Harry Mairson
Brandeis University, MA·Computer Science
Renaissance makers designed violins and other stringed instruments with a straightedge and compass, using geometric construction rather than measurements. Can that design logic be captured in a programming language?
- Fields
Computer Science
Education Research
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
domain-specific language
functional programming
programming languages
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Develop a domain-specific functional programming language based on straightedge-and-compass constructions, a programmable synthetic geometry that describes shapes largely without numbers.
- Build compilers that turn Renaissance-style geometric designs into guidance for constructing classical stringed instruments, including CNC carving of the acoustically important front and back plate arching.
- Use the language to analyze and compare historical instrument designs through geometric proofs and art-historical evidence, building a computational history of instrument design and its material culture.
- Create an educational software tool that teaches pre-college Euclidean geometry through construction and calculation, complementing traditional proof-based teaching.
More about the research
If so, it could help modern makers, historians and math students. This project builds such a language and uses it to connect computer science, instrument making, art history and geometry teaching.
Why it matters
Luthiers, the craftspeople who build stringed instruments, could use these tools to design instruments, compare historical forms and guide CNC carving of acoustically important plate arching. Art historians would gain an analytical way to study how instrument design evolved. Pre-college students could learn Euclidean geometry through hands-on construction instead of only algebraic proof.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Emma Tosch
Northeastern University, MA·Computer Science
Design a domain-specific language for software experiments that enforces experimental-design rules on hypotheses, analyses and treatment assignment, so that experiments are correct by construction.
Minxuan Zhou
Illinois Institute of Technology, IL·Computer Science
Design a domain-specific programming language that makes it easier to write general fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) applications across different algorithmic schemes.
Benjamin Pierce
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Computer Science
Study how professional developers use property-based testing through HCI studies in industry and real-time observation of developers working with PBT tools.
The school
Brandeis University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $107M a year on research, 75 research doctorates a year.
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