New Discoveries

Abstract:

Fascinating and elegant shapes may be folded from a single planar sheet of material without stretching, tearing or cutting, if one incorporates curved folds into the design. We present an optimization based computational framework for design and digital reconstruction of surfaces which can be produced by curved folding. Our work not only contributes to applications in architecture and industrial design, but it also provides a new way to study the complex and largely unexplored phenomena arising in curved folding.

I've spent the last month transitioning into the new family schedule. I thrive off of newness and variation, though this new set of responsibilities has sent me back to the drawing board. My husband has been a great anchor, providing a calm focus in contrast to the background chatter of life with three young children.

My birthday passed by without much fanfare. In my haste, I forgot to ask for the day off (from mothering that is!). I was delighted by the special recognition at work. With every year that passes, I still feel ageless. Thirty-four seems a lot like twenty-eight, which seemed a bit like twenty-three. Although now when I listen to my favorite Miles Davis album, Live-Evil, the music has never sounded so good. It still sounds like the first time I heard it, which was decades ago. I bet I'm not the only person who feels this way about their favorite Miles Davis album.

So, new discoveries for this month include: hydrofoil surfboards, kite-surfing, paper folding, barefoot jump rope games, freestyle dance, roller derby, the writer Malcolm Gladwell and digital video cameras that film 1,400,000 frames per second.