In lieu of a traditional GTA position, I advise current and prospective undergraduates in the department. For summer quarter 2009 my primary duty is to assist with the orientation of freshman, so all office hours are by appointment only. Please send an email to
schultzk@ece.osu.edu to schedule an appointment.
My research is primarily focused on the analysis and modeling of groups of biological systems, particularly honey bees and pancreatic stem cells. I use video processing techniques to gather information from video of biological systems. Additionally, I also work on mathematical models for swarm type behaviors.
My M.S. thesis and the bulk of my Ph.D. dissertation are on the analysis and modeling of honey bee Apis mellifera swarms. An article relating to the guidance hypothesis of swarms was recently published in
Schultz, K. M., Passino, K. M. and Seeley, T. D. (2008). The mechanism of flight guidance in honeybee swarms: subtle guides or streaker bees? Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 3287-3295.
Supplementary files for the JEB article can be found here.
The article has been featured on NPR's Science Out of the Box, Science News, New Scientist, the Columbus Dispatch, and an Inside JEB article alongside the actual paper.
A video of one swarm fly-by that has been used for the M.S. thesis, J. Exp. Biology, and forthcoming work can be viewed here (right-click save as). Some older video from a test study shows a swarm lifting off, and a side view demonstrate the scope of the problem. A movie file of the simulation presented in the M.S. Thesis can be found here (right-click save as).
Recently, I have begun working on pancreatic stem cells with Dr. Keith Gooch in biomedical engineering. The goal of the research is to study the movement of the cells in order to increase the efficiency of creating insulin secreting islets in the lab. The following movies are part of the preliminary research presented at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) fall 2008 meeting under the poster titled:
Formation of Islet-Like Cell Aggregates: Relative Role of Chemotaxis and Differential Adhesion. R. REEN, W. ACKERMANN, K. SCHULTZ, D. KNISS, K. PASSINO AND K. GOOCH
A movie of cell tracking.
A movie of cell tracking using dyed cells.
Another movie of cell tracking using dyed cells.