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Direct measurements of collective swimming forces at the mesoscale

Objective

Swimming is ubiquitous in nature and crucial for the survival of a wide range of organisms. Many swimmers move together in intricate swarms, widely believed to save energy through collective hydrodynamic interactions. While the physics behind swimming and swarming of viscosity-dominated microswimmers and inertia-dominated macroswimmers has been extensively studied, little is known about the intermediate regime (~ 0.110 cm), where both viscous and inertial forces are important. This mesoscale is full of living organisms, such as small larvae, shrimps, and jellyfish, and the physics behind their swimming and swarming is strongly complicated by non-linear and time-dependent effects at increasing swimming speeds and organism sizes. A breakthrough in our understanding of mesoscale swarming dynamics is hindered by an absence of force-based experiments on collective mesoswimming.

Here, I will perform pioneering experiments on the swimming forces of brine shrimps as model organisms. I aim to discover how they adapt their motility in different environments and perform the first direct measurements on the binary and many-body swimming and hydrodynamic interaction forces within pairs and small swarms of brine shrimps. I aim to resolve several major questions on mesoscale motility and swimming interactions, with the grand goal to discover new insights into how and why swarms of mesoswimmers are formed in nature. My experiments will open a new living matter physics research avenue at the mesoscale, and provide sensitive and important force and fluid dynamics data for theorists to use in their future models and for engineers to use in their biomimicry design of new mesorobots. The indirect impact of my work is the creation of new biomedical and engineering applications at the mesoscale, such as swallowable surgery with swarming mesorobots capable of optimising their swarm geometry to minimise power consumption in different environments.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG

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Host institution

AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 500 000,00
Address
OTAKAARI 1
02150 Espoo
Finland

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Region
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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