Just as painters wield brushes and paint, Vincent Edwards, director of know-how for the School of Art, and Edmund Harriss, assistant professor of arithmetic, need college students to view know-how as one other palette.  

Rather than resolve an issue, college students on this class is likely to be inspired to ask machines, “What questions can you answer?” or “What ideas can you play with?” Harriss describes this method as curiosity-driven manufacturing – one thing not typically seen in a “world of productivity.”  

Edwards and Harriss will current the historical past of know-how and craft as one thing native to artwork of their public lecture “Technology Craft,” at 5:15 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in Gearhart Hall Auditorium (GEAR 26). All on campus and in the neighborhood are invited to the lecture.     

The public lecture will preview their August 2024 Intersession Honors College Signature Seminar, Technology Craft.  

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE 

The objective of the hands-on intersession is twofold: study concerning the historical past and theoretical framework of know-how and craft whereas additionally nurturing college students’ curiosity utilizing know-how in making (or failing at) one thing new.  

“It is not about asking students to make the perfect gear for some wonderful machine,” Harriss mentioned. “We will ask them to make the machine move. In an interdisciplinary course like this, there will be students who will be better at the programming piece and those who exceed in dealing with the physical world.”   

This course will primarily deal with 3D printing, laser reducing and pc numerically managed (CNC), a code-based manufacturing methodology. However, the instructors may even contact on augmented actuality and synthetic intelligence.  

“Hopefully we will have some crazy ideas that don’t work,” Harriss mentioned. “Failure is one of my favorite things and great for this course.”  

Like their open minds concerning know-how, Harriss and Edwards are leaving the second week of the intersession open to deal with the scholars’ pursuits. Those enrolled in Technology Craft shall be inspired to take a analysis course within the fall centered on making a venture utilizing the talents from the seminar.   

CURIOSITY AND THE CURVAHEDRA  

Harriss has proof for his curiosity-driven manufacturing. In 2018, he and Carl Smith, professor of panorama structure, taught an Honors College Signature Seminar that conceptualized the thought for the Curvahedra sculpture within the Gearhart courtyard. 

But extra than simply the thought, the category impressed Harriss and Emily Baker, an assistant professor of structure and Bodenhamer Fellowship alumna ’04, to discover the digital aspect of metal fabrication utilizing a numerically managed plasma cutter. The modern methodology allowed the staff to create the massive, curved sculpture at an affordable price.  

Since the fabrication of the sculpture, Harriss and Baker have labored with Mohammed Ismail and Caitlin Mueller of the Building Technology program on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create formwork for optimized concrete beams utilizing the know-how they developed to craft the Curvahedra. The better part? The resolution isn’t high-tech and doesn’t require specialised gear. Above all, it’s accessible.  

“If you look at technology over the last 100 years, there is consistent development over time, but there are also big waves of change,” Harriss argued. “There are always a dozen reasons why something won’t work, but what if we imagined that it did?”    

ABOUT VINCENT EDWARDS

Edwards teaches digital fabrication and sculpture on the U of A the place he runs the 3-D Advanced Technologies Lab. He obtained his MFA from the Herron School of Art and Design in 2012. Edwards’ studio apply focuses on hybrid methodologies, particularly the intersection of conventional furnishings craft and digital fabrication.  

ABOUT EDMUND HARRISS 

Mathematician, artist, instructor and maker Harriss works to entice folks into mathematical pondering and experiences by way of artwork, toys, coloring pictures and extra. His analysis ranges from illustrating algebraic numbers by way of the differential geometry of machines guided by numerically managed computing to mathematical artwork and perceptualism. 

Harriss’ analysis has appeared in journals together with Nature and the proceedings of the National Academy of Science, in addition to in nationwide and worldwide media, together with New Scientist, NPR, the Guardian and Numberphile. 

His art work is put in in a number of universities, from Imperial College in London to the U of A, the place a 12-foot metal sculpture was put in within the courtyard at Gearhart Hall. He has created two grownup coloring books of mathematical pictures and coauthored a youngsters’s e book. 

SIGNATURE SEMINARS EXPLORE DIVERSE TOPICS

Technology Craft is one in every of 4 Honors College Signature Seminars scheduled for fall and summer season 2024. Other subjects to be explored embrace:  

The Geography of Star Trek — taught by Fiona Davis, affiliate professor of geosciences;  

Gothic — taught by Lynda Coon, Honors College dean, and Kim Sexton, affiliate professor of structure; and  

Fashion, Identity and Power — taught by Eric Darnell Pritchard, affiliate professor English and Brown Chair in English Literacy.  

Deans of every school could nominate professors to take part on this program, and people chosen to show will develop into Dean’s Fellows within the Honors College.        

Honors college students should apply to take part, and people chosen shall be designated Dean’s Signature Scholars. The course utility is posted on-line on the Signature Seminars web page. The deadline to use is Monday, March 10.    

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and brings collectively high-achieving undergraduate college students and the college’s high professors to share transformative studying experiences. Each yr the Honors College awards as much as 90 freshman fellowships that present $80,000 over 4 years, and greater than $1 million in undergraduate analysis and research overseas grants. The Honors College is nationally acknowledged for the excessive caliber of scholars it admits and graduates. Honors college students get pleasure from small, in-depth courses, and packages are supplied in all disciplines, tailor-made to college students’ tutorial pursuits, with interdisciplinary collaborations inspired. All Honors College graduates have engaged in mentored analysis. 

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas’ flagship establishment, the U of A supplies an internationally aggressive training in additional than 200 tutorial packages. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes greater than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy by way of the instructing of recent information and abilities, entrepreneurship and job growth, discovery by way of analysis and inventive exercise whereas additionally offering coaching for skilled disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the many few U.S. schools and universities with the very best stage of analysis exercise. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the many high public universities within the nation. See how the U of A works to construct a greater world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.