Mandyam Srinivasan

Head of Sensory and Visual Neuroscience, Queensland Brain Institute

For many of us, the humble honey bee is no cause for wonder - we see them flitting among the flowers, avoid getting stung by them, but otherwise do not give them another passing thought.

Not so for Professor Mandyam Srinivasan (known as Srini), who has spent the past 20 years studying how honey bees detect, chase and intercept moving targets, avoid collisions, and land smoothly every time.

"When I see honey bees, I am amazed at how creatures with such small brains and simple nervous systems can function so well," says Srini.

"How do they fly through narrow passages without bumping into things?

"How do they land on flat surfaces and manage things such as flight speed, head winds and cross winds?"

With a background in engineering, including a PhD in engineering and applied science from Yale, Srini knew that the answers to these questions could lead to major improvements in robotics, and automated systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles.

"Formally, my study was engineering based, but from very early on I was interested in the interface between biology and engineering.

"So while my PhD was officially in engineering, my lab was actually in the medical school and my professor was an ophthalmologist working with butterfly eyes."

Moving to the Australian National University in Canberra in 1978, Srini built a multidisciplinary team that became the focus of national and international attention.

"Originally, I was the whole team - the beekeeper, the experimenter, the analyst - but fortunately that changed over time.

"Based on what we have learned from the honey bee, we have been able to apply the same principles of control and navigation to unmanned aircraft.

"We can create smaller, cheaper and lighter models that can be used for surveillance out in the field."

Srini's work has been recognised by grants from NASA and the US military, and he was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in 2006.

In 2007, he was awarded the Queensland Smart State Premier's Fellowship to continue his research here in Queensland.

"We are now trying to study how aggressive bees detect and track moving targets.

"Unfortunately, Queensland bees are quite docile compared to bees in the southern states so it has been a challenge to get them angry.

"If anyone has an angry hive they want to get rid of, I'd be interested!"

Although honey bees have been the main focus of Srini's work over the years after "graduating from flies", he is currently also working with budgerigars, and with facets of the human visuomotor system.

And how has he enjoyed the move to Queensland?

"Coming from India originally, I love the local climate but I wouldn't mind if the summers were a little cooler and less humid."

Name
Mandyam Srinivasan

Job title
Head of Sensory and Visual Neuroscience

Who do you work for?
Queensland Brain Institute and the School of IT and Electrical Engineering

What do you do?
I work with honey bees to understand how they are able to undertake quite complex functions such as detecting moving targets, avoiding collisions, and landing smoothly. I then look to apply what we learn from the honey bee to practical applications such as robotics and unmanned aircraft.

What do you like most about your job?
Not knowing how an experiment is going to turn out. You never really know what the outcome is going to be, and it is usually more interesting than what you'd planned. My work is constantly surprising.

What is the most unusual or fun thing you've done in your job?
Trying to get a beehive angry - I don't think many people would intentionally do that!

What inspired you to choose a career in this area?
Nature does such wonderful things so simply and elegantly. I was inspired to copy this and create new flying machines based on nature's own designs.

Where's your favourite place in Queensland?
I have only been in Queensland since 2007, so I have not had the opportunity to see much of it as yet, but I would have to say anywhere down by the river here in Brisbane - there are so many lovely spots.

What's your favourite flavour of ice cream?
Chilli chocolate - I don't think it's been invented yet, but hopefully it will be.

What's your all-time favourite movie?
That's a hard one. I know what it is not - The Bee Movie. Everything in that movie was factually incorrect - even the gender of the bees!

What was the last thing you ate?
A banana.

What do you see as the best invention ever?
That would be between the satellite and the computer.