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We study networks of active agents, such as cells, bacteria, or insects, that collectively behave as evolving macroscopic solids. Our central aim is to uncover the fundamental communication rules that govern interactions between agents and to understand how these rules give rise to emergent collective behavior, decision-making, and coordinated motion. In particular, we investigate how dense cellular or agent-based networks reorganize, deform, and adapt in response to internal or external cues, with a focus on how individual and collective behaviors guide growth and morphogenesis. These multiscale dynamics are essential to bioengineering applications, where understanding how organoids and tissues self-organize, differentiate, and adapt is key to advancing regenerative medicine and developmental biology. Our group currently focuses on two model systems that, despite their biological differences, share strikingly similar collective dynamics:

(1) Networks of endothelial cells, which drive local morphogenetic events, such as angiogenesis, by actively forming and reorganizing defects in their collective structure, illustrating how tissue-level functions emerge from cellular rearrangements

(2) Aggregations of fire ants, which form dynamic structures like rafts, towers, and bridges that adapt rapidly to environmental changes—achieving complex reconfigurations without centralized control. These systems offer complementary perspectives on how decentralized agents can collectively construct, remodel, and move as living, active materials.