Colloquium-Physics Department - Dana Randall (Georgia Institute of Technology)

About this event

Local-global principles for programming collectives

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 simple distributed algorithms for emergent collective behaviors that give guarantees and are robust to failures. By analyzing the Gibbs distribution of various fixed-magnetization models at thermal equilibrium, we show that agents moving stochastically according to local rules can accomplish various useful collective tasks. Finally, we will introduce new tools that may prove fruitful in nonequilibrium settings as well.