Outreach

Rochester Prep High School Capstone

In Fall 2021, 5 students from the Rochester Prep High School, visited RIT campus once a week to learn about computer simulation and their uses for their capstone project. They presented their findings to a highly engaging audience with RIT President, trustees, and the Dean of the Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

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Packing and entropy

Annually, I run a module for Beyond 9.8, tailored to 5th grade students for teaching them various crystal structures and explaining how structure affects properties of materials. This is delivered in a fun, hands-on type format with several activities. The title is "How many M&Ms fit in your Ziploc?"

My research entails understanding how three-dimensional ordered networks can be formed in the nanoscale. Mathematical models for those structures at much larger scales can be used to print 3D models using a 3D printer. These files for 3D printing in standard format (STL) are found below (right-click and download links to save with .stl extension):
Double Gyroid Link to Double Gyroid STL file
Single-gyroid Link to left-handed gyroid STL file and Link to right-handed gyroid STL file
Double diamond Link to Double Diamond STL file
The prints will look like the images below.

The goal of this demo is to explore how the energetic parameter (K), bond angle (Θ), and dihedral angle (Φ) affect the resulting chain conformations. The model we use here was published in Macromolecules in 2022.

Using the sliders below, you can change the values of K, Θ, and Φ.

Press the "Simulate" button to display a snapshot of the resulting conformation and chain metrics.
A blue chain respresents a left-handed helix, a red chain respresents a right-handed helix, and a grey chain represents an achiral conformation.

Simulate

Helicity: =
Persistence Length: =
Pitch: =
Monomers Per Turn: =