Speaker: Professor Matthew Patitz, Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, University of Arkansas, USA.
Title: "Shaping Self-Assembly: How Tile Shapes Effect Powers of Self-Assembling Systems".
Abstract: Mathematical models of tile-based self-assembly capture dynamics of self-assembling systems while abstracting away many of the complexities of physical systems. Perhaps the simplest, Winfree's abstract Tile Assembly Model (aTAM), is based upon unit square tiles that attach to assemblies one-at-a-time in fixed orientations. Self-assembling systems in nature, especially those using biological molecules, however, leverage much greater complexities of component shapes and orientations. In this talk, I will first introduce the aTAM and explain different notions of computational, dynamical, and geometric simulations between systems. I will then survey theoretical results showing how changes to tile shapes can impact the simulation powers of self-assembling systems, and finally show how allowing complex geometry plus rotational freedom of tiles can allow for any aTAM system to be simulated by a single many-sided and rotatable tile type.