I‘m a biologist (Ph.D.), permanent staff scientist at Nuremberg Zoo (Germany), Research Group Leader of the Behavioral Ecology and Conservation Lab and associate scientist at Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). I’m interested in the evolutionary, physiological and physical constraints that shape animal orientation, communication and sensory experience. Thereby, I’m not only working on a single stimuli level but aim to consider the full range of sensory channels and their interactions. Only this way is it possible to fully understand an animal’s sensory world. My approach to study these questions is to gain control over the sensory world of animals with state-of-the-art technical setups using biomimetics, robotics and virtual realities. Using this approach, I investigate bat echolocation with a focus on nectar feeding bats and the acoustic adaptations of the plants they pollinate. Apart from fundamental research in the field of sensory ecology, I also carry out research in more applied fields as bio-inspired sonar sensing and nature conservation research, specifically I worked on measures against bat fatalities at wind turbines. At the moment, I’m also involved in the ‘Seeing Voices Project’, where we try to disentangle the role of multimodal cues in vocal learning in birds by using robotic birds as song tutors.
Permanent Staff Scientist
Research Group Leader
Nuremberg Zoo, Behavioral Ecology and Conservation Lab
Am Tiergarten 30
90480 Nuremberg, Germany
e-mail: Ralph.Simon@stadt.nuernberg.de
Associate Scientist
Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab
Department Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering
Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Carl-Thiersch-Straße 2b
91052 Erlangen, Germany
orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6083-0394
researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ralph_Simon
twitter: https://twitter.com/RalSimon
Check out our new paper on the development and application of a robotic zebra finch (RoboFinch) out now in Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Our paper on the #RoboFinch – a robotic #zebrafinch – is out today in @MethodsEcolEvol. We describe in detail how the #RoboFinch was produced (everything is open source) and how young birds reacted to it (spoiler: they loved him). 🐦🤖https://t.co/qAGJnJ4YqL
(1/3) pic.twitter.com/1ot82qDkwH
— Dr. Ralph Simon (@RalSimon) February 15, 2023Bat-plant interactions rule! Check out our new study on traits of bat-pollinated flowers in PLOS Computational Biology:
Glad to share our new paper on the #SoundOfFlowers in @PLOSCompBiol. In a joint project with @mclduk @bananabcarlito @MKnornschild & @JaSteckel we collected more than 30k recs of flowers & found that bat flowers show a row of special acoustic traits. https://t.co/V2XDLx7Oty
(1/5) pic.twitter.com/x6p8SyZNUN
— Dr. Ralph Simon (@RalSimon) December 23, 2021
Check out our new study on scalable microphone arrays in Communications Biology:
Check out our latest paper on the development of large scale microphone arrays and their application to study the behavior of bats and birds @EVerreycken @JaSteckel @CoSysLab @BarberLab 🦇🐦🎙️ https://t.co/uf51FlfuWF
(1/5) pic.twitter.com/jLxRXOCs8C
— Dr. Ralph Simon (@RalSimon) November 23, 2021
New study published in Animal Cognition:
Some weeks ago one of our main studies that came out of the Seeing Voices Project was published in @SpringerANCO. To put it simple we found that young #ZebraFinches love to watch TV but they don’t learn from it! @JudithVarkevisser @scharff_scharff @WHalfwerk @HFSP 📺🐦
(1/5) https://t.co/rycGCYpJmF
— Dr. Ralph Simon (@RalSimon) October 7, 2021Learned to use a nice new tool to analyze all my bat footage: DeepLabCut
Far from perfect, but I labelled only 40 frames, trained the network for 1,5h (5000 iterations) et voilà 🦇🌺amazing tool @DeepLabCut #deeplabcut #bats #batpollination #markerlessposeestimation pic.twitter.com/NOqK2DKd7d
— Dr. Ralph Simon (@RalSimon) September 16, 2020
Our PNAS paper on bioinspired sonar reflectors was featured by Discover Magazine
Nice article in @DiscoverMag on our bioinspired reflector paper, published earlier this year with @JaSteckel in @PNASNews. You'll find background information & nice insights from @YovelBatLab. Thank you so much @RaleighMcElvery! 🦇🌺🤖https://t.co/9rl0CJOQCf
— Dr. Ralph Simon (@RalSimon) November 16, 2020