Bacterial biofilms are integrated communities of cells that adhere to surfaces and are fundamental to the ecology and biology of bacteria. The accommodation of a free-swimming cell to a solid surface is a complex process that is not coextensive with cell adhesion. We started a multi-disciplinary study to investigate the interplay between motility appendages, molecular motors, exopolysaccharide production, and hydrodynamics near the surface environment using state of the art tools from different fields that are not usually combined, including theoretical physics, community tracking with single cell resolution, genetics, and microbiology. We explore themes such as surface selection and hydrodynamics in cells that initially attach to a surface, surface sensing and its relation to multi-generational signaling via secondary messengers and precise downstream motility consequences, and the subsequent onset of microcolony organization via interactions between appendages and exopolysaccharides.