![[Erik holding a box-pleated MIT]](../../fall10/lectures/sample_frame_small.jpg)
sample frame from lecture video (L06)
| L01 | optional | Overview of the entire class: Topics and problems considered.
OPTIONAL — L01 can be skipped, though it gives a more detailed overview of the class than C01. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C01 | Sept. 6 | Overview of the class: Inverted lecture format, sample topics and problems considered. | [Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
| L02 | Sept. 10 |
[+] Origami intro:
Piece of paper, crease pattern, mountain-valley assignment. | [Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture kicks off a series of lectures about origami. It focuses on
a relatively simple kind of origami, called “simple folds”,
which involve folding along one straight line by ±180 degrees.
These are some of the most “practical” types of folds from
an automated manufacturing standpoint, are well-studied mathematically,
and a good warmup before we get to complex origami folds which fold
many creases at once.
On the design side, we'll see how simple folds are enough to fold any 2D shape, and with slightly more general folds, we can fold any 3D shape even with a two-color pattern on the surface. On the foldability side, we'll see how to efficiently determine whether a crease pattern with mountains and valleys indicated can be folded flat in two interesting cases: 1D pieces of paper (in other words, parallel creases in a strip of paper) and 2D rectangular maps. | |||||
| C02 | Sept. 11 | [+]
Origami intro: Origami alphabet, higher dimensions. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class is structured around the many excellent questions that students
asked and suggestions they made. There are so many that I've marked a few
highlights with stars:
| |||||
| L03 | Sept. 12 | [+]
Single-vertex crease patterns: Characterizations of flat-foldable
crease patterns and mountain-valley patterns, combinatorics of the
latter, local flat foldability is easy. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture is about the local behavior of flat folding
around each vertex of a crease pattern. In other words, we study
each vertex individually, by characterizing all single-vertex
crease patterns and mountain-valley patterns that are flat foldable.
Then we look at how to combine multiple vertices into
a "locally foldable" crease pattern.
We also get started on the tree method of origami design, developed by many Japanese origami designers over the years, and turned into an algorithm and computer program TreeMaker by Robert Lang. This method has been the most successful in transforming complex origami design, and we'll cover more of it next lecture. | |||||
| C03 | Sept. 13 | [+] Single-vertex crease patterns: Linear-time algorithm, local foldability examples, T-shirt folding, higher dimensions, why flat foldability? |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class addresses these questions/comments about Lecture 3 (and Lecture 2):
| |||||
| L04 | Sept. 17 | [+] Efficient origami design: Tree method, TreeMaker, uniaxial base, active path, rabbit-ear molecule, universal molecule, Margulis Napkin Problem; cube folding, checkerboard folding; Origamizer, watertight, tuck proxy. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture is all about efficient origami design.
We saw in Lecture 2 how to fold anything impractically.
Now we'll see how to fold many shapes practically.
First up is the tree method, whose software implementation TreeMaker I demoed at the end of Lecture 3. I'll describe how it lets us fold an optimum stick-figure (tree) origami base, although computing that optimum is actually NP-complete (as we'll see in Lecture 5). This algorithm is used throughout modern complex origami design; I'll show some examples by Robert Lang and our own Jason Ku. Second we'll look at a simple, fully understood case: the smallest square to fold a cube. Third we'll look at a classic problem that we made progress on recently: folding an n × n checkerboard from the smallest bicolor square. Finally we'll look at the latest and most general method, Origamizer, for folding any polyhedron reasonably efficiently. Here we don't have a nice theoretical guarantee on optimality, but the method works well in practice, provably always works, and has other nice features such as watertightness. | |||||
| C04 | Sept. 18 | [+] Efficient origami design: Uniaxial, TreeMaker and Origamizer in practice, box-pleating tree method, tree method triangulation, universal molecule, gift wrapping, checkerboard gadgets, Origamizer software vs. mathematics, vertex/edge tucking molecules, Voronoi diagrams. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class covers several additional details about Lecture 4 (efficient origami design):
| |||||
| L05 | Sept. 19 | [+]
Artistic origami design: sampling of representational
origami art; tree method and its use.
|
[Slides] | [Video] | |
|
This is a guest lecture by Jason Ku, president of OrigaMIT
(the MIT origami club), PhD student in mechanical engineering, and
prominent origami designer.
