Schweller and Patitz NSF Grant
Dr. Matthew Patitz and Dr. Robbie Schweller Won an NSF Grant
Congratulations
The winning proposal of Dr. Patitz and Dr. Schweller is "AF: Small: Explorations of Theoretical Models of Self-Assembly," $399,981, NSF CCF-1117672, July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2014.
In this funded project Dr. Patitz and Dr. Schweller plan to investigate a number of fundamental problems within theoretical models of self-assembly, as well as plan to directly engage a large number of students in research activities. Self-assembly is the process by which simple components autonomously come together by way of local interactions to form complex structures. Self-assembling systems are abundant in nature and are the key mechanisms for the formation of biological organisms. Further, self-assembly technology is emerging as a powerful tool for manipulating matter at the nanoscale. The development of a mature mathematical and computational understanding of self-assembly theory is an important step towards harnessing the power of self-assembly for the large scale fabrication of complex nanoscale devices such as circuits, molecular motors, nanoscale computers, and nano-biomedical devices.
The focus of this project is theoretical studies which involve mathematical analyses and also the development of simulation software. Such theoretical work well complements ongoing experimental research and a key portion of this project involves regular visits to top experimental research labs such as Erik Winfree’s DNA and Natural Algorithms Group at Caltech and Russell Deaton’s DNA and Biomolecular Computing group at the University of Arkansas to engage in mutually beneficial discussions regarding the development of self-assembling models and systems. Such involvement can help to guide their long range experimental paths as well as provide the PIs with invaluable insight into the laboratory realities.
In this project Dr. Patitz and Dr. Schweller present a diverse array of projects which they will pursue with heavy student involvement. The following are brief descriptions of a few: They will study the ability of self-assembling systems to self-replicate and evolve. These abilities are the fundamental cornerstones of living systems, and such studies will provide insights into how living systems originated and function. They will also pursue important open questions related to tile-based self-assembly at temperature 1, the simplest and most easily implemented model of self-assembly but about which little is known in terms of computational power and tile type efficiency. They will extend, along several directions, a powerful model of fault tolerance which they recently introduced, fuzzy temperature fault tolerance. New fault tolerance techniques are of extreme importance if substantial products are to be realized from artificial self-assembling systems. They will pursue studies in the power of randomization techniques for reducing tile complexity while generating close approximations of self-assembled shapes. They will greatly extend the self-assembly software available for both teachers and researchers. Their simulator is currently used by several instructors and research groups and has great promise to help draw more students into the field, and research in general.
Dr. Schweller joined in the Department in Fall 2007 after receiving his Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University. Dr. Patitz is a fresh first year tenure-track faculty and he got his Ph.D. in computer science from Iowa State University. They have teamed very well on research and have organized the weekly department Self-Assembly Student Research Seminar, attracting a large group of undergraduate and graduate students on cutting edge research in the area of algorithmic self-assembly. They have been very active in high quality publications in top-rated conference proceedings and journals, including papers in FOCS'2010, SODA'2010 and SODA'2011. The addition of this NSF grant will no doubt enhance your research endeavor to a new level.
