Pembe Gizem Özdil

Ph.D. Student | Google Ph.D. Fellow
pembe.ozdil@epfl.ch

about me

I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Robotics at 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 in part supported by a Swiss Government Excellence Ph.D. Fellowship, and it is now funded by 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

June 2024

I am visiting the Flatiron Institute in New York as a summer research intern!

March 2024

I presented at COSYNE in March in Lisbon, Portugal. Here is my poster.

Oct 2023

I was awarded a Google Ph.D. Fellowship! See my interview with EPFL Research Office here.

Sept 2023

I presented at Beyond the Connectome and Simulated Bodies in September at Janelia Research Campus, the USA.

Sept 2023

I presented a poster at the 67th Benzon Symposium in September in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Nov 2022

I presented a poster at Neuroscience 2022 in San Diego, the USA.

June 2021

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

Oct 2020

I 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