Cameron Chalk
ctchalk2 ατ gmail.com / ctchalk ατ utexas.edu

I received my B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science at The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley (formerly known as The University of Texas Pan-American) under the advisement of Robert Schweller.

Research

The majority of my research has been in algorithmic self-assembly, primarily studying abstract models of systems such as self-assembling DNA tiles to find out all the cool stuff they are capable of, such as computation and efficient nanoscale shape building.

I've had the pleasure of co-authoring with: Keenan Breik, Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine, David Doty, Dominic Fernandez, Bin Fu, David Haley, Jacob Hendricks, Alejandro Huerta, Niels Kornerup, Mario Maldonado, Eric Martinez, Matthew J. Patitz, Wyatt Reeves, Robert Schweller, Michael Sharp, David Soloveichik, Leslie Sweet, Luis Vega, Andrew Winslow, and Tim Wylie. 

I've had the pleasure of reviewing submissions for the following conferences: DNA 22, DNA23, and UCNC 2016.

Publications

Self Assembly of Any Shape with Constant Tile Types using High Temperature
with Austin Luchsinger, Robert Schweller, Tim Wylie
  • Proceedings of the 26th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2018) Helsinki, Finland, August 20-22, 2018
Freezing Simulates Non-freezing Tile Automata
with Austin Luchsinger, Eric Martinez, Robert Schweller, Andrew Winslow, Tim Wylie
  • Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA24), Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China, October 8-12, 2018
Programming Substrate-Independent Kinetic Barriers with Thermodynamic Binding Networks
with Keenan Breik, David Doty, David Haley, David Soloveichik
  • Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB 2018) Brno, Czech Republic, September 12-14, 2018
with Niels Kornerup, Wyatt Reeves, David Soloveichik
  • Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB 2018) Brno, Czech Republic, September 12-14, 2018
with Jacob Hendricks, Matthew J. Patitz, Michael Sharp
  • Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC 2018) Fontainebleau, France, June 25-29, 2018
Optimal Staged Self-Assembly of Linear Assemblies
with Eric Martinez, Robert Schweller, Luis Vega, Andrew Winslow, Tim Wylie
  • Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC 2018) Fontainebleau, France, June 25-29, 2018
Universal Shape Replicators via Self-Assembly with Attractive and Repulsive Forces
with Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Eric Martinez, Robert Schweller, Luis Vega, Tim Wylie
  • Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA 2017) Barcelona, Spain, January 16-19, 2017
Optimal Staged Self-Assembly of General Shapes
with Eric Martinez, Robert Schweller, Luis Vega, Andrew Winslow, Tim Wylie
  • Proceedings of the 24th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2016) Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, August 22-26, 2016
  • Slides of talk given at ESA 2016
  • Algorithmica, Volume 80, Issue 4, 2018, pp 1383-1409
Concentration Independent Random Number Generation in Tile Self-Assembly
with Bin Fu, Eric Martinez, Robert T. Schweller, Tim Wylie
Flipping Tiles: Concentration Independent Coin Flips in Tile Self-Assembly
with Bin Fu, Alejandro Huerta, Mario A. Maldonado, Eric Martinez, Robert T. Schweller, Tim Wylie
  • Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA21), Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, August 17-21, 2015
  • Slides of talk given at DNA21
Strict Self-Assembly of Fractals using Multiple Hands
with Dominic A. Fernandez, Alejandro Huerta, Mario A. Maldonado, Robert T. Schweller, Leslie Sweet
  • Algorithmica, Volume 76, Issue 1, September 2016, pp 195-224

Software

VersaTile Self-Assembly Simulator - Download here. A simulator I work on along with Eric Martinez. It's open source. Contributors include Alejandro Huerta, Mario Maldonado, and Dominic Fernandez. It simulates several models of tile self-assembly with some cool features. We've had good experience using this simulator to introduce students to tile self-assembly and to put together our own results.