I’m still writing this up, but I wanted to share a short video of our recent work modeling suction cups using FEBio, an open-source finite element modeling tool. Check out this biomimetic cuttlefish suction cup:
Using deep reinforcement learning to model storm petrel behaviors
Storm petrels are crazy little oceanic birds that often “hop” on the water’s surface. Nobody knows why. It’s a difficult thing to study–the birds are doing this behavior in the middle of the ocean. Do they perform this behavior to save energy via weight support? Do they use their feet as an “anchor” in high wind? We wanted to know […]
Bijenteelt met Mohamed (Beekeeping with Mohamed)
Paige and I recently had the opportunity to work with Mohamed, a professional beekeeper (“imker” in Dutch) with over 300 hives scattered throughout the Netherlands. Mohamed came to the Netherlands from Syria ten years ago. Today he has a thriving business selling honey and beeswax, teaching beekeeping, renting his bees as crop pollinators, and raising queens. On this day, Mohamed […]