Collective Behavior Analysis and Simulation: Diane Theriault, PhD Oral Exam

Collective Behavior Analysis and Simulation Diane H. Theriault Department of Computer Science, Boston University Oral PhD Exam November 12, 2012, Room MCS 148, 1-2 pm Aggregations of animals have been a subject of study since the 19th century and continue to be a very active area of research. Detailed study of schools of fish in the 1950’s through early 1980’s led to simulation models in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, that are studied in many domains, including computer graphics, social networks, optimization, statistical mechanics, ecology and computational biology , vehicle and pedestrian simulation, and autonomous vehicle control . Recent work that compares simulations with observations of animals has challenged some of the long-held assumptions of these models, which is significant because they are so widely used. In my oral exam, I will discuss this emerging work in its historical context and share how it has inspired the simulation and modeling strategies that I will explore in my PhD thesis work. Committee: Profs. Margrit Betke, Mark Crovella, and Stan Sclaroff, Department of Computer Science, Boston University Bio: Diane Theriault is a fourth-year PhD student in the Image and Video Computing Group of the Computer Science Department at Boston University, working with Prof. Margrit Betke. Ms. Theriault has published several papers on the analysis and understanding of group behavior from video. She graduated from Boston University with a B.A. degree in Computer Science in 2004, received a Master's Degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006, and worked on radar tracking and applied computer vision at BAE Systems from 2006-2009. She won the Lubee Bat Conservancy Award at the 33rd Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research in 2003 and the Boston University Computer Science Department "Academic Achievement Award" in 2004.