CCI's Computer Science Departmental Talk Series Presents: Dr. Jim McCann

Title: On-Demand Machine Knitting for Everyone

Abstract: Knitting machines are general-purpose fabrication devices that can robustly create intricate 3D surfaces from yarn by cleverly actuating thousands of mechanical needles. Knitting machines are an established feature of the textiles production landscape, in use today to make everything from socks to sweaters.

However, the current design tools for machine knitting are sorely lacking -- often both requiring extensive training and the use of a particular brand of machine. In this talk, I will describe our vision for the future of on-demand machine knitting for everyone, enabled by a simple file format and some fancy new software tools. These tools are already being developed both at Carnegie Mellon and at other universities, including Drexel.

Bio: Jim McCann recently joined the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute as Assistant Professor. He is interested in systems and interfaces that operate in real-time and build user intuition. He has been applying these ideas to textiles fabrication and machine knitting as the leader of the Carnegie Mellon Textiles Lab. Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, Jim was a researcher at Disney Research Pittsburgh, a one-person game studio called TCHOW llc, and a Research Scientist at Adobe's Creative Technologies Lab; though not all at the same time. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Pizza and refreshments will be provided

 

RSVP at drexelcci.info/mccann