Modeling, Computation, Nonlinearity, Randomness and Waves Seminar

Evolution by natural selection provided a framework for understanding how so much diversity could occur from a relatively simple task for organisms: survive to reproduce as much as possible. A large part of survival involves organisms interacting with their physical worlds to complete important tasks such as locomotion, sensing, or driving physiological processes. Each of these examples have many possible solutions that could lead to reproductive success, mixed in with other important biological processes. Understanding the diversity of solutions to each task must start with understanding how organisms’ solutions fit into the underlying performance space of that task. Mathematical modeling provides an excellent way of quantifying the performance space itself. Through a mixture of modeling and uncertainty quantification techniques, this talk addresses several important life tasks in different biological systems:  odor capture; driving circulation by a tubular heart; flight by gliding birds. Each system consists of a simplified computational model which is used to calculate performance in a paramter space and uncertainty quantification which analyzes how variation affects the model. We will examine the the performance space to assess the role of physical performance in explaining organismal diversity.

Math, 402 and Zoom   https://arizona.zoom.us/j/85889389967    Password:  applied