| Animal groups, such as bird flocks, fish schools, or insect swarms, often exhibit complex, coordinated collective dynamics resulting from individual interactions. Despite recent progress, it is still unknown how simple individual rules can achieve such synchronized, scalable, robust, and fast-responding behavior. In this talk, I will present two complementary approaches to this question: (1) an Adaptive Networks based toy model developed with Dr. Thilo Gross and his group at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden to capture the basic components of a generic swarming transition and (2) experimental analyses using large datasets from recent experiments developed with Prof. Iain Couzin and his group at Princeton University to unveil specific effective interaction forces within fish schools. |
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