Projects and Interests
General Interests and Ongoing Projects:
Suspended Projects, mostly done, but which could be reactivated:
Inverse 3D Modeling
GOALS: Take an arbitrary shape given as an unstructured B-rep
and express that shape
in a combination of parameterized
procedural program segments.
(Jimmy Andrews)
Symmetrical Embedding of Low-genus Regular Maps
GOALS: Regular maps are graphs with all identical vertices,
edges, and facets, and with
additional global symmetries that
make all the above elements indistinguishable.
The best-known examples on genus-0
surfaces are the Platonic solids.
I have already found nice,
symmetrical embeddings for all regular maps of genus 2 and 3.
For the moment I am focussing on finding
such embeddings for maps of genus 4 and 5.
(open to interested students with a good background in geometry and
computer modeling)
Advanced Sweep-Morph Constructions and Spline Warping of Objects
GOALS: B-spline-type blending between multiple specified cross
sections.
Warp geometry contained in a cylinder
around the z-axis along path specified by a spline.
Escher-like Tilings
on Higher-Genus Surfaces
GOALS:
Create an efficient texture mapping module for Catmull-Clark
subdivision surfaces.
Use that module to design and display
some
intricate Escher-like motifs on a Tetrus surface.
Create
a module to output the solid shape of these tiles to a
Rapid-Prototyping machine.
Assemble tiles of different color into an overall Tetrus shape.
Design Modular Architectural Wall Elements
GOALS:
Use
a subdivision surface to design a stackable wall-element in the
form of an open higher-genus brick inspired by the work of Erwin
Hauer.
Enhance that element so it might have some
internal
channels that properly connect and then can serve as conduits
for
aircontitioning or illumination.
Make a models
of such elements on one of our Rapid-Prototyping machines.
Sound Analysis and Synthesis of Solid Objects
GOALS: Analytically determine the sounds of shells
struck in different ways.
Construct
virtual and physical bells with new and interesting sound
qualities.
Parameterized Bell
Model in SLIDE
GOAL: Capture the shape of a 9-inch bronze bell and design
modifications to it for different sounds.
Modeling of Urban
Landscapes
GOALS:
Connect
billions of 3D surface samples into a hierarchy of best fitting
surface representations capturing different LOD (levels of
detail).
Create visualization schemes that can move
seamlessly through this hierarchical representation without
popping
artifacts.
Connectivity of Sensor Networks
GOALS: Study
the
effectiveness and reliability of the communications network for
various 3D arrangements of sensor motes in future smart materials.
Compare and contrast the performance of
regular arrangements with from 3 to 14 nearest-neighbor motes.
Former Projects, now Inactive:
Surface Optimization
Creating the best-looking surfaces from only the truly relevant
constraints by using energy functionals.
(PhD Pushkar Joshi)
Fair Curves for Font-Design
Exploring Minimum-Variation curves's and Cornu spirals as the most
effective way to model perfect outline fonts.
(PhD Raph Levien)
- CAD for Mechanical Engineers: