CAS CONNECT 2015

32 This isn’t the only venture into older techniques Segerman has taken an inter- est in. Nineteenth-century mathematicians often constructed 3-D geometric models using plaster. Over the years, the math- ematics community has shifted its focus between visualization and abstract theory, and the plaster models fell out of fash- ion in the early 20th century. Computer- generated images and technologies, such as 3-D printing, reinvigorated the visu- alization movement. Segerman sees his work as following in the tradition of some of the older visualization methods. Segerman looks forward to sharing his knowledge with others through a book he is releasing in 2016 and a course he will be teaching next spring at OSU about the geometry and algorithms behind 3-D design. He and Jaco are also excited that the OSU Department of Mathematics was recently awarded funding to construct a 3-D printing lab. Segerman, other mathematical artists and hope- fully students will also soon have space in OSU’s Mathematics Learning Success Center to display their work. “We’ve always been supportive of his work,” Jaco says of Segerman. “He is very highly thought of as a research math- ematician, but now he is becoming better known as a mathematical artist. The things we’re doing with him now will help develop his students’ interest in mathe- matics and 3-D printing for the future.” “I’ve definitely had that experience of taking something out of the packet and being surprised or realizing I needed to change this bit or that bit,” Segerman says. “For some objects, there isn’t much of a leap from what you see on screen to it being turned into a physical object. But geared objects, for example, you can’t really see what will happen until it’s printed.” Companies and websites provide Segerman and others interested in 3-D printing the freedom to upload and download 3-D designs. Shapeways is a New York-based 3-D printing company that Segerman uses to upload his designs and have the 3-D printed object mailed to his doorstep. Websites like Thingiverse allow users to share their designs and print them if they have access to a 3-D printer. This technology opens the door for other mathematical illustrators such as Dr. Saul Schleimer, a frequent collabo- rator of Segerman’s. Segerman and Schleimer, a reader at the Mathematics Institute at the University of Warwick, have been featured in numerous publications. Last fall, the British newspaper The Guardian , whose combined print and online editions reach nearly 9 million readers worldwide, published an article about the duo’s work on stereographic projection. When 3-D printed spheres with geometric cutouts are introduced to a light source, they cast a 2-D pattern on flat surfaces around the sphere. Cartographers and astronomers used stereographic projec- tion to make maps of the Earth and sky. Segerman and Schleimer have taken this old practice and put their own spin on it. Segerman’s work was featured at Stony Brook Universi ty’s “I l lustrat ing Geometry” exhibi t in the fal l of 2014. PHIL SHOCKLEY / UNIVERSITY MARKETING