The University of California - Los Angeles will coordinate a multidisciplinary workshop to bring together, for the very first time, biologists, mathematicians, engineers, geologists, and computer animation specialists who work with three-dimensional pattern formation and models of aggregation. Examples of three-dimensional aggregations include fish schools, insect swarms, and molecules within a crystal. Aggregation is a pervasive behavioral phenomenon within most animal taxa. Gaining knowledge about density, cohesion, and spacing and movements of individuals within three-dimensional groups has been hampered by the visual complexity of these aggregations and the lack of tools and techniques to analyze interactions within them. Three- dimensional aggregations are also of interest in several non-biological disciplines as well. The workshop will bring together thirty investigators from various disci- plines and computer specialists to present information on their individual research interests, and to explore whether tools and techniques from other fields can be used to develop new cross-disciplinary collaboration to advance the study of aggregations. Results of the workshop will be broadly available and form the foundation for future research.
