Please consider joining us in our quest to design exciting cognitive enrichment experiences for apes!

The day will start with a visit to the great ape enclosures at Indianapolis Zoo, to observe a community of chimpanzees first hand and experience their environment, and to see some touchscreen equipment on location.

You'll receive a set of briefs for different ape species, provided by animal experts. After lunch, you'll work with other participants to address each brief in turn, collaborating to share knowledge and ideas. Teams will devise enrichment challenges in response to the briefs, incorporating interactive digital systems such as touchscreen technology. The goals of the enrichment will be to support the animals to express their natural behaviours, and to answer specific research questions relating to great and smaller apes.

Teams will then be asked to produce detailed designs that include a clear rationale for design decisions as well as viable methods for evaluating their designs in relation to the stated goals in the briefs. To showcase the workshop outputs, teams will create a poster that can be displayed during the rest of the conference. To complete the day, we'll have a short plenary, where participants present their ideas and animal experts offer feedback.

Optional meet-up to continue discussions over supper.

Any questions, please email Fiona French or Chris Martin.