Cooperative Transport in Ants
Have you and a group of friends ever tried to move a couch together? If so, you know that there are lots of challenges: not just the weight, but also navigating the space and coordinating your efforts. Some ants, by working together in groups, are able to move pieces of food many times their size quite effectively through natural obstacles like twigs, grass and pebbles. Research on several species has uncovered how they rotate heavy loads, how they build consensus, and how they navigate around obstacles. These discoveries have inspired new algorithms for cooperative transport in teams of robots. However, all this research has focused on just a few particularly effective species. Studying more species will allow scientists to uncover general rules about what makes cooperative transport effective and also discover when and how this complex behavior evolved.
In this project, we are joining an international team of researchers led by Dr. Andrés Devegili and Dr. Tomer Czaczkes in Germany to study cooperative transport across many different species of ants. They have developed a common protocol and set of metrics, and have provided custom kits with all the necessary materials to study a particular species. Our contribution to this project will be to study cooperative transport in the native California harvester ant. While we have often observed these ants cooperatively moving impressively large sticks and stones to close up nest entrances, it is not yet known whether they will perform cooperative transport on food items.
Students involved in this project will (1) optimize the protocol for testing and recording cooperative transport in California harvester ants, (2) conduct a series of tests and videorecord them in the field, (3) organize and contribute the resulting data to the international team, who will add it to the database. Optionally, students may also analyze and visualize the data they have collected.
You will be part of a team of students working on an interdisciplinary project, using biology, computation and engineering to solve problems of interest to biologists and engineers. You'll also have the opportunity to spend lots of time outdoors, observing nature. The variety of techniques and approaches will give you an opportunity to explore your interests and develop new skills. This is a new project, conducted as one small part of a much larger international team, which could expand your professional network. There may be opportunities to continue the work in a senior thesis, present at a regional or national conference, and/or co-author future publications stemming from ongoing work.