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Frameworks in Motion: Design, Theory, and Fabrication (Jessica Sidman, Amherst College
October 23 @ 4:15 am
Speaker: Jessica Sidman, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Amherst College
Title: Frameworks in Motion: Design, Theory, and Fabrication
Abstract: What do your umbrella, a folding gate, and a scissor lift have in common? They all involve frameworks made of rigid parts attached at flexible joints and are designed to move with one degree of freedom. In 1981 architect Santiago Calatrava wrote a PhD thesis, “Concerning the Foldability of Space Frames,” containing a systematic exploration of the geometry and design of foldable frameworks. I’ll use his thesis as a jumping off point to explore the Geiringer-Laman Theorem and ideas for further research.
Bio: Jessica Sidman loves to work on pure and applied problems at the intersection of computational algebra, algebraic geometry, and combinatorics. Her recent work in rigidity theory combines aspects of these three fields, and all got started when an undergraduate doing a thesis on protein folding asked her a question about projective space. She got her B.A. from Scripps College, a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and did postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley and UMass Amherst. She was the Professor of Mathematics on the John Stewart Kennedy Foundation at Mount Holyoke College and is now the Brian E. Boyle Professor in Mathematics and Computer Science at Amherst College.
