Biomimetics Research

Dr. Erik Anderson (Department of Mechanical Engineering) supervised 14 Grove City College student research projects from the fall of 2014 through the summer of 2015 – 11 during the school year at Grove City College and three in the summer at Harvard and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) – one of which was on Swezey funding (internal grant fund).

The projects are highly interdisciplinary and collaborative, and primarily involve biologically inspired robotics and the tracking of marine organisms – from tiny plankton to blue whales – and explore the link between their hydrodynamics and behavior. Applications of the work include biologically inspired design, marine vehicles, tag design for tracking whales, ecology, and fisheries management.

In addition to investigators at WHOI and Harvard, Dr. Anderson and his students collaborated with scientists at the University of Michigan, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, SeaWorld, Georgia Tech, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. They also collaborated with Grove City College professors Dr. Tim Mohr (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Dr. Steve Jenkins (Department of Biology).

Research Laboratory

Dr. Anderson launched a research laboratory at Grove City College with the help of flow visualization equipment funded by the Jewell, Moore, and MacKenzie Fund and the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biology. He currently has nine student research assistants. This year Dr. Anderson’s students gave 11 research talks at Grove City College and two at professional conferences.

Student Research

Abby Noll ’18, as a freshman Trustee Fellow, did research with Dr. Anderson on campus and at Harvard on projects focusing on drag on a fish-like robotic propulsor. The work led to a publication the following year. Noll was invited back to Harvard for the summer of 2016.

Ellen Turner ’17 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College, WHOI, and Harvard on projects focusing on resonance and drag in fish swimming and on attachment mechanics of remora fish. Turner presented her work in talks during the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus and spent the summer of 2015 at WHOI as a Swezey Summer Student Research Fellow.

Alex Voris ’16 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College on a project involving flow visualization that focused on attachment mechanics of remora fish in collaboration with SeaWorld, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and WHOI. Voris presented his work in a talk in the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus and submitted an abstract for a professional conference in January 2016. He landed a summer (2015) research position at the University of Alabama doing engine combustion flow visualization and presented his work at a professional conference in Boston in November 2015.

Philip Graybill ’16 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College on a project focused on the drag on live swimming fish using data taken at WHOI. Graybill presented his work in a talk in the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus and did research at Penn State during the summer of 2015.

Samantha Parry ’16 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College on a fluid dynamics project focusing on the behavior of oyster larvae in turbulence in collaboration with scientists at WHOI. Parry presented her work in a talk in the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus and did research during the summer of 2015 in the field of biologically inspired marine robotics at Florida Atlantic University.

Holly Lueers ’16 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College on projects focusing on the effects of ocean turbulence on the formation of oyster beds and on the automated video-tracking of ants. The former was in collaboration with scientists at WHOI, the latter with Drs. Jenkins and Mohr on campus. She collaborated with fellow students Rachel Schmidt ’16 (biology) and Kimberly Schlabach ’16 (electrical engineering). Lueers presented her work in talks at the annual symposium of the Regional Scientific Consortium at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie, Pa. in November 2014 and at the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus.

C. Spencer Garborg ’15 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College, WHOI, and Harvard on projects focusing on resonance and drag in fish swimming and on the attachment mechanics of remora fish. Garborg presented his work in talks at the annual symposium of the Regional Scientific Consortium at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie, Pa. in November 2014 and at the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus. He contributed to two talks at the annual meeting of the Society of Comparative and Integrative Biology. Garborg was hired by Harvard for the fall of 2015 to continue his research.

Francesca Mertan ’15 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College on a project involving image processing that focused on the drag on a fish-like robotic propulsor in collaboration with a scientist at Harvard. Mertan presented her work in talks in the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus. She is now doing imaging-based cancer research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Andrew Herbener ’15 did research with Dr. Anderson at Grove City College on a project focused on the drag on live swimming squid using data taken at WHOI. Herbener presented his work in talks in the Hopeman Seminar Series on campus.