Modelling Disease Transmission in Multilayer Networks

January 2025 — February 2024

I worked with Prof. Chaitanya Gokhale (CCTB, University of Wurzburg), as an external rotation, to model diasease transmission on mutlilayer networks. A mutlilayer network is a set of connected networks, where nodes are connected across networks via inter-layer edges. They can be used in the study of animal societies to understand how various interactions are playing out in the group. I am modelling the dynamics of disease spread in a multilayer networks, considering different layers as different social interactions in the colony.

Quantifying Contamination Risk from Allogrooming

October 2024 — December 2024

For my first rotation at ISTA, I worked with Prof. Sylvia Cremer to design and conduct an experiment to disentangle the risk of getting contaminated with a fungal pathogen while grooming or being in physical proximity to a contaminated nestmate. The experiment involved tagging Lasius niger ants with QR tags and tracking them in groups of 6 individuals where 2 ants were infected with fungal pathogen. I filmed the experiments and conducted qPCR analysis to quantify the amount of pathogen load, but the analysis of behavioural data remains.

Automated Tracking of Behavioural Synchrony in Cooperating Marmosets

June 2023 — May 2024

I did my master's thesis with Prof. Judith Burkart and Nikhil Phaniraj in the Evolutionary Cognition Group, Institute of Evolutionary Anthropolgy, University of Zurich. I established an automated 3D pose-tracking pipeline to study gaze following, interpersonal behavioural synchrony and posture imitation in common marmosets using DeepLabCut and StereoCameraCalibrator.

Reinforcement-induced Reduction in the Number of Introductory Notes in Zebra Finches

January 2023 — April 2023

This was a credited semester project with Dr. Raghav Rajan at Department of Biology, IISER Pune. I conducted a closed-loop behavioural assay using syllable variance measured in real-time to provide negative reinforcement against a high number of introductory note syllables (INs). We saw a significant reduction in the mean number of INs in a test bird.

Comparative Analysis of Introductory Notes across four Estrildid Finches

August 2022 — December 2022

This was a credited semester project with Dr. Raghav Rajan and Nandu T.S. at Department of Biology, IISER Pune. We compared the song sequences of 4 Estrildid species and found that they begin their song with specific syllables, and the loudness of the first five syllables in a song increases, whereas the inter-syllable duration, similar to the patterns observed in introductory notes of Zebra finches.

Effect of Recent Pathogen Experience on Induced Sanitary Broodcare in Ants

June 2022 — August 2022

This was a research internship with Prof. Sylvia Cremer and Linda Sartoris at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). In this experimental project, ants were first exposed to a fungal pathogen for a brief period and later to contaminated larvae, but there was no effect of recent pathogen experience on sanitary brood care. We concluded that a low-level contamination is lethal for isolated larvae, but not adult ants.

An Analysis of Flowering Synchrony Indices

January 2022 — May 2022

This was a credited semester project with Prof. Deepak Barua at Department of Biology, IISER Pune. In this project, I compared four different flowering synchrony indices using simulated flowering populations in R, which had different levels flowering intensities and time distributions. I modified an existing measure to better capture synchrony by comparing existing overlap of flowering distribution to the maximum possible overlap using convolution.

Literature Review on the Human Gut Microbiome

September 2021 — December 2021

This was a credited semester project with Prof. Sutirth Dey at Department of Biology, IISER Pune. In this project, I did a comprehensive literature review on the human gut microbiome - the diversity, factors that affect microbiome composition, metabolism, immune interactions and dysbiosis.

Readings and Writings on Animal Behaviour

April 2021 — September 2021

This was an online mentored project with Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar at the Indian Institute of Science. This summer project involved reading several books on animal behaviour, and writing articles based on them, one of which got published on a science communication platform. I also did a literature review of common principles across social and individual immunity.

Behavioural annotation of ants in response to fungal pathogen

June 2021 — September 2021

This was a remote project with Dr. Nathalie Stroeymeyt and Adriano Wanderlingh at the Bristol University. This remote project involved annotating the behavioural repertoire of Lasius niger ants tagged with QR codes before and after exposure to a fungal pathogen.