
CoPhe LAB
Collective Phenomena Lab,
Chemical Engineering, IISc Bangalore, India

Droplets
Droplet microfluidics is a field of science that manipulates tiny droplets of one fluid in another, through a network of channels. Given that one desires a particular movement of droplets, how should the channel be operated and designed to yield the same?

Organisms
Fishes, 'school' in their natural habitat. It gives them an advantage over predator attacks. But how does each fish know what to do in a group? How does group behaviour emerge? Can one identify the rules governing fish movement from observing schooling behaviour?

Traffic
While small, not so intelligent, creatures like ants, move with high coordination and efficiency, humans, with a high level of cognition, result in traffic jams. When does intelligence at the agent level give rise to intelligent collective outcomes?
Pic courtesy: Fishes are from TEE-LAB, IISc Bangalore, photographed by Ashwin K; Indian Traffic near Mathikere Bangalore, photographed by Aman Prasad.
Modeling Collective Phenomena
Special session as part of the virtual FIM conference
Invited speakers:
Prof Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Dept of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras
Dr Raghunath Chelakkot, Dept of Physics, IIT Bombay
Dr Jitesh Jhawar, Max Planck Institute for animal behaviour, Germany