Evolution by natural selection has engineered living organisms to have extraordinary abilities. These abilities are present at the level of the organism, due to the diverse and inventive biomechanical and control designs that are found in nature. Abilities can also emerge from the interactions of many organisms; a swarm can perform many functions that its component individuals cannot possibly accomplish alone. For example, in addition to the ability to adapt to the environment, a swarm can construct a suitable environment for its own advantage. The constructive understanding of intelligence of living things is a very interesting approach from the point of view of biology and engineering. Thus, the natural engineering of evolution provides inspiration for human engineering, and the reverse engineering of nature can help us better understand biology.

The aim of this symposium is to foster connections between biologists and engineers who are interested in the engineering of living things, from biomechanics to swarm intelligence, and the perpetuation of a new academic field by integrating biology and engineering. In addition to the main-themes of understanding swarm behavior and bio-inspired robotics, in the next iteration we also plan to add elements of bioimaging and functional morphology (creating libraries of biological engineering to inspire human engineering). All aspects of the above themes are welcome, including but not limited to:

Biology

    Social Insects
    Evolutionary Cooperation
    Ethology
    Social Physiology
    Adaptation
    Self-Organization
    Functional Morphology
    Phase Polyphenism
    Biomechanics

Engineering

    Swarm Intelligence
    Swarm Robotics
    Biomimetics
    Bio-Inspired Robotics
    Multi-Agent Systems
    Walking Robots
    Modular Robotics
    Decentralized Control
    Distributed Systems