Ralph Emilio Peterson

Neuroscientist & musician interested in sensory processing, natural neuroscience, biological/artificial collective intelligence.

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

New preprint!

tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵

w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany, @e_mackevicius

https://t.co/FbxHwbTR16

[Basis @BasisOrg]

Basis researcher @ralph_ep will be in Texas this week to give a talk at PestWorld 2026! 🐀 Catch his talk, "Eavesdropping on Urban Rats: Bringing AI and Field Neuroscience to Rodent Monitoring and Mitigation," on Thursday 10/22 from 1:30-2:45 PM in Fort Worth 6-7.

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

It turns out rats talk all night long and cities can use this information to help determine which areas to allocate municipal resources to.

What else can we sense? We're just starting to scratch the surface.

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

Had a great time speaking about our work at the National Urban Rat Summit last week! We are building AI tools to sense the natural world and uncover patterns that humans cannot perceive, e.g. human-inaudible ultrasonic rat vocalizations.

[Basis @BasisOrg]

Last week Basis researchers attended the National Urban Rat Summit, where @Ralph_Ep presented our work using acoustic monitoring to study rat behavior, while Nick Jourjine showcased monitoring devices on a nighttime “rat walk” 🐀.
Ralph and @e_Mackevicius also met @MayorWu. Ralph spoke with WBUR about the research: https://t.co/wLq4IIUen0

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

@Eric_Betzig Python https://t.co/abngMCxNUs

[Zenna Tavares @ZennaTavares]

The Collaborative Intelligent Systems team at @BasisOrg have an extremely cool preprint on Biorxiv, which Scientific American @sciam just picked up: Computational Urban Ecology of New York City Rats!

Team: @ralph_ep @zamakany Dima Batenkov @e_mackevicius w/ @zamakany

[Emily Mackevicius @e_mackevicius]

🌆🐀Scientific American article about the project we're starting on NYC rats!! https://t.co/f4kquZ0qaH

With @ralph_ep, @zamakany, and Dima Batenkov

Seeking collaborators and funders 🐀🌆

[The Transmitter @_TheTransmitter]

What do neuroscience labs and the streets of New York City have in common? They are both commonly home to rats, a feature this research team is leveraging to study rat social cognition in the wild.

By @martajhill
https://t.co/w71oa11zN9

[Neuroscience at NYU Langone Health @NYULH_Neuro]

🎓🧠Applying to PhD programs in neuroscience, psychology, or cognitive science in the US?

NYU’s Application Support Group (ASG) is a student-led, free mentorship program offering 1-on-1 support & guidance. Apply now: https://t.co/vPNaxOfh3h

For details: https://t.co/1nJHTaJXlA

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

@sharbat_c @zamakany @e_mackevicius Just a GoPro or phone camera were used for the gaussian splats. There are some apps that let you generate the splat on-device, like Scaniverse from Niantic.

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

New preprint!

tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵

w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany, @e_mackevicius

https://t.co/FbxHwbTR16

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

@rudzinskimaciej @zamakany @e_mackevicius Definitely! There are some great human collective behaviors that are amenable to this (e.g. sports)

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

@eryney_ok Funny you should mention - we’re working on that! Good to know that Winthrop Park has rats. Check out this rat map of Boston https://t.co/LHKYT5UF6a

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

@BasisOrg We are piloting V2 of this work and would be excited to brainstorm next directions. Please be in touch if you have comments, questions, or would like to collaborate!

[Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralph_ep]

This is probably also a good time to announce that I have parlayed this literal PhD moonlight project into a postdoc at @BasisOrg, where I am working on Collaborative Intelligent Systems (biological and artificial) with Emily Mackevicius.