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Teaching Computation through the Movement of Social Insects

Research / Pillars & Groups / Communications & Artificial Intelligence / SCRAT / Internships / Teaching Computation through the Movement of Social Insects
17 January. 2021
Insects like ants and bees are known to exhibit complex social behavior, not least of which in the way that they move, and this despite their limited and local sensing and decision-making capabilities. Research has shown, in fact, that under appropriate environmental conditions, the behavior of social insects can simulate arbitrary computations (see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268590027_An_Ant-Based_Computer_Simulator ). The aim of this project is to develop a visual simulator of the movement of social insects, to be used as an educational tool for introducing elementary-school students to the basic notions of computation. Depending on the internship type, the project can be adapted towards the development of the visual and user-experience parts of the simulator, or towards the implementation of a scalable simulation engine that supports the asynchronous movement of thousands of insects. 
Required Skills
Visual simulation OR user experience OR parallel programming 
Objectives
The main objective of the internship is to develop a visual simulator of the movement of social insects, to be used as an educational tool for introducing elementary-school students to the basic notions of computation. Depending on the background of the intern, the project can be adapted towards the development of the visual and user-experience parts of the simulator, or towards the implementation of a scalable simulation engine that supports the asynchronous movement of thousands of insects.