Oct 17

Math/Stats Colloquium: Jasper Weinburd, Hamline University

Tue, October 17, 2023 • 4:00pm - 5:00pm (1h) • CMC 206

Title:  Collective Behavior in Locust Swarms from Differential Equations to Data

Abstract: Locusts are devastating pests that infest and destroy crops. Locusts forage and migrate in large swarms which exhibit distinctive shapes that improve efficiency on the group level, a phenomenon known as collective behavior. One of the difficulties in understanding and preventing these collective behaviors has been a lack of biological data for individual interactions between locusts. In this talk, I’ll first describe mathematical models for these phenomena on both the collective and individual levels. I’ll then discuss a collaboration with undergraduate students that use field data derived from video footage of locust swarms. We digitized nearly 20,000 locust trajectories and revealed individual behaviors that depend on a locust’s motion and the relative position of its nearby neighbors. Finally, I will illustrate the challenges and potential benefits of incorporating these field observations into our models of locust swarms.

from Mathematics and Statistics

Event Contact: Sue Jandro

Event Summary

Math/Stats Colloquium: Jasper Weinburd, Hamline University
  • When
    • Tuesday, October 17, 2023
    • 4:00pm - 5:00pm (1h)
  • Where
    • CMC 206
  • Mode
    • In-Person
  • Event Contact
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  • Intended For: Students, Faculty, Staff
  • Categories: Lecture/Panel

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