I design computational systems where mathematics and materials become forms for thinking, making, and playing.
I'm an EECS PhD candidate, advised by Erik Demaine in CSAIL. I've designed systems for garment making at Roblox and Adobe, and explored code as a creative medium at the Media Lab.
My time at MIT is a collage of research, teaching, and art-making.
How can we upcycle garments again and again? By treating old T-shirts as an evolving inventory of remixable parts and standardizing how they connect rather than their dimensions, PieceWise enables systematic, repeated reuse.
How can we design garments for change and reuse? By treating garments as dynamic assemblies rather than static products, Refashion enables users to remix their garments on demand.
How can we thread tubes with a single string to achieve a target connectivity when the string is pulled taut? By casting "threadings" as constrained walks on graphs, we give efficient algorithms for computing minimum-length threadings.Zhecheng sent me a video of a deployable bamboo sculpture by the wonderful Alison Martin, and the rest was history.
How can we create constellation patterns with unconventional star arrangements? By representing constellations as mathematical graphs, we reveal an alternative language for reasoning about and creating constellations.
Teaching assistantships at MIT (20 hours per week) and UBC (12 hours per week).
I’m grateful for my family, friends, and mentors. Particular thanks to my sister, Esther; to Linghao, Tim, Yael, and Surya; and to Mackenzie, who has been like a second advisor to me. I am also grateful to Will, who introduced me to research; to Craig, who introduced me to mathematical art; to Sarah, for teaching me about craft; and to Katherine, for making so much of my creative and research work possible.
My work has been supported by the MIT MAD Design Fellowship, the MIT Stata Family Presidential Fellowship, the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship, and the MathWorks Engineering Fellowship.
