Keynote lecture: aesthetic engineering

Over the last 30 years I have had the opportunity to participate in the design of solid-state cameras, computer chips, mechanical assemblies, two large research buildings, as well as various toys, puzzles, and mathematical models. Most of these efforts were assisted by various computer programs, and in most cases, I found this assistance to be insufficient. These experiences have had a strong influence on the course of my research in computer-aided design tools. For an even longer time, I also have been interested in abstract geometrical art and sculpture. Eight years ago I started to collaborate with Brent Collins, a wood sculptor who creates fascinating abstract geometrical forms. This gave me a chance to merge these to interest domains.Creating maximally satisfactory forms for mathematical models or for geometrical sculptures poses different requirements and constraints than developing an optimized airplane wing or designing the most attractive hood shape for a sports car. In this presentation I will show some recent problem tasks that have captured my attention and which are currently guiding my research in curve and surface optimization, such as the search for a "beauty functional" and for efficient approximations to such a global functional that may offer interactive design speeds, or the real-time generation of curves of linearly varying geodesic curvature on smooth surfaces of high genus. I will show how my students and I are currently attacking these problems and will also present a wish list and a requirements catalog for better CAD tools for this kind of aesthetic design.Carlo H. Sequin is a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D degree in experimental physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1969. His subsequent work at the Institute of Applied Physics in Basel concerned interface physics of MOS transistors and problems of applied electronics in the field of cybernetic models.From 1970 till 1976 he worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J., on the design and investigation of Charge-Coupled Devices for imaging and signal processing applications. At Bell Labs he also got introduced to the world of Computer Graphics in classes given by Ken Knowlton.In 1977 he joined the faculty in the EECS Department at Berkeley. He started out by teaching courses on the subject of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, thereby trying to build a bridge between the CS division and the EE faculty. In the early 1980's, jointly with D. Patterson he introduced the 'RISC' concept to the world of microcomputers. He was head of the Computer Science Division from 1980 till 1983. Since then he has concentrated on computer graphics, geometric modeling, and on the development of computer aided design (CAD) tools for circuit designers, architects, and for mechanical engineers. During the last five years he has collaborated with P. Wright in Mechanical Engineering on the CyberCut/CyberBuild project with the goal to streamline the path from creative design to rapid prototyping.Sequin's work in computer graphics and in geometric design have also provided a bridge to the world of art. In collaboration with a few sculptors of abstract geometric art, in particular with Brent Collins, Sequin has found a new interest and yet another domain where the use of computer-aided tools can be explored and where new frontiers can be opened through the use of such tools.Dr. Sequin is a Fellow of the ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, and has been elected to the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.