CIIGAR Lab at NCSU

Fascinating article describing research on dog intelligence and brain structure. Spoiler alert, there is no evidence for a “smartest” dog breed.

Harvard researcher finds canine brains vary based on breed Erin Hecht, who joined the faculty in January, has published her first paper on our canine comrades in the Journal of Neuroscience, finding that different breeds have different brain organizations owing to human cultivation of specific traits.

A nice short piece in the local news about our work with IBM and Guiding Eyes for the Blind using AI to help more people with visual disabilities get access to guide dogs.

These 'smart collars' and 'smart vests' help in training guide dogs A collaboration between NC State, IBM, and Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a nonprofit organization, is aimed at improving guide dog training by.using data-driven technology.

CIIGAR Lab director David Roberts and teammates at ZooJam (zoojam.org) discussing a design concept for a computer-based experience to promote big cat hunting behavior in zoos.

Big Cat Hunting Enrichment at ZooJam 2016 Mark Kingston-Jones, Parvene Farhoody, Patricia Pons and David Roberts talk about their concept for enriching captive predators at ZooJam 2016, part of ACI2016.…

The CIIGAR Lab at NCSU is conducting a study on how robots can learn by observing humans. You can help us out by clicking the link below and taking control of a simulated robot. The time involved in the study should be no more than 20 minutes. If you agree, you’ll be asked to have the robot navigate to different positions on the screen. No identifying information about you will be gathered.

If you’re up for it, the study can be found here:

http://ciigar.csc.ncsu.edu/studies/mobile_robot/.

If you have more questions about this study, please contact Robert Loftin ([email protected]) or Dr. David Roberts ([email protected]).

We had a visit from the local CBS affiliate yesterday. The demo went extremely well, and Diesel learned on camera beautifully!

NC State researchers use computers to train dogs The scientist say their project still has a ways to go before it could go to market, but in the meantime, they’re enjoying this experiment and the results.

Some exciting research from the CIIGAR Lab about role playing!

research from the NC State Computer Science department helps shed light on player behavior and roles: https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/04/roberts-role-2016/
(Image credit: Ignacio X. Domínguez, Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera and David L. Roberts)

Talk by CIIGAR Lab director Dr. Dave Roberts at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science "Teen Science Cafe." Big thanks to Sean Mealin and John Majikes for planning and demoing our posture recognition system!

een Science Cafe: Talk With the Animals http://naturalsciences.org/calendar/event/teen-science-cafe-talk-with-the-animals/ Dave Roberts is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department ...

Some evidence that our work on monitoring stress and anxiety in dogs is timely and necessary. Takeaway: Reward your dog for good behavior!

Hair cortisol varies with season and lifestyle and relates to human interactions in German... It is challenging to measure long-term endocrine stress responses in animals. We investigated whether cortisol extracted from dog hair reflected the levels of activity and stress long-term, during weeks and months.

Video from the recent Reuters news service visit to the CIIGAR Lab!

Teaching old dogs new tricks with 'smart harness' Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/reuterssubscribe More updates and innovations news: http://smarturl.it/Innovations Reuters tells the world's stories like no on...

WUNC is here filming our team for the NC Now program!

CIIGAR Lab Ph.D. student Sean Mealin and his research is featured by NCSU in the "What Science Looks Like" series. Nice feature!

What Science Looks Like at NC State - Sean Mealin Sean Mealin is a Ph.D. student and National Science Foundation graduate research fellow in the Department of Computer Science at NC State. Mealin is complete...