Prof. Erik D Demaine

Professor Demaine does his research in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), where he is a member of the Theory of Computation group. Professor Demaine's research centers around algorithms, data structures, and geometry.

The Demaine lab focuses on problems that span the mathematics and computer science boundary. We are interested in abstract geometry problems related to folding and bending that have practical applications in manufacturing (sheet metal fabrication) and biology (protein-folding).

Folding and unfolding is an exciting area of geometry. It is attractive in the way that problems and even results can be easily understood, with little knowledge of mathematics or computer science, yet the solutions are difficult and involve many sophisticated techniques. The general sort of problem considered is how a particular object (e.g., linkage, piece of paper, polyhedron, or protein) can be reconfigured or folded according to a few constraints, which depend on the object being folded and the problem of interest. In particular, we are interested in efficient algorithms for characterizing foldability, and finding efficient folding processes, or in proving that such algorithms are impossible.