His lecture will be about his perspectives on artistic origami design. Lecture 4 outlined the tree method algorithm of origami design. Now we'll see how this method applies in real-world examples. The first half of the lecture will introduce the artistic side of representational origami. In origami, as in many disciplines, familiarity with the canon of work that already exists can be quite useful in understanding avenues for future creative development. Thus we'll cover the works and styles of a sampling of the world's most renowned paper folders. The second half of the lecture will focus on the actual design of representational origami art. We will briefly review tree theory, weigh the pros and cons of this design method, and emphasize the relationships between a tree, a circle/river packing, and the locus of possible hinge crease in a uniaxial base. Finally, we'll go through the process of designing an origami model with, then without, the help of TreeMaker. | |||||
| C05 | Sept. 20 | [+] Artistic origami design: Jason Ku designs, other materials (dollars, cardboard, hydro, metal, polypropylene), tessellations, Tess, connected cranes, modular origami, business card cubes. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class covers even more examples of artistic origami design:
| |||||
| L06 | Sept. 24 | [+]
Architectural Origami: Origamizer, Freeform Origami,
Rigid Origami Simulator, cylindrical origami, thick origami
|
[Slides] | [Video] | |
|
Origami, the art of folding a sheet of paper into various forms without
stretching or cutting, can be applied to structural engineering and design
purposes. The applications include the forming of a 3D surface without
assembling multiple parts and the construction of kinetic structures such as
retractable roofs, openings, temporary shelters, and space structures.
In the design process of such applied origami, it is very difficult for
the designer to control the form to fit design contexts while preserving the
necessary functionalities of the original patterns. Therefore, without
sufficient knowledge or intelligent design systems, the resulting designs
would end up in either just a mere copy and paste of an existing origami
pattern or an "origami inspired" design which is not using the properties
of origami in functional ways.
This lecture will present my recent studies on computational origami algorithms and interactive systems to enable architectural designs. The topics include the algorithm for origamizing arbitrary polyhedral surfaces, freeform variation method of different types of origami patterns, and rigid origami theory, design, and physical implementation. The proposed systems are freely available from my website (http://www.tsg.ne.jp/TT/software/): Rigid Origami Simulator, Origamizer, and Freeform Origami. These systems enable origami designs for architecture, i.e., architectural origami, as well as an origami bunny. | |||||
| C06 | Sept. 25 | [+] Architectural Origami: Origamizer, Freeform Origami, Rigid Origami Simulator |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class provides some extra details related to Tomohiro Tachi's
software suite:
| |||||
| L07 | Sept. 26 | [+]
Universal hinge patterns: box pleating, polycubes;
orthogonal maze folding. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture covers two main topics:
First, continuing our theme from Lecture 4 on efficient origami design, we'll see how subsets of a single hinge pattern are enough to fold any orthogonal shape made up of cubes, whereas other approaches use a completely different set of creases for each origami model you want. In general, we can fold n cubes from an O(n) × O(n) square of paper. In the special case of “orthogonal mazes”, we can waste almost no paper, with the folding only a small constant factor smaller than the original piece of paper. You can try out this yourself. Second, we'll see a few ways in which origami is hard. Specifically, I'll give a brief, practical introduction to NP-hardness, and prove three origami problems NP-hard:
| |||||
| C07 | Sept. 27 | [+]
Universal hinge patterns: box-pleating history; maze-folding prints. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This class starts with some artistic examples related to the two universality
results covered in Lecture 7: box pleating and maze folding.
Second, we review the NP-hardness proofs from Lecture 7:
Finally, we cover a new (this year) result: 2 × n map folding can be solved in polynomial time. (m × n map folding remains unsolved.) | |||||
| L08 | Oct. 1 | [+] Fold and one cut: history, straight-skeleton method, disk-packing method, simple folds, higher dimensions, flattening polyhedra. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
| This lecture is about my first work in computational origami: folding a piece of paper flat so that one complete straight cut makes a desired pattern of cuts (and resulting polygonal shapes). The problem has a long history (back to the 1700s) and possible applications to airbag folding through a problem called flattening. We'll see two different methods for this problem, each with connections to the tree method of origami design: the first generalizes the universal molecule to nonconvex polygons, but loses the ability to control the shadow tree; the second uses disk packing (but no rivers) and universal molecules for triangles and quadrangles. I'll also talk about a brand new result that started from this class three years ago: what shapes can you make only with simple folds? | |||||
| C08 | Oct. 2 | [+] Fold and one cut: software, scissor vs. mathematical cuts, tree folding, density, examples, how many disks, comparison to tree method, continuous flattening. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class describes several additional details about fold-and-cut:
| |||||
| L09 | Oct. 3 | [+]
Pleat folding: “Hyperbolic paraboloid”,
circular pleat, self-folding origami,
plastic deformation and elastic memory;
triangulation, interval arithmetic; how paper folds between
creases, ruled surfaces, torsal, straight creases stay straight,
polygons stay flat; nonexistence.
