The dynamics of life is a fascinating puzzle unfolding at multiple scales. Biological systems involved in perception and behavior also underlies our ability to grasp meaning from the world. They amaze me by their robustness in sensing their environment, for example, for photosynthesis or vision, and they inspire me to develop new technologies and discover new scientific perspectives on animals, plants and microbes in their respective ecosystems.

I currently also develop artificial intelligence and robotic systems to help people managing micro-farms. Farmers and plant biologists are both experts at growing plants although they rarely exchange their knowledge. I aim at bringing them together around new technologies so that their knowledge can be transferred. I design new hardware to intervene on crops and acquire in-field data. These data are then integrated through mathematical modeling to get a useful description of the field and to point the farmer to the possible actions he can take. I also hope to surprise biologists and farmers about how machines might teach them about the biology of wild plants. 

David Colliaux is an engineer and research scientist with a background in math and physics. He developped his PhD thesis on mathematical modeling in cognitive neuroscience focusing on the primary visual cortex of the cat. Then he pursued with 2 post-docs, in Tokyo about complex system biology and in Paris about probabilistic models of perception and action. He joined the sustainability team of Sony CSL – Paris in 2016.