MechE Colloquium: Biomechanics and fluid dynamics of freshwater insects across walking, swimming, and flight
Event details
| Date | 03.11.2026 |
| Hour | 12:00 › 13:00 |
| Speaker | Prof. Margaret Byron, Institute of Energy and the Environment, The Pennsylvania State University |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract: Many animals, including humans, can transition between multiple modes of locomotion between diverse environments (e.g., the transition from walking to swimming). Bimodality is common, but trimodality—that is, the ability to successfully navigate between aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial environments—is relatively rare. Multimodality is also challenging to achieve in engineered devices, vehicles, and robots; however, several animals are capable of regularly (and easily) traversing environmental boundaries. In this talk, we will outline several of the general adaptations that living organisms use to locomote between land, air, and water. We will then present recent work on the biomechanics and fluid dynamics of trimodal aquatic insects. These insects exhibit hybrid walking-swimming gaits when transitioning from land to shallow water; they also leverage surface tension, buoyancy, fluid drag, and aerodynamic forces to take off into flight directly from the water surface. They also display underwater agility, using their legs as paddles to propel themselves rapidly as they seek prey and/or escape from predators. They also have interesting morphological features to enable these transitions, including superhydrophobic wings and hemelytra, as well as dense setae lining the metathoracic legs. These bristle-like features create shape-morphing appendages for efficient swimming, and are also used to lever the insect’s body off the deforming water surface during takeoff. In this talk, we will present data from all three locomotor modes and discuss their implications for both fundamental biology and ecology as well as bioinspired engineering and technology development.
Biography: Dr. Margaret L. Byron is currently the Martin W. Trethewey Early Career Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University, and is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, and the American Chemical Society Doctoral New Investigator Award. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2010 and her MS/PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California Berkeley in 2012/2015. She works at the interface of biology, physics, and engineering, with interests including the fluid dynamics of animal locomotion and the transport of irregularly shaped inertial particles in turbulent flows (including sediment, aggregates, and microplastics). She is currently on sabbatical at EPFL as a Visiting Professor in the UNFoLD lab.
Biography: Dr. Margaret L. Byron is currently the Martin W. Trethewey Early Career Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University, and is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, and the American Chemical Society Doctoral New Investigator Award. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2010 and her MS/PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California Berkeley in 2012/2015. She works at the interface of biology, physics, and engineering, with interests including the fluid dynamics of animal locomotion and the transport of irregularly shaped inertial particles in turbulent flows (including sediment, aggregates, and microplastics). She is currently on sabbatical at EPFL as a Visiting Professor in the UNFoLD lab.
Practical information
- General public
- Free