|
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture is primarily about pleat folding, specifically
the so-called “hyperbolic paraboloid” model common in origami
and originating at the Bauhaus in the late 1920s. Surprisingly,
this origami model does not exist: it's impossible to fold anything
nonflat with a crease pattern consisting of concentric squares and
diagonals. We'll prove this, using a new theory for how paper folds
in between creases, in particular showing that straight creases stay
straight when folded, and interior polygons stay flat when folded.
By contrast, we'll show how the “hyperbolic paraboloid” folds fine
after adding specific diagonal creases to the trapezoidal faces.
Afterward, we'll briefly look at a couple of related topics: how to maximally inflate a teabag or other polyhedral surface by folding, and what kind of foldings are possible with curved creases. On the latter topic, I'll overview a big ongoing project in which we're trying to reconstruct the mathematics underlying a beautiful series of sculptures folded by David Huffman from the 1970s–1990s. | |||||
| C09 | Oct. 4 | [+] Pleat folding: triangulated hypars, smoothness, normals, mathematical vs. real paper, pleat folding algorithms, hypar folding. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This class consists of three parts: review, new material, and real folding.
For review, we cover some open problems about triangulated hypars, define smoothness (Ck), detail why uncreased polygonal regions of paper must be flat in 3D (normal arguments), and discuss how real paper might differ from mathematical paper. For new material, we cover algorithms for optimally folding specified M/V patterns by a sequence of simple folds and unfolds. Specifically, we'll see that the patterns MMM... and MVMV... can be folded using O(lg2 n) folds, and require Ω(lg2 n / lg lg n) folds, while most patterns require Θ(n / lg n) folds. For real folding, we will make (nonexistent) square hypars and assemble them into a hyparhedron sculpture. | |||||
| L10 | Oct. 10 | [+]
Folding motions: folded states vs. motions;
universal foldability of polygonal paper. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture kicks off the beginning of linkage folding.
We'll segue from origami by thinking about folding motions of pieces of
paper, and prove that it's always possible to reach any folded state
of a polygonal piece of paper. How many extra creases do we need?
This unsolved question leads to problems in the linkage-folding domain.
Then we'll focus on Kempe's Universality Theorem: there's a linkage to sign your name, or more mathematically, trace any polynomial curve. This proof introduces a bunch of cool gadgets, in particular to add angles and multiply (or divide) angles by constant factors. | |||||
| C10 | Oct. 11 | [+]
Folding motions: trouble with holes. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class addresses the following questions:
In addition, we cover the new topic of geometric construction via origami axioms, mentioned briefly at the end of Lecture 10. Single-fold origami can solve all cubic equations, unlike straight edge and compass which can solve (only) all quadratic equations. Two-fold origami can e.g. quintisect an angle, while n-fold origami can solve any polynomial. We will also assemble our (nonexistent) square hypars from Class 9 and assemble them into a hyparhedron sculpture. | |||||
| L11 | Oct. 15 | [+] Rigidity theory: Rigidity, generic rigidity, minimal generic rigidity, Henneberg characterization, Laman characterization, polynomial-time algorithm, convex polyhedra. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture is about rigidity theory, which is about telling
when a linkage can fold at all. This field goes back to mechanical
engineering of the 18th and 19th centuries, with applications to
structural engineering and architecture (getting buildings and
bridges to stand up), biology (understanding which parts of a protein
still move after folding up), and linkage folding itself (beyond just
“does it move at all?”, as we'll see in the next lecture).
