  A wide variety of engineered and natural systems are modelled as networks of
coupled nonlinear oscillators. In nature, the intrinsic frequencies of these
oscillators are not constant in time. Here, we probe the effect of such a
temporal heterogeneity on coupled oscillator networks, through the lens of the
Kuramoto model. To do this, we shuffle repeatedly the intrinsic frequencies
among the oscillators at either random or regular time intervals. What emerges
is the remarkable effect that frequent shuffling induces earlier onset (i.e.,
at a lower coupling) of synchrony among the oscillator phases. Our study
provides a novel strategy to induce and control synchrony under resource
constraints. We demonstrate our results analytically and in experiments with a
network of Wien Bridge oscillators with internal frequencies being shuffled in
time.
