After Dark: Flights of Fancy

Flights of the Hummingbirds
With Ashley Smiley
7:30 p.m.  | Bechtel Gallery 3, Wattis Webcast Studio

Named for the audible sound created by their wings, hummingbirds boast many unique traits. As a researcher with the Animal Flight Lab at UC Berkeley, Ashley Smiley studies these high-frequency fliers, conducting field research that aims to gain a deeper understanding of why hummingbirds’ flight performance has evolved the way it has. Join Ashley to learn some of the fascinating fundamentals about these birds and the unique studies her lab has conducted, right in Berkeley, to track how they navigate varied apertures.

Dōmo Dōmo
With Jeremy Rourke
8:00 and 9:00 p.m.  | Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

Tag along with Dōmo Dōmo, an autobiographical, animated and musical story about a three-week bicycle tour through northern Japan in the summer of 2019. The expanded cinema performance of this narrative includes animation, video, and field recordings in conjunction with a live score of acoustic folk songs. Join Jeremy Rourke on Japan’s back roads as he pedals and pedals and pedals some more. A journey of culture shock and sometimes harrowing inclement weather alongside glorious moments of synchronicity and beauty. 

Robots Overhead!: Microrobotic Swarms
With Daniel Drew
8:30 p.m.  | Bechtel Gallery 3, Wattis Webcast Studio

How may teeny-tiny insect-scale microrobots become an essential force in collecting information and taking action during times of need? As our world is increasingly shaped by data-driven decisions that influence major aspects of human life - health, industry, environment - microrobots are emerging as a vital tool for stitching data together. These robots may look like nothing found in the natural world; Daniel Drew has recently developed the ionocraft, an ion-thruster-propelled flying microrobot with no moving parts. Hear from Drew about his work developing microrobotics and learn more about the breadth of their potential uses.