Undergraduate Seminar: "L-Systems, Turtles, and Fractals"

Abstract: This talk will provide a brief overview and summary of key ideas from Prusinkiewicz and Lindenmayer's The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants (1990). Starting from the idea of String Rewriting Systems (an alternate model of computation largely overshadowed by lambda calculus and Turing machines), we define an SRS which produces coded instructions for producing Turtle Graphics. Various fractal systems like the Sierpinski Gasket and Koch curve can be modeled, as well as more elaborate naturalistic forms such as fern leaves and tree branches.

Host: Adeli Hutton