{"id":43450,"date":"2022-10-05T18:10:03","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T22:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/?post_type=news&p=43450"},"modified":"2022-10-06T15:20:54","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:20:54","slug":"assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Grimmer\u2019s<\/a> research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for optimization problems \u2014 an area that can seem quite abstract to many. But the assistant professor has found a novel way to make mathematical concepts more concrete and understandable for students: use of a 3D printer.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI use the printer to translate concepts ranging from linear algebraic norms to operator norms into three-dimensional, tangible objects that students can hold, look at, and feel,\u201d said Grimmer. \u201cThey can be passed around in-person or even examined through an overhead camera in virtual teaching environments or in 70-person lecture halls, where some students are seated farther away from me.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0Grimmer uses his 3D printing as illustrations of notion and distance, in first-year courses on visualization mathematics, and to illuminate research topics such as\u00a0computational complexity and graph theory optimization problems.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And rather than having doctoral candidates draw various shapes to work out a problem, he offers objects that elucidate the curves, convex, and smooth properties of shapes in a way that he believes will help enhance the students\u2019 work designing algorithms.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, 3D visualizations play a central role in the way Grimmer optimizes the classroom rubric. He is willing to grade students with any weighting of their homework, midterm, and final scores, satisfying certain mathematical rules. Various rubrics exist that satisfy these rules and each one corresponds to one point inside the\u00a0\u201cGrading Polyhedron\u201d 3D printed shape. Grimmer views them as dimensions (height, width, depth), and selects the best rubric for each student. In turn, this ends up being the class’s first optimization problem to solve. (see below)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Grading Polyhedron<\/p><\/div>\n

The optimization task is figuring out which of these infinite options gives a student the highest overall score, which depends on how the individual student did on homework, midterms, and the final.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grimmer has found other effective uses of 3D printing within his role as organizer of the AMS Department Seminar. Each week’s invited speaker is announced by a 3D printed \u201cposter.\u201d Careful variations in the thickness of the 3D-printed plastic give the poster depth and color as light passes through, resulting in photo-realistic images. After their seminar, the speaker is given the poster as a plaque, thanking them for their visit.<\/span>\u00a0(see below)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

3-dimensional printed poster<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-43450","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-department-news","news_categories-student-experience"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAssistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations | Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations | Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Benjamin Grimmer\u2019s research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for optimization problems \u2014 an area that can seem quite abstract to many. But the assistant professor has found…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-06T19:20:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Ben-Grimmer-Grading-209x300.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Assistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations | Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Assistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations | Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics","og_description":"Benjamin Grimmer\u2019s research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for optimization problems \u2014 an area that can seem quite abstract to many. But the assistant professor has found…","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/","og_site_name":"Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics","article_modified_time":"2022-10-06T19:20:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Ben-Grimmer-Grading-209x300.jpeg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/","name":"Assistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations | Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Ben-Grimmer-Grading-209x300.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-10-05T22:10:03+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-06T19:20:54+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Ben-Grimmer-Grading.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Ben-Grimmer-Grading.jpeg","width":1731,"height":2485},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/assistant-professor-cultivates-classroom-engagement-with-3d-visualizations\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Assistant professor cultivates classroom engagement with 3D visualizations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/","name":"Hopkins Applied Math & Statistics","description":"Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/ams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}