We'll cover two main theorems characterizing “generically” rigid graphs in 2D. Henneberg's Theorem, from 1911, gives a nice and direct characterization, but it's hard to turn into an algorithm. Laman's Theorem, from 1970, is intuitively harder to work with, but turns into a fast (quadratic-time) algorithm. Unfortunately, this is all just for 2D, and we don't know any good characterizations for generic rigidity in 3D. I'll briefly describe some nice theorems about the rigidity of convex polyhedra in 3D, though, which in particular explain why Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes stand up. | |||||
| C11 | Oct. 16 | [+] Rigidity theory: Pebble algorithms, rigid component decomposition, body-and-bar framework, angular rigidity, 5-connected double bananas. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class focuses on one main question: how exactly and why does that
pebble algorithm detect Laman's condition for minimal generic rigidity?
We'll start with a simpler version of the algorithm that tests whether
every k vertices induce at most 2k edges, and then extend
to the needed 2k − 3 condition.
Then I'll mention several extensions:
| |||||
| L12 | Oct. 17 | [+]
Rigidity theory: Infinitesimal rigidity, rigidity matrix. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture continues our tour through rigidity theory,
introducing two more big ideas: infinitesimal rigidity and
tensegrities. Infinitesimal rigidity is a nice way to capture the
generic case using linear algebra, and it nicely generalizes (and is
efficiently computable) in any dimension. Tensegrities (a term coined
by Buckminster Fuller) allow the addition of struts (which prevent
compression) and cables (which prevent expansion) in addition to bars
(which prevent both—which is what we've mostly been thinking about).
A nice special case of tensegrities are “spider webs”, which turn out
to relate to the algorithmic design of origami tessellations.
Although not obviously related, the rigidity tools we build up allow us to prove the existence of actual folding motions between any two configurations of “chain linkages” (whose graphs are paths or cycles) whose edges aren't allowed to cross. This Carpenter's Rule Theorem (which was essentially my PhD thesis) kicks off our coverage of understanding when linkages can “lock”. | |||||
| C12 | Oct. 18 | [+]
Tensegrities: dot products, springs, software, sculpture. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class addresses a few topics about rigidity/tensegrity:
| |||||
| L13 | Oct. 22 | [+] Locked linkages: Algorithms for unfolding 2D chains, pseudotriangulation, energy; rigid folding of single-vertex origami; locked trees, infinitesimally locked linkages, Rules 1 and 2; locked 3D chains, knitting needles. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
| This lecture is about locked linkages. Continuing on from the Carpenter's Rule Theorem from last lecture, which says that 2D chains can't lock, we'll see three different algorithms for folding 2D chains. Each algorithm has varying levels of expansiveness, symmetry, and efficiency, with applications to 2D robot-arm motion planning. We'll also see an application of a spherical version of the Carpenter's Rule Problem to rigid folding of single-vertex origami. Then we'll tour the world of locked 2D trees, which has had significant progress recently. To this end, I'll describe the extensive technology for proving 2D linkages to be locked. Finally we'll briefly look at locked 3D chains, which relates to protein folding. | |||||
| C13 | Oct. 23 | [+] Locked linkages: Why expansiveness, energy algorithm correctness, pointed pseudotriangulations (combinatorics, rigidity, universality, expansiveness, extremeness), linear equilateral trees can't lock, unfolding 4D chains. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class covers several interesting results about pointed
pseudotriangulations:
In addition, we cover the following questions and results:
| |||||
| L14 | Oct. 24 | [+] Hinged dissections: Locked and unlocked chains of planar shapes, adorned chains, slender adornments, slender implies not locked, Kirszbaun's Theorem, locked triangles with apex angle > 90°; existence of hinged dissections, refinement. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
| This lecture is about chains of polygons, or other 2D shapes, connected together by hinges in 2D. These structures are classically called “hinged dissections”. On the foldability side, we'll see some surprisingly general situations, called “slender adornments”, where these chains cannot lock, building on the Carpenter's Rule Theorem and expansiveness (Lecture 10). We'll also see some examples that do lock, building on our theory of infinitesimally locked linkages and Rules 1 and 2 (Lecture 11). On the design side, we'll show that we can actually design hinged dissections that fold into any finite collection of desired polygonal shapes, using slender adornments to guarantee foldable motions. | |||||
| C14 | Oct. 25 | [+] Hinged dissections: animations, polyform inductive construction, rectangle to rectangle, furniture, pseudopolynomial construction, 3D, Dehn invariant. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This lecture covers four additional results:
| |||||
| L15 | Oct. 31 | [+] Polyhedron unfolding: Edge unfoldings, general unfoldings, big questions, curvature, general unfolding of convex polyhedra, source unfolding, star unfolding, edge-unfolding special convex polyhedra, fewest nets, edge-ununfoldable nonconvex polyhedra. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This lecture begins our coverage of polyhedron (un)folding.
