Link to Talk Video: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_h5jluq3l
Abstract: My research is in digital fabrication, a subfield of human-computer interaction (HCI). In my PhD work, I have been focusing on a specific fabrication technology, i.e., software systems for laser
cutting. My high-level goal is to make laser cutting relevant to millions of users, instead of to the
thousands of tech enthusiasts who currently use this technology. My specific objective is to
create a technological basis that allows designers and engineers of laser cut 3D models to build
on each other’s work, as I see this as being instrumental in allowing this nascent field to increase
in model complexity and adoption—a progression that is currently held back by the use of
exchange formats that disregard mechanical differences between machines and therefore
overlook implications with respect to how well parts mechanically fit together (aka engineering
fit). In this talk, I thus explore better ways for representing models.
I started my PhD work by preserving the 2D format currently in use, by writing software tools
that replace machine-specific features (press-fit and loose-fit) with more forgiving mechanical
elements, i.e., specific types of springs (full paper ACM UIST’19) and a novel type of bearing
I engineered (full paper ACM UIST’20). While these allow users to reproduce 3D models across
machines, the field needs access to parametric modifications in 3D to build on work of others. I
created elements of a software system that allows modeling laser-cut models in 3D (full paper
CHI’19). Users export the 3D models to their specific machine, which solves the portability
question. It does raise a question of what to do with the vast amount of existing 2D cutting plans.
To handle this legacy, I have written a series of software tools that allow users to convert existing
2D cutting plans into 3D models, by reconstructing the 3D nature of the model using a set of
interactive manual tools (full paper CHI’20), I then progressed to an automatic approach based
on efficient graph algorithms (full paper UIST’21)
I have integrated these tools into the above-mentioned system (kyub, 140,000 lines of code). To
test each of my technologies with hundreds of models from this model repository, and by running
workshops with school classes to see that my software lets users progress to more complex
models such as furniture and guitars. This system integration also allows me to push forward to
actual use. I believe that by simplifying sharing and re-use and the resulting increase in model
complexity, this line of work and the resulting system will ultimately help personal fabrication
scale past the maker phenomenon it currently is and towards a mainstream phenomenon—the
same way that other fields, such as print (postscript) and ultimately computing itself (portable
programming languages, etc.) reached mass adoption.
Bio: Thijs Roumen is a PhD candidate in Human Computer Interaction in the lab of Patrick Baudisch,
Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. He received his MSc from the University of
Southern Denmark, Sønderborg in 2013 and BSc from the Technical University of Eindhoven,
Netherlands in 2011. Between the PhD and master he worked at the National University of
Singapore as a Research Assistant with Shengdong Zhao. His research interests are in personal
fabrication, digital collaboration and enabling increased complexity for laser cutting. His papers
are published as full papers in top-tier ACM conferences CHI and UIST. He serves on several
ACM program committees including ACM UIST and CSCW.
Password: csillinois
