Ho-Kei Chan
Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China
Title: The scientific adventure of packing: from space saving to material design
Biography
Biography: Ho-Kei Chan
Abstract
A stack of oranges on display at a grocery store represents a solution to a centuries-old problem: how can we pack identical spheres as densely as possible in an open space? An endless variety of such packing problems exists, including the packing of spheres, spheroids, rods, deformable bubbles, and many other shapes, where one may also consider packing them as densely as possible into a confined geometry. Powerful computer techniques have opened up new avenues for solving packing problems. With the discovery of some optimal mathematical structures, results from computer simulations have not only helped to verify or disprove some very old conjectures, but have also led to new insights into structures of matter and new inspirations for the design and fabrication of materials.