Unlocking Behavioral Insights with the Multibeam Activity Detector

During Fall 2024, the Physics team focused on enhancing the capabilities of the Multibeam Activity Detector (MAD), a custom device designed to collect behavioral data from up to 16 fruit flies using infrared laser sensors. The team successfully developed a C script to interpret the digital signals generated by the MAD, ensuring accurate and efficient data collection. Building on this foundation, the team implemented an automated data pipeline to streamline the processing and storage of data in a cloud-based AWS database. To further support researchers, an interactive frontend GUI was developed, enabling seamless visualization and exploration of the collected behavioral data. The team plans to perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) to uncover behavioral patterns and, if successful, apply machine learning models to predict behavioral dynamics. These efforts aim to enhance the MAD system’s utility in advancing experimental biology.