Specifically, we'll talk about how to cut open a polyhedral surface
into one piece without overlap so that that piece can be cut out of
sheet material and assembled into the 3D surface. What distinguishes
this field from origami is that we're not allowed to cover any part
of the surface more than once. Two of the biggest open problems in
geometric folding are here:
| |||||
| C15 | Nov. 1 | [+] Polyhedron unfolding: Handles, holes, ridge trees; sun unfolding; zipper unfolding; more ununfoldable polyhedra; NP-completeness of edge unfolding; band unfolding; continuous blooming. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class covers five types of unfoldings:
| |||||
| L16 | Nov. 5 | [+]
Polyhedron unfolding: Vertex unfolding, facet paths,
generally unfolding orthogonal polyhedra, grid unfolding,
refinement, Manhattan towers, orthostacks, orthotubes, orthotrees. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture continues the theme of unfolding polyhedra,
and kicks off our coverage of folding polygons into polyhedra.
On the unfolding side, we'll cover “vertex unfolding”, which is a variation on edge unfolding kind of like hinged dissections. We'll prove that this type of unfolding exists, even for nonconvex polyhedra, provided every face is a triangle. Then we'll cover recent breakthroughs in general unfolding, for orthogonal polyhedra. On the folding side, we'll prove Cauchy's Rigidity Theorem: convex polyhedra have exactly one convex realization (viewing faces as rigid and edges as hinges). Then we'll show how to extend this to Alexandrov's Uniqueness Theorem: if you glue up the boundary of a polygon, there's at most one convex polyhedron you can make. (Next lecture we'll see how to actually get one.) | |||||
| C16 | Nov. 6 | [+] Polyhedron unfolding: Topologically convex vertex-ununfoldable polyhedron; unfolding orthogonal polyhedra with quadratic refinement. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class covers two new results about unfolding,
one negative and one positive:
We'll also briefly discuss:
| |||||
| L17 | Nov. 7 | [+] Polyhedron folding: Decision problem, enumeration problem, combinatorial problem, nonconvex solution, convex polyhedral metrics, Alexandrov gluings, Alexandrov's Theorem, Bobenko-Izmestiev constructive proof, pseudopolynomial algorithm, ungluable polygons, perimeter halving, gluing tree, rolling belts. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture dives into the problem of folding polygons into polyhedra.
The focus here is on folding convex polyhedra, though
there is one nice result about the nonconvex case by Burago & Zalgaller.
The main tool in this area is called Alexandrov's Theorem, from 1941, which characterizes when a gluing of the boundary of a polygon will result in a convex polyhedron; plus, as we saw last lecture, that convex result is always unique. We'll sketch a proof of this theorem as well as recent algorithms for finding the convex polyhedron. With this tool in hand, we'll explore some different properties of gluings. Some polygons, in fact "most" in a certain sense, have no Alexandrov gluings. Convex polygons, on the other hand, always do. Some polygons have infinitely many gluings, but this always happens in a controlled way with a few "rolling belts". Along the way we'll see gluing trees, a useful tool for analyzing gluings that we'll use in the next lecture for algorithms to find gluings. | |||||
| C17 | Nov. 8 | [+] Polyhedron folding: Pita forms, D-forms, seam forms, convex hull and crease properties, rolling belts, Burago-Zalgaller folding into nonconvex polyhedra. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class focuses on D-forms (introduced by artist Tony Wills) and
related constructions called pita forms and seam forms:
We'll make physical D-forms and prove two neat properties about them (which originate from a final project in this class from 2007). We'll also briefly review rolling belts, the implementation of Bobenko-Izmestiev's Alexandrov construction, and Burago-Zalgaller's folding of any polygon with any gluing into a nonconvex polyhedron [O'Rourke 2010; Spring 2005]. | |||||
| L18 | Nov. 12 | [+] Polyhedron folding: Combinatorial type of gluing, exponential upper and lower bounds for combinatorially distinct gluings, polynomial upper bound for polygons of bounded sharpness, dynamic program for edge-to-edge gluing, including polynomial-time decision, exponential-time dynamic program for general gluing; case studies of Latin cross, equilateral triangle, and square. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
| This lecture continues our discussion of gluing polygons up and folding them into convex polyhedra, namely, via Alexandrov gluings. Now we'll see algorithms to actually find Alexandrov gluings, as well as give good bounds on how many there can be. Then I'll describe a few case studies: the Latin cross, the equilateral triangle, and the square. | |||||
| C18 | Nov. 13 | Watch origami documentary Between The Folds. | |||
| L19 | Nov. 14 | [+]
Polyhedron refolding: Dissection-like open problem,
regular tetrahedron to box, Platonic solids to tetrahedra,
box to box, polycubes, orthogonal unfoldings with nonorthogonal foldings.
