Abstract

Right now our understanding of our spatial environment is changing. New developments in fields such as radio telemetry, sensor networks, computer vision, mapping, and miniature data loggers are providing the tools and techniques to facilitate a revolution in the kinds of data that can be gathered at large scales and for extended periods of time. These data provide the necessary foundations on which to build novel models of the dynamics and complexities of moving agents. The very nature of such data fundamentally changes the way we consider and investigate such systems. It’s disruptive: changing both the questions we ask and the way we ask them.

My own research has focused on the movement and spatial ecology of individual animals and animal groups, principally birds. One of the key aims of my work over the last few years has been to show how, in conjunction with new tracking technologies, the application of novel analytical methods can reveal a deeper understanding of an animal’s spatial behaviour. I have taken a truly interdisciplinary approach to this work, embracing long-term animal field study and experimentation, applying techniques from computational and engineeringscience (pattern recognition, machine learning, individual based modeling), developing and using new software for visualizing and analysing complex spatial data, and designing, fabricating and developing novel hardware systems.

During my talk, I’ll present this work and discuss the implications and future directions for this field.