Moto-IGERT

The Influence of Auditory Feedback on Vocal Sequence Production

Former IGERT trainee Etienne Mandersheid received his Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Chicago in June 2014. The title of Etienne's dissertation research: The Influence of Auditory Feedback on Vocal Sequence Production. Dr. Daniel Margoliash, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, and IGERT trainer, served as Etienne's advisor.

Field Museum Exhibit: "The Machine Inside: Biomechanics"

IGERT PI and Steering Committee faculty Melina Hale, Callum Ross and Mark Westneat all contributed to a new exhibit at Field Museum: "The Machine Inside: Biomechanics" which opened March 12, 2014. This exhibit will be open in Chicago through January 2015, and will be available to travel after that date. For more information, please go to http://biomechanics.fieldmuseum.org/

Outreach: Applied Math Leadership Board at Northwestern University

IGERT trainee Namrata Patel has served as co-chair of the Applied Math Leadership Board since Summer 2013, sponsored by the NWU Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics Student Leadership Council. The Council targets strengthening the NWU graduate student community through governance, leadership and stewardship. The goals are to develop and implement programs for social, academic and professional development and provide resources to promote individual growth, professional relationsihps, and service to the community. Activities and events include community outreach promoting math to local children, providing a First-year Foundations Workshop to academically train and prepare incoming graduate students, Preliminary Exam Review sessions with students, weekly student seminar presentations, and production of an department newsletter for alumni where current students can publish and share their work and other material.

Brains! Workshops in the Palmer Lab, March 24-27, 2014.

IGERT trainees Brett Aiello, Hilary Katz and Justin Lieber participated in workshops in Dr. Stephanie Palmer's University of Chicago lab leading students from a local Chicago elementary school through hands-on experiments to learn about neural signaling, including recording from a live cockroach leg and EMG recording of the students' own muscles.

Evolutionary Neuroscience Lesson for high school students February 26, 2014

IGERT trainee Yashesvini Vinayak Ram participated in "The Think Tank," sponsored by the UChicago NEURO club and UChicago CASCADE. Graduate neuroscience students talked with CPS students in grades 9-11 about the evolution of the brain and natural selection as a mechanism for evolution. Students were able to examine brains of various animals and compare their structures, then participated in a class debate on what traits can be affected by natural selection and what traits are plastic (learned during a lifetime).

IGERT presence at January 24, 2014 University of Chicago GradUCon Conference.

IGERT PI Melina Hale was a panelist in the session "Women in the Sciences: Addressing Common Challenges," partially organized by IGERT PD Carolyn Johnson.

Recent IGERT Trainees' presentations and publications

MotoIGERT trainees have been actively sharing their research with colleagues through conference posters, presentations, and scientific publications. Some recent accomplishments include:

