ABSTRACT

For this week's NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Colloquium, Dr Elisabetta Matsumoto from Georgia Institute of Technology will be discussing creative crafts and math research. What can physics learn from crochet? How does a simple stitch change the stretch of a scarf, and how are modern materials and manufacturing learning from their wooly ancestors? Join Dr Matsumoto for a talk about curvature using pattern making, symmetries using quilt squares and flags, hyperbolic space using quilting at crochet, and knot theory and coding using knits.

About the Speaker:

Sabetta Matsumoto is an associate professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her physics research centers around the relationship between geometry and material properties in soft systems, including liquid crystals, 3D printing and textiles. Her lab studies knitted textiles from the point of view of knot theory and as an additive manufacturing technique. She is also interested in using sewing, 3D printing and virtual reality in mathematical art and education.