OSU's Imraan Faruque research recognized to keep beehive buzzing

Friday, January 11, 2019

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently recognized Imraan Faruque, assistant professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the autonomous physics laboratory at OSU, as one of 25 awardees of the 2019 Young Investigator Program (YIP). In addition to the recognition, the program also provides a grant up to $750k for up to three years to support a related research project. 

“This support allows me to build on my work studying individual insect behaviors by starting to address groups,” said Faruque. “My project is titled ‘Insect Group/Swarm Behaviors and their Relation to Individual Feedback Models’ and will contribute to ONR’s Science of Autonomy program. In this project, we will extend my theoretical and experimental neural function extraction work from individuals to groups and swarms of insects, which will allow us to address some challenges in practical aerial swarms by studying how insects use their limited neural resources to achieve robust, autonomous, group and swarm behaviors.” 

The ONR YIP is a highly competitive program in which academic achievements and potential for scientific breakthroughs are major factors in the evaluation process. The winning candidates were selected from more than 260 applicants—all of whom are college and university faculty and obtained a PhD within the past seven years.

“To meet the demand signal from the National Defense Strategy, we must attract the best and brightest minds to work on naval warfighting challenges. The Young Investigator Program does just that, and I’m honored to announce the recipients for 2019,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. David Hahn in a press release on Dec. 17, 2018. “Since 1985, this program has attracted outstanding scientists and engineers from across academia to support our Navy and Marine Corps—and in this era of great power competition, that is more important than ever before.”

Established in 1985, the ONR YIP is one of the nation’s oldest and most selective basic research early career awards in science and technology. Its purpose is to fund tenure-track academic researchers, or equivalent, whose scientific pursuits show outstanding promise for supporting the Department of Defense, while also promoting their professional development.