With less chalkboards and more online instruction, making visual representations of mathematics is becoming more difficult. Thankfully, researchers at Carnegie Mellon have created the perfect solution. Using the tool titled Penrose, anyone can now translate the abstractions of mathematics into beautiful and instructive illustrations. Unlike a graphing calculator, these expressions aren’t limited to basic functions, but can be complex relationships from any area of mathematics.
An interdisciplinary team developed Penrose. The team included Katherine Ye and Keenan Crane from CMU, Department of Computer Science and Robotics, Nimo Ni, Jenna Wise, Joshua Sunshine, and Jonathan Aldrich; from CMU’s Institute for Software Research (ISR); undergraduate Max Krieger from cognitive science department; and Dor Ma’ayan, a former master’s student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
In Dr. Krane’s words “Our vision is to be able to dust off an old math textbook from the library, drop it into the computer and get a beautifully illustrated book — that way more people understand,” Crane said, noting that Penrose is a first step toward this goal.
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