Information and energetic efficiency of collectives moving in dynamic media

Movement in dynamic media - where energy is patchy, stochastic, and rapidly changing - creates environments in which up-to-date social information provides exceptional energetic benefits. In navigating such landscapes, the movements of others reveal hidden structure in the flow, enabling organisms and bio-mimetic systems to reduce uncertainty and avoid costly errors. My research investigates how collectives transform social cues into a senscape that supports efficient movement. A central component uses competitive paragliding as a model for soaring animals: combining eye-tracking with high-resolution head-orientation and GPS data, we reconstruct sub-second gaze and quantify how individuals extract information from others’ trajectories to locate thermals and outcompete other pilots in cross-country flight. Complementary work on social scavengers, agent-based modelling, and optimal movement theory shows how organisms integrate energetic constraints, environmental variability, and social cues into probabilistic movement decisions. Together, this research identifies the information structures and decision principles that enable collective systems to operate efficiently in dynamic, uncertain landscapes.

Hybrid Talk: https://arc.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/public-with-recording/
Meeting-ID: 698 3791 3311
Passcode: 181171