Evripidis Gkanias

Evripidis Gkanias

Research Associate in Computational & Neuromorphic Modelling

University of Edinburgh

Evripidis (or Evri) is a post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics.

He is interested in bio-accurate artificial intelligence and information theory, and he currently studies the effectiveness of different forms of working memory constrained by insect neuroscience and nanotechnology hardware, aiming to build an anatomically-accurate polarised light compass circuit.

Scientific questions he is currently working on:

  • how working memory implements in the brain,
  • can photons imitate message-passing in the insect brain, and
  • how useful this is for visually guided navigation.
Download my resumé.
Interests
  • Bio-inspired Artificial Intelligence
  • Neuroethology of Navigation
  • Probabilistic Machine Learning
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Bio-inspired Computer Vision
  • Multimodal Integration
Education
  • PhD, Bio-inspired Robotics & Autonomous Systems, 2023

    University of Edinburgh

  • MSc, Artificial Intelligence, 2016

    University of Edinburgh

  • BSc, Computer Science, 2013

    Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Recent Publication

Research Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Research Associate in Computation. & Neuromorphic Modelling
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Jun 2022 – Present United Kingdom

Advisors: Prof Barbara Webb.
Project: Insect Neuro Nano, Funding: European Research Council.

I explore the effectiveness of different forms of working memory constrained by the biology and nanotechnology hardware and build an anatomically-accurate polarised light compass circuit.

 
 
 
 
 
Univeristy of Edinburgh
PhD Candidate in Bio-inspired Robotics & Autonomous Systems
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Sep 2018 – Mar 2023 United Kingdom

Advisors: Prof Barbara Webb, Prof Subramanian Ramamoorthy.
Thesis examiners: Prof Thomas Nowotny (external), Prof J. Douglas Armstrong (internal).
Project: Insect neuroethology of reinforcement learning, Funding: RAS CDT.

I investigated how insects form associative memories based on reinforcements from the environment and how this impacts their behaviour in the context of reinforcement learning.

 
 
 
 
 
Univeristy of Edinburgh & University of Sheffield
Research Associate in Computational Modelling
Univeristy of Edinburgh &
University of Sheffield
Mar 2017 – Aug 2018 United Kingdom

Advisors: Dr Michael Mangan (Sheffield), Prof Barbara Webb (Edinburgh).
Project: Invisible Cues, Funding: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

I was responsible for investigating the information content of polarised light in relation to animal navigation before using the outcomes to develop a technical specification / design for manufacture of a novel robot sensor.

 
 
 
 
 
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Research Assistant in Bio-robotics
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Sep 2016 – Feb 2017 United Kingdom

Advisors: Prof Barbara Webb.
Project: Minimal, Funding: European Research Council.

I focus on trying to imitate the learning mechanism of the larval Drosophila, which creates associations among odours and tastes. The goal is to create such a mechanism in neural level and put it on a robot platform. The robot will try to find the gustatory source following the gradients of the associated odour.

 
 
 
 
 
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas (CERTH)
Research Assistant in Machine Learning
Centre for Research and Technology - Hellas (CERTH)
Jun 2014 – Aug 2015 Greece

Advisors: Dr Petros Daras.
Projects: RePlay, FI-STAR, Funding: European Commision.

My main task was to implement a toolbox, using C# and the WPF subsystem, which could be used to analyse and compare human gestures, tracked using different capturing devices, i.e., Microsoft Kinect, Vicon, WIMUs. I also implemented an extension of it, which was compatible with Unity3D.

Teaching Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Teaching Assistant
Univeristy of Edinburgh
Sep 2018 – Aug 2022 United Kingdom

I have been tutoring, demonstrating and marking for a variety of courses including:

  • Introductory Applied Machine Learning: tutor, demonstrator, marker

    Instructors: Dr Amos Storkey & Prof Chris Williams

  • Reinforcement Learning: tutor

    Instructors: Dr Pavlos Andreadis & Dr Stefano Albrecht

  • System Desighn Project: Machine Vision and Quantitative Analysis expert

    Instructors: Dr Steve Tonneau, James Garforth & Prof Barbara Webb

 
 
 
 
 
Univeristy of Illinois  (coursera)
Community Teaching Assistant
Univeristy of Illinois (coursera)
Feb 2013 – May 2014 Online
  • Heterogeneous Parallel Programming: I was responsible for answering students' questions regarding the course material and assignments

    Instructor: Prof Wen-mei W. Hwu

Funding & Awards

 
 
 
 
 
The Linnean Society of London
Percy Sladen Memorial Fund Grant
Jun 2019 – Jul 2019 Seville, Spain
Small grant that allowed me to conduct some field-work experiments with desert ants in Seville, Spain. The proposed project was aiming to test for vector-sequence memories during path integration.
 
 
 
 
 
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Robotics and Autonomous Systems - Centre for Doctoral Training Grant
Sep 2018 – Aug 2022 Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, United Kingdom
PhD scholarship awareded to the top 10 candidates of the program.
 
 
 
 
 
University of Edinburgh
UK/EU Master’s Scholarship
Sep 2015 – Aug 2016 Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Master degree scholarship that covers the tuition fees for the top 100 students of all disciplines comming from the EU or the UK.

Projects

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Skills

Computational Neuroscience
Python
Machine Learning
Robotics
Localisation and Mapping
Computer Vision

Contact