I will discuss aspects of (a) passive locomotion and stability in unsteady flows and (b) motion synchronization of multiple dipoles. The main theme connecting these projects, and one of the underlying motivation for this work, comes from our efforts to understand the role of fluid-structure interactions in fish locomotion and fish schooling. Throughout the talk, I w ill use a low-order modeling and computational approach and show, among other results, that fluid coupling may facilitate pass ive synchronization of multiple swimmers.

Short Bio: Eva Kanso is an associate professor and Z.A. Kaprielian fellow in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the Unive rsity of Southern California (USC). Prior to joining USC in 2005, Kanso held a two-year post-doctoral position at Caltech. She received her PhD (2003) and MS (1999) in Mechanical Engineering as well as her MA (2002) in Mathematics from the University o f California at Berkeley.