The objective of this project was to create new collaborative workgroups to bring together researchers working in the field of collective and emergent behavior. Collective and emergent behavior is the study of complex biological and social systems, ranging from bacterial colonies to human groups. It is a highly interdisciplinary field of research that integrates elements of animal behavior, sociology, statistical physics, mathematics, and computer science. The investigators organized five workgroups composed of four to six participants that were invited to participate in a 3-day hackathon-style workshop at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the intersection between art, technology, and science. The participants were nine graduate students (two of them led a group), six postdoctoral researchers (two of them led a group), four early-career researchers, four senior faculty, one engineer, and one artist (forty percent were women). In order to foster novel collaborations, most group members were coming from different disciplines and had never worked together. Moreover, with the exception of the group leaders, the other participants had little to no prior experience working on the specific research topic of their workgroup. Out of the five teams, four made significant progress during the workshop, and 69% of the participants who answered our post-workshop survey considered that the workshop was highly likely to initiate new collaborations. These four teams are still working towards exploiting and publishing the results of the collaboration initiated at the workshop. The investigators also attempted to organize a second workshop at UT Austin with a new set of workgroups but restrictions on travels and in-person meetings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the event before the end of the grant period.

Last Modified: 08/17/2021
Modified by: Simon Garnier