[bioundgrd] UROP

[Joyce Roberge]

Project Title:  A virtual reality environment for neurotechnology invention
Project Description:  Our laboratory is adapting an air-cushioned
spherical treadmill, used to allow naturalistic behavior in headfixed
mice, for the inventing and evaluation of novel neurotechnologies.
This approach allows us to study a range of meaningful behaviors with
novel neural recording techniques we are developing, thus revealing
underlying neural computations and dynamics.
The goal of this UROP project is to develop a simple VR environment,
to be used with the treadmill, which alters the visual 3-D environment
projected onto a screen, according to the motion of the mouse (which
is reflected by the motion of the ball, which itself is tracked by two
side-mounted optical computer mice). (See Imaging Large-Scale Neural
Activity with Cellular Resolution in Awake, Mobile Mice  DOI
10.1016/j.neuron.2007.08.003 for more information on the original
setup.) The student would be working in conjunction with a technician
and the graduate student using the treadmill setup, to code the VR
environment.
Requirements/Prerequisites:
Good coding skills (specially in C and/or Python) are required.
Experience with 3-D game engines (Quake, Blender) preferred but not
required. General familiarity with electronics is a plus.
Strong preference for students who can commit to at least 12 hours per
week , starting as soon as possible.
Contact: Please send an email to geggio at mit.edu<mailto:geggio at mit.edu> if interested with a
CV/resume, a short description of why you might be a good fit for this
project, and schedule availability as well as potential start date.

--
Sunanda Sharma
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Biology
Class of 2014





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