Description:
Animal groups are fascinating examples of collective behaviour systems present in nature - from flocks of birds to schools of fish and societies of social insects such as ants and bees. To predict and understand such behaviours, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms individuals use within a collective. For this question, I have analyzed the movement of animals and changes in their collective behaviours at a very fine time scale. Further, I have developed individual-based mathematical models using parsimonious rules describing behaviours that quantitatively capture the observed patterns in real group dynamics. I will describe my work on different collective systems, such as fish, beetles, and honeybees. Through this talk, I will highlight the increasing need to integrate mathematical modelling with data analysis to understand animal behaviours.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Jitesh Jhawar is an Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University. He completed his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India and then did his post-doctorate from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany. His research interest is primarily on the collective behaviour of animal groups across a wide variety of scales, which he studies using experiments, field studies, mathematical modelling and data analysis.