Swimming microorganisms have inspired many ingenious designs of artificial microswimmers for potential biomedical applications, such as microsurgery and targeted drug delivery. These biological microswimmers also provided useful models to answer key questions in physics and biology, including evolution and adaptation. The ability of adapting to varying environments is a crucial feature for the functionality of both natural and artificial microswimmers. In this talk, I will discuss two problems about adaptation of natural and artificial microswimmers. I will discuss how phototactic microswimmers detect and respond to light to perform versatile taxis strategies for optimizing their living conditions. I will also discuss how artificial intelligence can help us develop smart microrobots that can self-learn how to swim and navigate at the microscales.

Dr. Alan C. H. Tsang is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Southern California in 2016. He continued his research as a post-doctoral research fellow at Stanford University and University of Arizona before he joined HKU in 2020. Dr. Tsang worked extensively in interdisciplinary research. He employed theoretical tools of applied mathematics, computer modeling and simulations, machine learning and different experimental tools to investigate fundamental and application problems in fluid mechanics and biophysics.