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About

Andrew Straw is a prominent researcher at the intersection of insect neuroscience, visual ecology, and bio-inspired robotics, whose work has fundamentally advanced our understanding of how flying insects use vision to navigate their environment. His landmark 2009 study on visual control of flight speed in *Drosophila melanogaster* (155 citations) demonstrated how fruit flies process optic flow — the self-induced visual motion experienced during flight — to generate precise steering corrections, establishing a rigorous systems-level framework for understanding insect flight control. This was followed by equally influential work on altitude regulation in flying *Drosophila* (91 citations), together forming a foundational body of research on visually guided insect locomotion. Beyond laboratory model organisms, Straw has pioneered tracking technologies to study insects in naturalistic settings, developing millisecond-precision and high-resolution outdoor videography systems that enable detailed observation of free-flying insects such as bees. His more recent contributions explore how reinforcement learning frameworks can model insect navigation, bridging neuroscience with robotics to understand how animals achieve remarkable navigational feats with minimal neural resources. With nearly 300 cumulative citations, Straw's work continues to inspire both fundamental biology and the engineering of efficient, brain-inspired autonomous systems.