06/01/10 — NYU-Poly scientist combines mathematical modeling and advanced materials to create robots to lead schools of fish. Artificial intelligence? Done. Artificial leadership? Its origins may well be in the fish tanks and the algorithms in Maurizio Porfiri’s Brooklyn laboratories at Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly). Here the assistant professor of mechanical engineering, best known for modeling advanced smart materials, is using those materials, plus a lot of mathematics and his love for animals and science fiction, to build robots that lead schooling fish. Someday, Dr. Porfiri hopes, robots could lead fish away from the turbines of power plants. They…