Optimization

Finally! After a long journey, I now officially hold the title of Doctor of Sciences (Dr. sc. ETH Zürich). My PhD dissertation, titled “Stability Assessment of Discrete Shell Structures during Assembly,” is now available online and can be freely accessed. Read the dissertation → Thanks to my supervisors and reviewers: Philippe, Stelian, Tom, and Jan for their guidance. My family members Bonnie and Genie for their endless support. More thanks in the acknowledgement section of the thesis.

I am happy to share that I defended my PhD research at ETH Zürich last Thursday, March 9th! Many thanks to all my supervisors and reviewers — Prof. Dr Philippe Block, Prof. Dr Stelian Coros, Dr Tom Van Mele, and Prof. Dr Jan Knippers — for their endless support! Time flies! It has been a wonderful 4.5 years since I joined the Block Research Group, ETH Zurich in September 2018. I gained rich experience, learnt so much knowledge, and overcame several challenges. I enjoyed doing advanced interdisciplinary research in NCCR Digital Fabrication and Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich. I was also fascinated by the courses I took during my Computer Science CAS degree at D-INFK, ETH Zürich, parallel to my PhD studies. ...

I am thrilled to share our latest exciting research — Coupled Rigid-Block Analysis (CRA) — published in the SCI journal Computer-Aided Design. CRA is a new method to measure structural stability statically and can be used to design complex discrete-element assemblies. It can be applied to many research fields like designing architectures, furniture, 3D puzzles, toys, or even robotic assembly planning. Please see our open-access paper for more details! ...