Pembe Gizem Özdil

Ph.D. Student | Google Ph.D. Fellow
pgizemozdil@gmail.com

about me

In Fall 2025, I will be joining the Kempner Institute at Harvard University as a research fellow. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to collaborate or learn more about my work.

I recently defended my Ph.D. in Robotics at EPFL, where I was advised by EPFL, Switzerland, advised by Pavan Ramdya and Auke Ijspeert. My research lies at the interface of systems neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I primarily focus on understanding the underlying mechanisms of motor coordination in Drosophila using behavior, physics-based simulations and neural networks. My long-term goal is to leverage biological insights from animals to develop better artificial systems. My early Ph.D. was supported by a Swiss Government Excellence Ph.D. Fellowship, and a Google Ph.D. Fellowship.

Previously, I received my B.S. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering with a double major in Mathematics from Boğaziçi University, Turkey where I worked on robot localization at Işıl Bozma's Intelligent Systems Laboratory.

news

July 2025

Presented at CNS in Florence, Italy.

May 2025

Successfully defended my PhD!! 🎓 Here is my thesis, titled "An integrative computational modeling approach for Drosophila motor control."

March 2025

Organized a workshop at COSYNE in Montréal, Canada.

June 2024

Visited the Flatiron Institute in New York as a summer research intern!

March 2024

Presented at COSYNE in Lisbon, Portugal. Here is my poster.

Oct 2023

Awarded a Google Ph.D. Fellowship! See my interview with EPFL Research Office here.

Sept 2023

Presented at Beyond the Connectome and Simulated Bodies at Janelia Research Campus, the USA.

Sept 2023

Presented at the 67th Benzon Symposium in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Nov 2022

Presented at Neuroscience 2022 in San Diego, the USA.

June 2021

Virtually presented at the symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines and received an Honorable Mention!

Oct 2020

Started my Ph.D. at Neuroengineering and Biorobotics Laboratories at EPFL.

selected publications

For a full list of my publications, please visit my Google Scholar profile.
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Centralized brain networks underlie body part coordination during grooming

Pembe Gizem Özdil, Jonathan Arreguit, Clara Scherrer, Auke Jan Ijspeert, Pavan Ramdya

BioRXiv, 2024.

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NeuroMechFly, a neuromechanical model of adult Drosophila melanogaster

Victor Lobato-Rios, Shravan Tata Ramalingasetty*, Pembe Gizem Özdil*, Jonathan Arreguit, Auke Jan Ijspeert, Pavan Ramdya