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SUNY Potsdam professor of biology awarded $290K to study how flocks and swarms move

Posted 12/9/11

POTSDAM – SUNY Potsdam biology professor Dr. William L. Romey has been awarded a $290,000 National Science Foundation grant to explore what bird flocks, fish schools and insect swarms have in …

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SUNY Potsdam professor of biology awarded $290K to study how flocks and swarms move

Posted

POTSDAM – SUNY Potsdam biology professor Dr. William L. Romey has been awarded a $290,000 National Science Foundation grant to explore what bird flocks, fish schools and insect swarms have in common.

Romey’s study, “Mechanisms of Emergent Swarm Behavior,” will take three years and will look at the similar ways birds, fish and insects move together to avoid predators and escape from enclosed areas. There may be fundamental rules that they all use to move with respect to each other.

“By studying the simplest kinds of grouping animals (like insects) and developing rules that can be incorporated into generalized simulation models we can make predictions for how other gregarious species move,” Romey said. “Not only might this help understand how starlings roost in trees in cities, and how fish schools move past dams, but it may also lead to advances in understanding and improving the way humans escape from buildings during panic situations such as a fire,” Romey explains.

Some of the tools that will be used and developed during the project will be automated computer tracking software and robots.

A large part of the funding will support SUNY Potsdam undergraduate summer research projects related to the study. Romey will be recruiting SUNY Potsdam students to assist in the research. Students will have the opportunity to perform experiments with aquatic beetles and computer simulation models.

“This is a unique opportunity because it allows students to develop skills in both animal behavior and computer simulations of individually based models (such as swarms and groups) in which each individual has a separate set of rules and moves within a geographic area,” said Romey.

The grant provides summer research stipends, housing and travel costs to conferences. The funding will also be used to bring cutting-edge research equipment to SUNY Potsdam to be used in many upper-level biology courses.

The research will also include collaboration with faculty and graduate students at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Clarkson University.