Stochastic modelling of interacting shapes: from sweat droplets to tree canopies

Research Project, 2026 – 2030

The research project develops stochastic and statistical models for large ensembles of interacting shapes. Motivating examples include the spatio-temporal dynamics of sweat droplets, interacting cellular or tissue shapes, and geometric structures arising in vegetation such as tree canopies. The work combines spatial point process models for the emergence and arrangement of objects (including birth-death dynamics, merging, and non-overlap constraints) with methods from shape analysis, in particular stochastic dynamics for shape change. A further aspect of the project is learning and calibrating these models from data using data-driven inference methods.