Openings

PhD position: Characterising biological active-sensing swarms in the field

What is actually happening inside a swarm of active-sensing agents? Do they hear any 'useful' echoes at all - or is it just the loud calls of their neighbour? Echolocating bats show all kinds of collective movements from linear emergence to fly-like swarms - but we still do not fully know what kinds of collective movement they show, how they manage to show these behaviours and what sort of sensorimotor 'rules-of-thumb' they are using. What is each individual in the group experiencing, and how is it reacting to the call emissions and flight decisions of its neighbours?

In this PhD position you will answer the questions above using a next-generation multi-sensor setup with microphone arrays, acoustic & thermal cameras, as well as LiDAR data to characterise active-sensing swarms. Building on its predecessor, the Ushichka dataset, this project will involve setting up the multi-sensor rig and using the collected data on bat collectives in the field to answer exciting questions at unprecedented spatio-temporal resolutions: what are individual agents doing in the swarm, what does the collective movement of active-sensing swarms look like? Also, why stop at echolocating bats - in principle the method could be extended to study any group of echolocators - oilbirds, edible nest-swiftlets too.

Aside from experimentally characterising the actual movements of individuals in echolocating bat groups, another follow-up component is to perform computational modelling to infer what sensorimotor strategies agents are adopting and comparing it with the collected data.

The candidate is expected to have a Masters degree and relevant experience/background in at least two among the list of fields, along with a willingness to learn the others:

  • Sensory biology/animal behaviour (previous experience with any kind of animal tracking in audio/video is helpful)
  • Acoustics/physics/engineering
  • Computational science/ programming (previous experience in Python is helpful).

An EU-compatible driving license and field work experience is beneficial.

This advertised PhD project is the 'biological active-sensing' portion and will be happening in parallel to the 'technological active-sensing' swarm robotics project which investigates which echolocation strategies active-sensing robots could use in groups (see research themes).

As a PhD candidate in the lab, you will be based in the IMPRS QBEE program and registered as a student at the University of Konstanz and be part of an active doctoral-student network. Moreover, being placed in the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour allows you to be part of the vibrant multi-disciplinary ecosystem of researchers from departments spread across psychology all the way to physics.

If you are not sure about your profile, or have any other queries please send me an email and we can chat briefly (thejasvi.beleyur@uni-konstanz.de). Apply through the online portal here by 25/5/2025.

The PhD position is a TV-L E13 75% job. This is a full-time PhD, and the percentage is used to describe salary bands in the German TV-L collective-agreement system see here.

Relevant literature

Masters/bachelors student internships

If you think the ideas, methods or themes of the lab's work is exciting please reach out with specific mention of the things you may be interested in pursuing and a little bit about your background.

Other positions/own funding?

If the ideas and themes of the lab are generally interesting, or you have some ideas you'd like to realise in the form of a PhD/Postdoc or lab visit through your own funding please do get in touch.