CAREER: Partitive Solid Geometry for Computer-Aided Design: Principles, Algorithms, Workflows, & Applications
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This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant will establish the foundations of a new geometric modeling framework – partitive solid geometry – for the design of complex two- and three-dimensional geometric patterns. Modeling complex patterns, such as cellular structures, is intrinsic to several areas of national interest, including consumer products, protective gear for sports and the military, and curved miniaturized electronics. Making complex geometric modeling accessible to more designers and engineers is key to facilitating disruptive innovations in many engineering disciplines, including the automotive, aerospace, construction, additive manufacturing, mechanics, thermo-fluids, and acoustics fields. Current tools for generative design and modeling are highly automated, which makes it difficult for designers to explore new ideas and ask “what-if” questions. A new representation of geometric solids is needed that will allow designers to apply their expertise, ideas, and creativity in designing cellular structures. Such a representation should also simultaneously support computationally efficient mechanical evaluation, such as finite element simulation. This research will make complex geometric modeling available to all, real-time and intuitive to interact with, useful for serious engineering design, and usable for recreational learning. As a result, novice and expert designers will be able to creatively apply their knowledge in applications ranging from the design of new materials to new architectural forms and safe products. This grant will further enable a new type of learning mechanism, where younger audiences will be able to easily generate complex shapes, prototype them as puzzles through 3D printing, and play with the puzzles to discover basic principles of geometry. This will fundamentally transform the way children develop their spatial reasoning ability through hands-on design and prototyping activities.........