• Aiello, BR, Blob RW, Butcher MT. Correlation of bone loading and muscle function in the hindlimb of the river cooter turtle (Pseudemys concinna). Journal of Morphology. 274: 1060 - 1069. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20162
• Aiello, BR, J. Iriarte-Diaz, RW Blob, MT Butcher, MT Carrano, NR Espinoza, RP Main, CF Ross. Modulation of strain magnitude in the limb bones of tetrapods. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology National Meeting, Austin, TX: January 6, 2014.
• Aiello, BR, HM King, ME Hale. An analysis of neuromuscular control in the pelvic fin of African lungfish (Protopterus annectens). Poster presentation: Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA USA: November 13, 2013.
• Brown, KJ, GB Mindlin, D Margoliash. Predictive and preceding motor activity in biophysical models of vocal production in songbirds. Poster presentation: Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA USA: November 2013.
• Manfredi, LR, HP Saal, KJ Brown, MC Zielinski, JF Dammann, VS Polashock, SJ Bensmaia. 2014. Natural scenes in tactile texture. Journal of Neurophysiology. [epub ahead of print], DOI: 10.1152/JN.00680.2013.
• Chambers, Brendan, Alexander Sadovsky, Jason MacLean. Microcircuit activity is patterned topologically and reveals statistical features of underlying connectivity. Poster presentation at Cosyne 2014 Conference. Salt Lake City, UT: February 2014.
• Century, J, M Lach, H King, S Rand, C Heppner, B Franke, J Westrick. 2013. "Building an Operating System for Computer Science. Chicago: CEMSE, University of Chicago with UEI, University of Chicago. Online report: http://cemse.uchicago.edu/computerscience/OS4CS/
• Ram, YV, J Iriarte-Diaz, CF Ross. Neural Control of Muscle Functional Groups During Primate Mastication. Poster presentation at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting. Austin TX: January 2014.
• Lemberg, JB,CF Ross, NH Shubin, EB Daeschler. Digital reconstruction of the skull of Tiktaalik roseae with insights into early tetrapod feeding mechanics. Oral presentation at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting. Austin TX: January 2014.
• Lieber, J, AI Weber, HP Saal, SJ Bensmaia. The peripheral neural code of tactile roughness for natural textures. Poster presentation at the Society for Neuroscience 2013 Annual Meeting. San Diego CA: November 2013.
• Weber, AI, HP Saal, JD Lieber, J-W Cheng, LR Manfredi, JF Dammann III, SJ Bensmaia. 2013. Spatial and temporal codes mediate the tactile perception of natural textures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 110 (42): 17107 - 17112. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305509110.
• Olsen, AM, MW Westneat. Duck, duck, goose: multiple origins of geese from a duck-like ancestor. Oral presentation at American Ornithological Union/Cooper Ornithological Society Meeting. Chicago IL: August 14-17, 2013.
• Olsen, AM, MW Westneat. Variation on an Old Articulation: Diverse material properties of a key joint underlying avian cranial kinesis. Oral presentation at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting. Austin TX: January 3-7, 2014.
• Patterson, BW, A Abraham, MA MacIver, DL McLean. 2013. Visually guided gradation of prey capture movements in larval zebrafish. The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (16): 3071 - 3083. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.087742.
• Stewart, TA, WL Smith, MI Coates. 2014. The origins of adipose fins: an analysis of homoplasy and the serial homology of vertebrate appendages. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 281 (1781). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3120 1471-2954.
• Stewart, TA, and ME Hale. Development of adipose fin innervation and implications for fin evolution. Oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Austin TX: January 2014.
• Wohlman, SJ and WM Murray. Effect of passive parameters on gravity-driven dynamic thumb simulations. Oral presentation at the XIV International Symposium on Computer Simulation in Biomechanics. Natal, Brazil: August 2013.
• Wohlman, SJ and WM Murray. Forward simulation of force production in lateral pinch. Oral presentation at the International Thumb Osteoarthritis Workshop. Newwport RI: October 2013.

IGERT Trainee Chris Bresee presents his poster at SfN conference in October 2012

IGERT trainee Chris Bresee, who works in Mitra Hartmann's lab at Northwestern University, presented his first IGERT-sponsored poster at the October Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. Congratulations to Chris!

IGERT Trainee Sarah Wohlman presents her poster at ASME Conference in June 2012

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Summer Bioengineering Conference took place from June 19th to the 23rd in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.
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Neuromechanics Symposium

On April 27th, 2012, the Moto-IGERT program hosted the second Chicago Neuromechanics Symposium on the University of Chicago campus.
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MOTOrama: IGERT bioengineering students lead outreach activities!

On Friday, April 6, four amazing bioengineering students from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University led students through day-long activities about sensation and motor control. The program, called MOTOrama, was the culminating outreach activity for the four IGERT students.
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Outreach at Perspectives Charter School December 17, 2013

Former IGERT trainee Charlene McCord lead a strawberry DNA extraction with middle school girls at Perspectives Charter School.

Science Education Career Panel, November 20, 2013

Former IGERT trainee Dr. Heather King (Ph.D. 2013) was an invited speaker for a career panel intended to answer questions about how to transition from a graduate career in the sciences to a post-graduate career in education, sponsored by Northwestern University Career Services and Graduate Student Services.

Outreach: NextGen2013, October 2013

IGERT trainee Kyler Brown participated in a one-day conference for Chicago high school students interested in STEM careers. More information on the NextGEN organization can be found at http://nextgen2013.weebly.com.

Outreach: co-laborate Science Partnership Pilot Program

IGERT trainee Z. Wan Yang has developed and received funding for the startup Science Partnership program "co-laborate." The program, which started in the Summer of 2013, has matched 10 graduate students with elementary school classrooms in three nearby elementary schools, and has trained the graduate students on how to design innovative, experiment-based lessons that fulfill the Next Generation Science Standards. They also have trained three teachers on how to carry out in-class experiments on their own, started a Science Saturdays program for extra science tutoring, and assisted with the Chicago Public School science fair. This project was the winner of the Midwest Social Innovation Start-up Challenge at Marquet University and semifinalist in the Brady Corporation Midwest Regional Championship and the John Edwardson, '72, Social New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business competition.

Outreach: Science Pentathlon planning for Evanston School District 65 Middle School Students

IGERT trainee Namrata Patel is serving as the Co-Chair of Northwestern University's McCormick Student Leadership Council's Science Pentathlon Committee, which organizes an annual event during the spring quarter for Evanston Middle School Students. The goals are to introduce students to various fields of engineering, teach them science, and build teamwork skills. Students engage in team competitions where they apply critical thinking and scientific principles to design the best contraptions for the given challenge. As co-chair, Namrata oversees the challenge designs, student and volunteer recruitment, logistics and coordination with the school district. She also participates in the Pentathlon itself.

