physics and computer science, a PhD in materials science, and postdoctoral experience in chemistry and applied mathematics. Her work has been featured in various prominent outlets such as the New York Times, National Public Radio, Smithsonian magazine, and National Geographic.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Learn more about TedX

Step into the enchanting realm of fireflies as scientist Orit Peleg takes you on an awe-inspiring journey deep into the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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Computer science PhD student leads research into secrets of honeycomb formation

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 22:37:56 +0000

Computer science PhD student leads research into secrets of honeycomb formation Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/20/2023 - 16:37

Josh Rhoten

Researchers in the Department of Computer Science and BioFrontiers Institute are studying honeycomb formation in bees with the hope of one day recreating the same intricate and impressive hexagonal structures for other uses.

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Talking with the fireflies: Orit Peleg receives CAREER Award and Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 17:36:27 +0000

Talking with the fireflies: Orit Peleg receives CAREER Award and Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/17/2023 - 10:36

Grace Wilson

If we as humans can understand how fireflies in swarms synchronize, we can understand their communication more deeply. Their on-off flickers of light are more similar to our binary computational logic than the tremulous variations of a frog croak or pitches of bugling elk calls.

Fireflies' elegant, distributed communication systems could eventually help us with our own telecommunications through new ideas about compressing information and distributed networks.

Assistant Professor of computer science Orit Peleg has just received $900,000 over the next five years to learn how fireflies in a swarm synchronize their lighting displays. The funding was provided by a National Science Foundation CAREER award, a highly prestigious early-career grant for junior faculty members.

Peleg, a member of the Biofrontiers Institute and Department of Computer Science, seeks to create testable theories about animal communication with her lab by merging tools from physics, biology, math and computer science.

Female fireflies judge the blinking displays of males to determine their mate. When there are swarms of small, blinking insects that can stretch over miles in the dark, any way to cut down on the visual clutter is important, and this is where synchronizing their flash patterns comes together.

"There are some really interesting questions about how really similar signals on the level of individual fireflies can result in a different collective signal," Peleg said.

Some groups of fireflies begin to flash in a burst together and stop the burst together, while others flash in a matching pattern but offset in time from one another so that the overall swarm always has some members flashing.

Currently our telecommunication networks and other manmade technology require synchronization to a central clock, which means that the network is really sensitive to failures of that clock.

"But that's not how biology does it. Biology achieves synchronization in a distributed way, which is more robust to failures of individual nodes," Peleg said

Changing the Working Model

We currently describe fireflies' brilliant displays of synchronizing bioluminescence through mathematical models that don't fully account for the possible agency of fireflies to change their lighting patterns in response to other fireflies.

The models are also tied to limited experimental data, giving Peleg and her lab rich ground for research and experimentation.

In the field, the lab sets up dark tents in the middle of the firefly swarms. They bring fireflies inside and use LED lights to mimic their signal patterns. They've already seen that, by changing the LED flashes, they can change the responses of living fireflies.

"They kind of treat it as if it were another firefly. It's really fun to watch how the firefly responds and communicates back to the artificial light," Peleg said.

They have also had success in training fireflies to create light patterns they have never been observed making in the wild in response to the LED light's patterns.

Outside of the carefully controlled environment in the tent, the lab will also use low-cost video equipment throughout the swarms to create robust 3-D video that can be analyzed and turned into 3D models that match the observed behavior of the fireflies.

By creating a model from field-data, Peleg can create more testable and verifiable theories around the ways that fireflies manage their synchronization.

The field data can be used to create simulations of firefly lighting patterns where the actions of real fireflies placed in the system impact the response of the program's lights, which involves advanced image processing and hardware.

In addition, Peleg is excited to use the data created from these field recordings to offer a class called "Physics, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative Art of Agent-Based Models," where undergraduate and graduate students will be able to craft their own visualizations of the data captured by the cameras in the field. By bringing experiential learning to the forefront, Peleg hopes to support their joy of learning.

Assistant Professor of computer science Orit Peleg has just received $900,000 over the next five years to learn how fireflies in a swarm synchronize their lighting displays. She's using LEDs, VR and big tents in the wilderness to signal to the fireflies... and they're signaling back.

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CU �鶹ӰԺ researchers explore the engineering of bee honeycombs

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 19:20:43 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ researchers explore the engineering of bee honeycombs Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/19/2022 - 13:20

Jeff Zhender

Assistant professor Orit Peleg in the Department of Computer Science will work on a new $497,000 grant with aerospace assistant professor López Jiménez Ann to explore how bees build honeycombs, research that supports bio-inspired system designs in swarm robotics and lightweight cellular structures.

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Computer scientist, physicist wins Cottrell Scholar Award

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Computer scientist, physicist wins Cottrell Scholar Award Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/01/2022 - 00:00

Orit Peleg, a �鶹ӰԺ computer scientist and physicist, has won a 2022 Cottrell Scholar Award, which honors and supports early career scientists who have the potential to become leaders in their fields.

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Complex Systems Society honors Orit Peleg with 2021 Junior Scientific Award

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Complex Systems Society honors Orit Peleg with 2021 Junior Scientific Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/01/2021 - 00:00

The Complex Systems Society has awarded a 2021 Junior Scientific Award to SFI External Professor Orit Peleg, an assistant professor within the University of Colorado’s Department of Computer Science and BioFrontiers Institute.

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Behold, the Worm Blob and Its Computerized Twin (New York Times)

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Behold, the Worm Blob and Its Computerized Twin (New York Times) Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/25/2021 - 00:00

Orit Peleg, associate professor in the Computer Science department and member of the Biofrontiers Insititute is part of a team studying worm blobs and creating computational models for them. The model might inspire entangled robots made of flexible materials, and helps highlight the lack of a clear-cut divide between living and nonliving materials.

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