Current Projects:
Invisible Worlds brings the unseen into focus through illuminating science-based works of art. The exhibition unveils the results of a collaboration between NC State University scientists and designers and The Leading Strand. Our founder Amanda spent the semester as visiting faculty at NC State working with six groups of collaborators from NC State's College of Sciences and College of Design to create stunning visual and interactive designs that help the public: |
I am a part of two projects with The Leading Strand, an initiative to pair designers with researchers.
AYE-AYE BEHAVIOR + VOCALIZATION
How do aye-aye lemurs communicate and capture food?
In this piece, you will learn to find food as a mother aye-aye, the nocturnal primate native to the island of Madagascar. Using your drumstick, which simulates the bony middle finger of an aye-aye, you must tap the log to forage for tasty grubs. As you improve, the baby aye-aye vocalizations diminish, letting you know that you’re providing enough food. Be sure to tap quickly or your family’s meal will get away!
As dramatized in the science-fiction film Arrival,decoding the communication styles of other species is a frustrating but rewarding activity. Lemurs use vocalizations — barks, high-pitched shrieks, grunts, chirps and other sounds — to alert fellow group members when predators are near, to warn competitors to stay away, or to communicate with other group members who might be far away in the forest. Although aye-ayes lemurs (Daubentonia madagascariensis) have been at the Duke Lemur Center since 1987, their seven distinct vocalizations have not been well-studied for decades. Researchers are studying how aye-ayes respond to novel objects and humans, vs familiar objects and humans as well as the vocalizations of newborn aye-ayes. By understanding the circumstances that elicit different communication, we can gain new insight into how primates think and relate to one another.
OPTIMIZATION FOR RADIOTHERAPY
How can we use radiation to destroy cancerous tumors without affecting healthy tissue?
In this piece, you step into the shoes of an oncologist treating a cancer patient. Use the console to direct radiation beams towards the cancerous tumor using different angles and intensities to avoid damaging the healthy tissue in front of and behind it. In this human scale model, you come face to face with the geometric optimization challenges of radiotherapy.
The key to treating cancer is to destroy as much of the tumor as possible while preserving the healthy tissue. Cut too little and the tumor grows back. Cut too much and wreak havoc on the patient. Recent biological insights and technological advancements are worked into the mathematical optimization models and algorithms for radiotherapy. And improving the mathematical analysis can lead to medical improvements! Our math research has found that the benefit of radiotherapy can be substantially increased by using the combination of different types of radiation (x-rays, protons, electrons, etc.) within the same treatment (“combination therapy”). Additional gains have been achieved by using a continuously modulated radiation beam whose shape and intensity is changing as it is rotating around the patient (“arc therapy”); and designing multi-day treatments that treat different parts of the tumor on each day of the treatment (“spatiotemporal fractionation”).
AYE-AYE BEHAVIOR + VOCALIZATION
How do aye-aye lemurs communicate and capture food?
In this piece, you will learn to find food as a mother aye-aye, the nocturnal primate native to the island of Madagascar. Using your drumstick, which simulates the bony middle finger of an aye-aye, you must tap the log to forage for tasty grubs. As you improve, the baby aye-aye vocalizations diminish, letting you know that you’re providing enough food. Be sure to tap quickly or your family’s meal will get away!
As dramatized in the science-fiction film Arrival,decoding the communication styles of other species is a frustrating but rewarding activity. Lemurs use vocalizations — barks, high-pitched shrieks, grunts, chirps and other sounds — to alert fellow group members when predators are near, to warn competitors to stay away, or to communicate with other group members who might be far away in the forest. Although aye-ayes lemurs (Daubentonia madagascariensis) have been at the Duke Lemur Center since 1987, their seven distinct vocalizations have not been well-studied for decades. Researchers are studying how aye-ayes respond to novel objects and humans, vs familiar objects and humans as well as the vocalizations of newborn aye-ayes. By understanding the circumstances that elicit different communication, we can gain new insight into how primates think and relate to one another.
OPTIMIZATION FOR RADIOTHERAPY
How can we use radiation to destroy cancerous tumors without affecting healthy tissue?
In this piece, you step into the shoes of an oncologist treating a cancer patient. Use the console to direct radiation beams towards the cancerous tumor using different angles and intensities to avoid damaging the healthy tissue in front of and behind it. In this human scale model, you come face to face with the geometric optimization challenges of radiotherapy.
The key to treating cancer is to destroy as much of the tumor as possible while preserving the healthy tissue. Cut too little and the tumor grows back. Cut too much and wreak havoc on the patient. Recent biological insights and technological advancements are worked into the mathematical optimization models and algorithms for radiotherapy. And improving the mathematical analysis can lead to medical improvements! Our math research has found that the benefit of radiotherapy can be substantially increased by using the combination of different types of radiation (x-rays, protons, electrons, etc.) within the same treatment (“combination therapy”). Additional gains have been achieved by using a continuously modulated radiation beam whose shape and intensity is changing as it is rotating around the patient (“arc therapy”); and designing multi-day treatments that treat different parts of the tumor on each day of the treatment (“spatiotemporal fractionation”).
Recent works:
- Scientific animations
- Film (I reccommend "Purring at 3am" and "The Fallacy of the Power of Phallus and Race")
- Visual Effects
- Laser Cutting
- I recently completed a yearlong undergraduate thesis/creative project on anthropomorphic animated animals. My project sought to understand the basis of anthropomorphism, both throughout the human history of ancient oral traditions and in recent animated films by Disney and Pixar. I examined anthropomorphism through the lens of biological accuracy by measuring and comparing live animals with animals as metaphors in story and oral tradition and animals in film. I sought to determine why humans desire anthropomorphism, and why we resultantly find animals so attractive. My goal was to understand anthropomorphism, so that I better understood the benefits—and limits—of anthropomorphism in my own animation. I also created my own anthropomorphic animal animation.