Alex Terrazas
Can we learn data gathering techniques by studying the behavior of animals? Dr. Alex Terrazas, Vice President, MSci Centers of Innovation at Nielsen, believes the answer is "yes" and will take us on a journey into the science of "optimal foraging" in his talk "Finding Stores with Satellite Intelligence and Biomimicry."
Dr. Terrazas is at the forefront of the integration of mind, brain, and technology and holds a Ph.D. in Cognition and Neural Systems from the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. He is known for experiments in which he recorded neural activity in rats as they drove around real and virtual reality environments in a small car. He is a former Fellow of the National Institutes of Mental Health where he conducted experiments in humans using virtual reality and functional magnetic resonance imaging. He is the 1997 recipient of the Proctor and Gamble Professional Opportunity Award and the American Psychological Association Fellowship in Neuroscience.
In addition to his scientific leadership, Dr. Terrazas adds considerable expertise in hardware and software R&D. He is the former Associate Director of the Machine Interface Network Design Laboratory at Michigan State University where he oversaw R&D efforts in robotics, virtual reality and image analysis. Dr. Terrazas is the author of the book Java Media API's: Cross-platform Imaging, Media and Visualization (SAMS/Pearson Press, ISBN: 0-672-32094-0).