Sachit Butail, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department
Education
- Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland (2012)
- M. Eng. in Systems Engineering, Cornell University (2005)
- B.E. in Mechanical Engineering, Delhi University, New Delhi, India (2000)
Research Interests
- Dynamical systems
- Robotics
- Complex systems
- Collective behavior
- Bioinspired autonomy
- Pattern recognition
Selected Projects
- Causal Relationships Underlying the Collective Dynamic Behavior of Swarms, funded by New York University
Selected Publications
- V. Mwaffo, S. Butail, and M. Porfiri. In-silico experiments of zebrafish behaviour: modelling swimming in three dimensions. Scientific Reports, 7(39877), 2017.
- S. Macri, D. Neri, T. Ruberto, S. Butail, V. Mwaffo, and M. Porfiri. Three-dimensional scoring of zebrafish behavior unveils biological phenomena hidden by two-dimensional analyses. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 2017.
- V. Mwaffo, S. Butail, and M. Porfiri. Analysis of pairwise interactions in a maximum likelihood sense to identify leaders in a group. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 4:35, 2017.
- S. Butail, V. Mwaffo, and M. Porfiri. Model-free information-theoretic approach to infer leadership in pairs of zebrafish. Physical Review E, 93(4) 042411, 2016
- T. Bartolini, V. Mwaffo, A. Showler, S. Macrì, S. Butail and M. Porfiri. Zebrafish response to 3D printed shoals of conspecifics: the effect of body size. Bioinsipiration & Biomimetics, 11(2):026003, 2016
- V. Mwaffo, R. P. Anderson, S. Butail, and M. Porfiri. A jump persistent turning walker to model zebrafish locomotion. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 12(102): 20140884, 2015.
- S. Butail, F. Ladu, D. Spinello, and M. Porfiri. Information flow in animal-robot interactions. Entropy (Special issue: Information in Dynamical Systems and Complex Systems),16(3): 1315–1330, 2014.
- S. Butail, G. Polverino, P. Phamduy, F. Del Sette, and M. Porfiri. Influence of robotic shoal size, configuration, and activity on zebrafish behavior in a free-swimming environment.
Behavioural Brain Research, 275:269–280, 2014. - A.
Chicoli , S. Butail, Y. Lun, J. Bak-Coleman, S. Coombs, and D. A. Paley. “The effects of flow on schooling Devarioaequipinnatus : school structure, startle response and information transmission. Journal of Fish Biology, 84(5): 1401–1421, 2014. - S. Butail, E. M. Bollt, and M. Porfiri. Analysis and classification of collective behavior using generative modeling and nonlinear manifold learning. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 336(7): 185–199, 2013.
- S. Butail, T. Bartolini, and M. Porfiri.
Collective response of zebrafish shoals to a free-swimming robotic fish. PLoS One, 8 (10): e76123, 2013. - S. Butail, N. C. Manoukis, M. Diallo, J. M. C. Ribeiro, and D. A. Paley. The Dance of Male Anopheles
gambiae in Wild Mating Swarms. Journal of Medical Entomology, 50(3): 552–559, 2013. - S. Butail and D. A. Paley. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the fast-start swimming kinematics of densely schooling fish. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 9(66): 77–88, 2011.

Contact
815-753-9987
sbutail@niu.edu
EB 148
Website
Contact Us
College of Engineering and Engineering Technology
Engineering Building
590 Garden Rd, DeKalb, IL
815-753-1442
ceet@niu.edu