The University of Southern California School of Engineering has received $1.5 million research grant from the National Science Foundation to create swarms of microscopic robots to monitor potentially dangerous microorganisms in the ocean. "With increasing urban runoff, sewage spills and blooms of harmful algae off heavily populated coastal areas, it is very important to be able to sense, and then identify, particular ocean microorganisms quickly," said Ari Requicha, a USC professor of computer science and the project's principal investigator. "The quicker we learn that a pathogen is present in the water, the sooner we can warn people and begin action to correct the situation."