Moto-IGERT at 2012 Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM

IGERT was represented at the 2012 Emerging Researchers National Conference in Science Technology Math and Engineering. Read more »

Society for Integrative Biology (SICB) Annual Meeting

Five IGERT Trainees attended the annual SICB national meeting. Read more »

Moto-IGERT and Project Exploration team-up

IGERT trainees worked with Chicago Public School (CPS) students in two hands-on workshops this Autumn. Read more »

IGERT Research in the Press

IGERT trainee Heather King's work on Lungfish locomotion is in the news.
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Related Links

• Original PNAS Paper
• International Business Times
• Live Science
• Decoded Science
• Scientific American
• Yahoo News

Moto-IGERT and Project Exploration partner for MOTORAMA

A group of middle and high school students spent two days of their Spring Break with Moto-IGERT trainees learning about movement, senses and other things biomechanical. Read more »

SICB Annual Meeting

Six IGERT Trainees attended the annual SICB national meeting. Read more »

IGERT Outreach in Fiji

Moto-IGERT trainee Charlene McCord spend two and a half weeks in Suva, Fiji on an international education project connecting about 40 Chicago and Fijian high schoolers. Read more »

Moto-IGERT Research in Papua-New Guinea

University of Chicago Moto-IGERT trainees Joanna Mandecki and Charlene McCord participated in a three-week expedition to Papua New Guinea. Read more »

New Course

A new course: Development and Evolution of Neuromechanical Systems was offered in Spring Quarter 2010 as part of the IGERT course curriculum. Read more »

New Rotation

A Rotation with the Encyclopedia of Life was offered in Spring Quarter as part of the IGERT curriculum. The rotation provided experience with web-based education and communication of motor control and movement to a broad audience. Read more »

Annual Meeting in Washington DC: May 23-May 25, 2010

Trainees, PIs, and administrators from IGERT programs across the country gathered in Washington, DC, from May 23rd to 25th at the IGERT annual meeting. Read more »

Phenoscape Meeting at the Field Museum: Friday March 19, 2010

IGERT trainees have been invited to participate in a Phenoscape meeting at the Biodiversity Synthesis Center at the Field Museum on March 19, organized by Paula Mabee and her group. The Phenoscape Knowledgebase uses ontologies to integrate phenotypic data and genetic studies, presently for fishes but with several parallel projects also underway for other taxonomic groups.

Neuromechanics Symposium: May 17-May 18, 2010

The Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Neuroengineering based at the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology sponsored a symposium on Neuromechanics at the University of Chicago on May 17-May 18, 2010. Read more »

IGERT Spring Reception: May 16th, 2010

A reception celebrating the Moto-IGERT program and sponsored by the Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Neuroengineering Research (CINNR) was held at the Synthesis Center at the Field Museum from 5-7pm on Sunday May 16th.

The Influence of Auditory Feedback on Vocal Sequence Production

Former IGERT trainee Etienne Mandersheid received his Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Chicago in June 2014.

Field Museum Exhibit: "The Machine Inside: Biomechanics"

IGERT PI and Steering Committee faculty Melina Hale, Callum Ross and Mark Westneat all contributed to a new exhibit at Field Museum: "The Machine Inside: Biomechanics" which opened March 12, 2014.

Outreach: Applied Math Leadership Board at Northwestern University

IGERT trainee Namrata Patel has served as co-chair of the Applied Math Leadership Board since Summer 2013, sponsored by the NWU Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics Student Leadership Council.

Brains! Workshops in the Palmer Lab, March 24-27, 2014.

IGERT trainees Brett Aiello, Hilary Katz and Justin Lieber participated in workshops in Dr. Stephanie Palmer's University of Chicago lab leading students from a local Chicago elementary school through hands-on experiments to learn about neural signaling, including recording from a live cockroach leg and EMG recording of the students' own muscles.

Evolutionary Neuroscience Lesson for high school students February 26, 2014

IGERT trainee Yashesvini Vinayak Ram participated in "The Think Tank," sponsored by the UChicago NEURO club and UChicago CASCADE. Graduate neuroscience students talked with CPS students in grades 9-11 about the evolution of the brain and natural selection as a mechanism for evolution. Students were able to examine brains of various animals and compare their structures, then participated in a class debate on what traits can be affected by natural selection and what traits are plastic (learned during a lifetime).

IGERT presence at January 24, 2014 University of Chicago GradUCon Conference.

IGERT PI Melina Hale was a panelist in the session "Women in the Sciences: Addressing Common Challenges," partially organized by IGERT PD Carolyn Johnson.