MyName

Research Overview

I am a Graduate Research Assistant with Dr. Christopher Strickland. I am building models of collective behavior around immersed structures in fluid environments. This project is developed in an open-source, agent-based modeling library written in Python called Planktos, built by Dr. Christopher Strickland (see Project 1). I am also working on a project at the intersection of epidemiology and human behavior (see Project 2).

Project 1: Planktos

Three Zone Model Simulation:
This video, simulated in Planktos, demonstrates how small organisms move in space and time according to attraction, alignment, and repulsion.

Small Organism Capture by Jellyfish:
This video shows a jellyfish capturing small organisms in a fluid environment. The simulation involves moving immersed boundaries (jellyfish), fluid data, and agent (plankton) behavior. I created this simulation in Planktos using data from our collaborator Nicholas Battista.

Project 2: Epidemiology and Human Behavior

I am working on developing a mathematical model to understand aspects of diease outbreaks and human behavior, Please contact me for more information.

Undergraduate Research Mentoring

I am a graduate mentor of an undergraduate research project with the Knox Math Lab. The project title is “Small Organism Collective Behavior in Fluid Environments.” I lead weekly meetings with the undergraduate students, under the guidance of the faculty mentor, Dr. Christopher Strickland. For more information on the Knox Math Lab at UTK see here.

Collaborators

Collaborator 1

Dr. Christopher Strickland
PhD Advisor

Collaborator 2

Nicholas Battista
Collaborator

Collaborator 3

Koee and Tyler
Undergraduate Researchers

Publications

  • Jenkins, P. L., Knight, M., Hirabayashi, L., Weil, R., Echard, J., Krupa, N., & Sorensen, J. A. (2019). Accelerometers: Assessing their potential for measuring personal flotation device use on commercial fishing vessels. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 62(10), 883–892.
  • McCue-Weil, L., Knight, M., Driscoll, M., Jenkins, P., & Sorensen, J. (2023). A Case Study on the Practical Use of Low-Fidelity Modeling to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19 Amongst the Underserved Farmworker Community. La Matematica, 2(1), 223–241.
  • Hinson, A., Papoulis, S., Fiet, L., Knight, M., Cho, P., Szeltner, B., Sgouralis, I., & Talmy, D. (2023). A model of algal-virus population dynamics reveals underlying controls on material transfer. Limnology and Oceanography, 68(1), 165–180.