Tanya Berger-Wolf, Daniel Rubenstein, and Jared Saia received a grant from the National Science Foundation of $900,000 to create computational tools that provide a broader, more dynamic picture of animal social interactions. Their software may help ecologists devise new techniques to protect endangered species.
(Biologists) have to get to the core of what it is in the pattern of social interactions and social structure that makes a difference in survival.”
The approach combines ideas from academic disciplines of social network analysis, Internet computing, data mining and machine learning to solve the complicated puzzles of population biology.
The result should be a more realistic dynamic look at social patterns.
These researchers see that models they use to understand Zebra social interactions can then also be used to understand human consumer behavior, the spread of disease or information, or the formation of covert organizations.
Very interesting. I wonder what Tablet PC, UMPC, or other mobile PCs they’ll use in the field to write their notes?