When:
Saturday, October 11, 2025
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM CT
Where: Swift Hall, 107, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Elton Hsu
(847) 491-8541
Group: Department of Mathematics: Special Events
Category: Lectures & Meetings, Academic
Title: Local-global principles for programming collectives
Abstract: Programmable matter explores how collections of computationally limited agents acting locally and asynchronously can achieve some useful coordinated behavior. We take a stochastic approach using techniques from randomized algorithms and statistical physics to develop distributed algorithms for emergent collective behaviors that give guarantees and are robust to failures. By analyzing the Gibbs distribution of various fixed-magnetization models from equilibrium statistical mechanics, we show that particles moving stochastically according to local affinities can solve various useful collective tasks. Finally, we will briefly introduce new tools that may prove fruitful in nonequilibrium settings as well.