Programming swarms to solve societal problems

We are seeking super motivated undergrads for a variety of projects in our lab. Our background, as well as, the problems we are solving combine many disciplines, including soft matter physics, biophysics, computer simulations, fluid dynamics, materials science, applied mathematics and engineering. The common theme is that we study “active” or “living matter”, that is matter made of many agents that collectively exhibit emergent behavior such as swarming. Examples are schools of fish, flocks of birds, swarms of robots and crowds of people. We pursue answers for questions such as: can we use our models to evacuate human crowds more efficiently by using drones or phone notifications? Can we program materials to be responsive and adaptive like our cells and our skin? Can we design nanoparticles that would cooperate in order to deliver drugs better? So, if you are intrigued send us an email. We are mainly a computational lab but we have some experimental opportunities as well. If you enjoy physics and coding that is a great prerequisite but by far the most important prerequisites are excitement, motivation and to be eager to learn!