Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Aug 24

I'm happy I survived the purge :-)

Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Jun 2

It was a blast to visit the @cbehav.bsky.social ! I am impressed by their concentration of talent and creativity.

I am also grateful for the warm hospitality of @swarmdynamics.bsky.social and @joefresna.bsky.social, who made this day even more special!

Let's write a paper already :-)

Giovanni Reina @joefresna.bsky.social · Jun 2

Very happy to welcome a good friend @carlo.pinciroli.net in the wonderful Konstanz to speak about cool science for a couple of days! Hopefully, these meetings will trigger some fun collaboration!

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Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour @cbehav.bsky.social · Jun 2

Today we’re thrilled to welcome Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute for our next CASCB Talk!
Join us at 12:00 to explore heterogeneity in robot swarms!
📍 ZT 702 & online

www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/collective-b...

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Reposted by Carlo Pinciroli

Giovanni Reina @joefresna.bsky.social · Jun 2

Very happy to welcome a good friend @carlo.pinciroli.net in the wonderful Konstanz to speak about cool science for a couple of days! Hopefully, these meetings will trigger some fun collaboration!

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ANTS 2026 @ants2026.bsky.social · May 19

We are excited to announce that the Fifteenth International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2026) will be taking place on June 8-10, 2026 in Darmstadt, Germany.

📅 Submissions: Nov 10, 2025
📅 Notification: Jan 30, 2026
📅 Conference: June 8-10, 2026
🌐 ants2026.org

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · May 9

Best week ever, with Josh Bloom defending his PhD dissertation titled "Global State Prediction for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Collective Transport." Congratulations!

Many thanks to Dr. Nicola Bezzo, Dr. Kevin Leahy, and Dr. Guanrui Li for your time and detailed feedback!

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · May 8

More great news! Stephen Powers defended his PhD dissertation, "Symbolic Model Extraction in Homogeneous Heterogeneous Swarms."

Many thanks to Dr. Eliseo Ferrante, Dr. Kevin Leahy, and Prof. Bill Michalson, for your time and insightful feedback!

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · May 8

Great news! @ashay-aswale.bsky.social defended his PhD dissertation "Simultaneous Task Scheduling and Coalition Formation in Multi-robot Systems Using Centralized and Decentralized Methods."

Many thanks to Dr. Emanuele Garone, Dr. Kevin Leahy and Dr. Guanrui Li, for your time and great feedback!

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Paul Frazee @pfrazee.com · May 7

Vim is the original escape room

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🎮 Dr. Gremlin 😈 (they/she/any) @colorless.green · Apr 21

so they're mycoblogging

Headline that says mushrooms may talk to one another with up to 50 words

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Apr 18

Oh now that's something

PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · Apr 18

Multiple learning rules in different parts of dendrites.

Definitive goodbye to hoping the brain is simple...?? 😯
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Distinct synaptic plasticity rules operate across dendritic compartments in vivo during learning

Synaptic plasticity underlies learning by modifying specific synaptic inputs to reshape neural activity and behavior. However, the rules governing which synapses will undergo different forms of plasti...

www.science.org

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Apr 17

I'm proud to announce that @khaiyichin.bsky.social defended his PhD dissertation titled "Sensing Through Faults: Collective Perception by Imperfect Robot Swarms."

Many thanks to @swarmdynamics.bsky.social, Dr. Kevin Leahy and Dr. Nitin Sanket, for your time and your thoughtful feedback!

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Mar 28

More and more, BlueSky is where academics share their findings.

Altmetric @altmetric.com · Mar 27

THREAD

The numbers are in. @bsky.app research sharing volumes vs X Formerly Twitter

In March 2024, on most days, Bluesky hosts more posts linked to research published in 2025 than X.

By quite a lot.

Release the Kraken...

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics
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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Mar 21

If you press the gray button with the rotating arrows, it comes up eventually. It's perfect: www.openai.fm#758127b7-a79...

OpenAI.fm

An interactive demo for developers to try the new text-to-speech model in the OpenAI API

www.openai.fm

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Mar 21

The Emo Teenager voice is also a huge highlight

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Carlo Pinciroli @carlo.pinciroli.net · Mar 8

This is the most important point of all and the reason why not every service to society should be private.

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Kathleen E. Corley, PhD @drkathleenecorley.bsky.social · Feb 13

Robotic insects? Sound useful but still very creepy. @ericowens.bsky.social www.livescience.com/technology/r...

MIT builds swarms of tiny robotic insect drones that can fly 100 times longer than previous designs

Scientists have built a new type of robotic insect that can fly 100 times longer than previous generations.

www.livescience.com

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Reposted by Carlo Pinciroli

Sebastian Risi @risi.bsky.social · Feb 10

We're excited to announce the first Evolving Self-organisation workshop at GECCO 2025!

Submission deadline: March 26, 2025

More information: evolving-self-organisation-workshop.github.io

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Gabriel Peyré @gabrielpeyre.bsky.social · Jan 29

This review paper by @guillaume-garrigos.com on SGD-related algorithms is a fantastic resource, offering elegant, self-contained, and concise proofs in a single, accessible reference. arxiv.org/pdf/2301.11235

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Charlie Harris @harrisbio.bsky.social · Jan 13

3/ AI breakthroughs like AlphaFold wouldn’t be possible without decades of work on datasets.

e.g., AlphaFold was trained on protein structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), which took 50+ years and ~$20 *billion* to create.

This is the kind of foundational effort AI needs.

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Jim Whittington🔥 @jimwhittington.bsky.social · Jan 10

In recent decades, wildland fires have been enabled by many factors, including the legacy of fire suppression, human settlement and distribution patterns, other management actions, and even natural climate variability. 1/

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Chris Amato @cjdamato.bsky.social · Jan 7

I have a draft of my introduction to cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning on arxiv. Check it out and let me know any feedback you have. The plan is to polish and extend the material into a more comprehensive text with Frans Oliehoek.

arxiv.org/abs/2405.06161

A First Introduction to Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) has exploded in popularity in recent years. While numerous approaches have been developed, they can be broadly categorized into three main types: centralized ...

arxiv.org

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Dec 28

Why are evolved networks (such as gene and metabolic webs) different from engineering designs? One lesson is provided by evolved electronic circuits, as shown in this @sciam.bsky.social paper by John Koza
jstor.org/stable/pdf/2...

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · Dec 27

A rare actual good news story: bees – both honey bees and wild bees – seem to be doing better in the UK.

Bee-friendly planting, less pesticide use and an uptick in beekeeping are all having results 🐝 🎉 inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...

The good news about bees: Why they're returning to British gardens

Thanks to a combination of efforts by beekeepers, better farming practices and reduced pesticide use, populations are showing signs of recovery

inews.co.uk

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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · Dec 21

Astonishing how many RL bottlenecks are resolved simply by “make simulator go fast”. What if we had prioritized engineering over algorithms years ago?

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