|
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This lecture is a big collection of fun results related to
unfolding, refolding, and smooth folding:
| |||||
| C19 | Nov. 15 | [+]
Polyhedron refolding: Fractal unfolding, three boxes, flat boxes. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This class starts with some updates on common unfoldings:
Then, as a transition back to linkage folding (the next two lectures), we cover the beautiful leg mechanism of Theo Jansen's Strandbeests, and briefly review some of Arthur Ganson's kinetic sculptures. | |||||
| L20 | Nov. 19 | [+] Protein folding: Fixed-angle linkages, tree, and chains; span; flattening; flat-state connectivity, disconnectivity of orthogonal partially rigid trees, connectivity of orthogonal open chains; locked fixed-angle chains; producible protein (fixed-angle) chains, ribosome, β-producible chains, helix-like canonical configuration, flat states are producible, producible states are connected. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
This lecture is about fixed-angle linkages in 3D, which
have the constraint that the angles (in addition to the lengths)
must remain fixed at all times. Fixed-angle linkages model the mechanics
of chemical bonds between atoms in a molecule. In particular, the backbone
of a biological protein is a fixed-angle tree in this model, and can be
approximated by a fixed-angle chain. We'll cover several results
about fixed-angle linkages, all motivated by questions about protein folding:
| |||||
| L21 | optional | [+]
Protein folding: HP model of protein folding,
NP-hardness and approximation, unique optimal foldings, protein design.
|
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This lecture continues our discussion on protein folding,
this time focusing on simple theoretical models of the forces, rather
than the mechanics, behind protein folding. In particular, we'll
see the HP model, a lattice model capturing the hydrophobia of
certain amino, which try to hide from the surrounding water.
Finding the optimal folding a given protein is NP-complete, but
there are some decent constant-factor approximations, and it's also
not known whether protein design is similarly hard. We'll see one step
in the direction of design: guaranteeing a unique optimal folding.
Then we'll turn to a fun problem of interlocked linkages. It's known that you need five bars to lock an open chain, but can you interlock multiple chains each with less than five bars? The answer is yes, with a nearly complete characterization of the possibilities. One consequence we'll see is how to cut a chain of n bars into around n/2 pieces that are not interlocked, while n/4 pieces are necessary. | |||||
| C20 | Nov. 20 | [+]
3D linkage folding: ribosomes, HP protein folding NP-hardness,
flattening is strongly NP-hard, flips, flipturns, deflations, pops,
popturns. |
[Notes] | [Slides] | [Video] |
|
This class opens with a discussion about the class as a whole, and
how the experimental split into video lectures + live classes worked out.
Second, we address a few questions concerning:
Third, we cover a new result: Flattening fixed angle chains (and min/max flat span) are strongly NP-hard [Demaine & Eisenstat 2011]. Fourth, we cover a fun series of results on polygon (closed chain) reconfiguration via flips, flipturns, deflations, pops, and popturns. [More detail can be found in 2010's Lecture 21.] | |||||
| C21 | Nov. 27 | Student Presentations I | |||
| C22 | Nov. 29 | Student Presentations II | |||
| C23 | Dec. 4 | Student Presentations III | |||
| C24 | Dec. 11 | Student Presentations IV | |||
| Videography: | Martin Demaine
Jayson Lynch |
Equipment: Video shot with a Canon VIXIA HG21 camera using Manfrotto 701HDV Pro Fluid Video Mini Head on Manfrotto 055XPROB Aluminum Tripod Legs. Audio recorded using Countryman IsoMax E6 EarSet Microphone on camera using Sennheiser EW 112-p G3 wireless microphone system. See our guide to recording video lectures. |
| Editor: | Erik Demaine | |
| Subtitles: | OCW |