Research
Our work combines project incubation, working groups, and collaborative research across academic, civic, and industry partners.
Groups and Centers
Mental Health Paradigms & Perspectives
Accessible Models, Emotional Literacy, and Mental Health Innovation
Cognition Futures
Research group focused on embodied intelligence, affordance perception, spatial cognition, and the future of mind.
Representational Brains & Phenotypes
Empirical and artificial models of neurobehavioral complexity
DevoWorm
Developmental and computational biology centered on C. elegans and other model organisms
Society Ethics Technology (SET)
Joint initiative between JOPRO and OREL exploring the intersections of society, ethics, and technology.
Center for Futures Studies
Launching in Q3 2026 - Call for involvement & advisors is now open
Programs and Initiatives
Data x Direction
Examining how data science practices and tools intersect with ethical decision-making, human-centered AI, and governance frameworks.
Developmental AI
Open-source computational biology, neuroscience, and AI research training
From Here to There: Strategy and Mentorship for Innovators
Exploring emerging narratives, directionality, and the future of human experience
DigiNEST
Digital Narratives and Emerging Story Technologies (DigiNEST). A discussion series exploring how digital tools reshape narrative, authorship, and agency.
Joint Open Source Summer Cohort
A collaborative summer cohort across OREL, DevoWorm, and JOPRO — open-source contribution, instruction, and professional development, anchored by Google Summer of Code.
SMN @ OREL
Originally "Saturday Morning NeuroSim", Orthogonal Research and Education Lab weekly public session is a unique space for projects from across the lab network.
Open-source Sustainability
A multi-year initiative investigating the long-term health and sustainability of open-source communities through agent-based modeling, active inference, and cybernetic approaches.
CFRG
The Cognition Futures Reading Group explores concepts, methods, and opportunities in diverse intelligences (natural and artificial), phenomenology, and contemporary discussions on minds
InactiveCybernetics Discussion Series
Since the 1940s, cybernetics has had its own summers and winters. We explore theory, applications, and history of cybernetics & related fields.
InactiveProjects
Towards an Ontological Taxonomy of Information Affordances
Theory and case study converted into heuristic prompts and appropriate tool routing towards relevant external representations of information
Ethical Policy Analyzer
Towards standardizing and increased transparency in ESG reporting
Field Guide to Futures Ecosystem
Cartography of next-generation foresight organizations
Vizualizating Experience of Mental Health Models
Examining cultural bias in dominant mental health frameworks
JOPRO & the New Learning Ecosystem
Contextual, developmental, and trajectory-aware learning in interdisciplinary spaces
Permanent Crisis / Kuhn Update
Temporal collapse of Kuhn's model of scientific revolutions
Something In The Way
Ethnography of 21st century directionlessness
Steelmanning the Problem Space
Methodology for rigorous collaborative problem definition
Reimagining Cybernetics
Hegemonic Bias of Mental Health Conventions
Examining cultural bias in dominant mental health frameworks
LLAMOSC: LLM Agent-Based Modeling for Open Source Communities
A framework that pairs Large Language Models with agent-based modeling to simulate and sustain open-source communities.
Mind/Brain Analogies & Technological Development
Historical and cross-cultural investigation of how societies analogize the mind, and how those analogies track technological change
Spatial Cognition & Virtual Reality
Exploring how virtual environments reshape spatial cognition, cognitive mapping, and philosophical questions about realism
Cognition Futures Paper Series
Affordance perception as a common currency of embodied intelligence
D-GNNs: developing DevoGraph for computational developmental biology
Developomental-AI
Dev-AI: Developmental approaches and components squared with machine learning and computation
Embodied Neurophenomenology
First-person experience, embodiment, and the structure of consciousness
FrontierMap
Mapping concept trajectories and field landmarks for emerging researchers
PhASiC
Physical Intelligence, Augmentation Systems, and Complexity
Allostatic Kinds
A taxonomy of permutations of subject-object directionality in causation
DevoTG: Dynamic Graph Neural Networks for Modeling C. elegans Development
Dynamic graph neural networks for modeling the temporal development of the C. elegans embryo.
NDP-HNN: Modelling Neural Developmental Programs of C. elegans Using Growing Hypergraph Neural Networks
Growing hypergraph neural networks for modeling the neural developmental programs of C. elegans.
SustainHub: Adaptive Agent-Based Model for Open-Source Community Sustainability
An adaptive agent-based model for studying and supporting the sustainability of open-source communities.
Exploring Open Source Sustainability via Agent-based Modeling
Agent-based modeling approaches to understanding the long-term sustainability of open-source communities.
Virtual Reality for Distributed Research
Virtual reality tools and environments to support distributed, collaborative research.
D-GNNs: DevoGraph for Computational Developmental Biology
Graph neural networks for modeling developmental biological processes
Agent-based Collective Cognition for Open Source Communities
Agent-based models of collective cognition applied to open-source community dynamics.
Digital Microsphere
Building the Digital Microsphere for modeling early embryonic development.
Ethical Regulators for Open Source Communities
Applying the ethical regulator theorem to the governance of open-source communities.
GNNs as Developmental Networks
Treating graph neural networks as models of biological developmental networks.
Modeling Axolotl Embryos
Computational modeling of axolotl embryo development within the Digital Microsphere effort.
Reinforcement Learning and Collective Cognition for Open Source Communities
Reinforcement learning approaches to collective cognition in open-source communities.
Sustainability Auditing Tool (SAT)
A web-based auditing platform for evaluating the long-term sustainability and community health of open-source projects.
Improving DevoLearn
Extending and improving the DevoLearn library for computational developmental biology.
BraGenBrain
Braitenberg Vehicles Genetic Algorithms Simulation of Neural Development
OpenDevoCell Integration
Integrating and extending the OpenDevoCell platform for cell-level developmental analysis.
Pre-trained Models for Developmental Neuroscience
Developing pre-trained machine learning models for developmental neuroscience tasks.
Modeling Neural Development with Braitenberg Vehicles
Evolving embodied neural networks in Braitenberg vehicles to study brain development and connectome motifs
Semantic Segmentation of the Embryogenetic Process
Semantic segmentation of microscopy data capturing the embryogenetic process.
Contextual Geometric Structures
Modeling contextual geometric structures for representing information and cognition.
Developmental Networks and XML Frameworks for the C. elegans Embryo
Developmental network models and XML data frameworks for the C. elegans embryo.
Image Processing with ImageJ (Segmentation of High-Resolution Images)
ImageJ-based processing and segmentation of high-resolution developmental microscopy images.