A workshop on acoustic probing and natural and artificial decision making underwater and in air – from dolphins and bats to drones and AUVs.

This one day (“fika-to-fika”) workshop by Lund University Profile Area Natural and Artificial Cognition brings together researchers from across the NAC Plane* who are working on  cognition, decision making, robots and AI-related topics.

When: 2 March 2026 at 9.45 to 15.30

Where: M:Ångpannehallen (M:1328-29), Ole Römers väg 1 / Kommunikationsvägen, Lund Sweden

Primary audience researchers (estimate: 40-50 attendants)

To participate is free of charge. Sign up for participation at 
https://www.ai.lu.se/nac/internal/2026-03-02/registration

Programme

9.45: Check-in, FIKA 

Morning session

10:10 - 10:20 Welcome and presentations of the attendants

10:20 - 10:45-ish  Keynote presentation: Prof. Malcolm MacIver, Biomedical Engineering Cormick School of Engineering,  Northwestern University 
Understanding planning in animals through robot-animal interaction experiments
10:45 - 10.55 Questions/discussions/interdisciplinary ideas

10:55 - 11:15  Presentation Josefin Starkhammar, Biomedical Engineering 
Insights about dolphin echolocation characteristics of possible biomimetic value for target tracking 
11:15 - 11:25  Questions/discussions/interdisciplinary ideas

11:25 - 11:50 Presentation Prof. Peter Sigray, Aerospace, Moveability and Naval Architecture, KTH 
Advances in Underwater Robotics for Environmental Science and Defence 
11:50 - 12:05  Questions/discussions/interdisciplinary ideas

12.05 - 12:45  LUNCH and mingle

Afternoon session

12:45 - 13:05  Presentation Johan Dahlén, Police Inspector, Head of Regional UAS Unit,Regional Investigation Unit, Section for Camera and Analysis, Polisen
 Polisen 
Applications of drone technology in law enforcement: Abilities, challenges and the need for future technical solutions
13:05 - 13:20  Questions/discussions/interdisciplinary ideas.

13:20 - 13:50 Presentation Magnus Oskarsson,  Mathematical Imaging Group + Per Skarin 
Learning How to Locate Things in the World Using Sound and Microphones
13:50 - 14:00  Questions/discussions/interdisciplinary ideas. 

14:00 - 14:20 Presentation Prof. Eric Warrant, Lund Vision Group
Sensory cues used by animals to navigate in air and water
14:20 - 14:35 Questions/discussions/interdisciplinary ideas.

14:35 - 14:55 Group discussions 

14:55 - 15:30  FIKA 

Organisation

The workshop is organised by the Lund University Profile Area Natural and Artificial Cognition

• Josefin Starkhammar, Biomedical Engineering 
• Kalle Åström, Computer Vision and Machine Learning
• Eric Warrant, Lund Vision Group
• Magnus Oskarsson Mathematical Imaging Group
• Jonas Wisbrant, Natural and Artificial Cognition & AI Lund

* The NAC plane is one of several ways to try to span and describe the research within Lund University's profile area for natural and artificial cognition (NAC). Imagine a two-dimensional matrix in which one axis (often y) you have the concepts of artificial and natural cognition, i.e. different artificial or biological cognitive and more or less autonomous agents or systems. On the other axis (often x) you have how many such agents or systems you want to study, one by one, two by two, or many; sometimes very many, such as brain cells or nodes on the Internet. Research on humans interacting with robots ends up in the middle of the matrix.

If you have read to here and want to know more about Lund University's profile area for natural and artificial cognition, you will find the researchers and much of our research on https://portal.research.lu.se/ :-)