Lucas Vieira - Portfolio

I've been contributing with math\physics illustrations and animations for Wikipedia since 2004, most of them created using a custom-built drawing software or POV-Ray.

Several animations have been selected as Featured Pictures and Image of the Day, images considered by the community as among the best in Wikipedia. Many of these images have become iconic in various circles.

Online course by Prof. James Freericks of Georgetown University, for which I designed and developed many interactive 2D and 3D simulations and tutorials. The course is intented to accurately and formally teach quantum mechanics to non-scientists.

The course has received universal acclaim, many praising the interactive simulations in particular, and was one of the 10 finalists for the 2018 EdX Prize. An article about our work is pending publication in The Physics Teacher journal.

Educational and experimental blog where I wrote about interesting math and physics topics, as well as published works in progress and other of my experiments.

The blog has been featured multiple times in Tumblr's "Radar" highlights, and has over 13000 followers. Due to time and technical constraints there hasn't been posts for a while, but it is not abandoned.

Can we use sound to effectively "plot" mathematical functions for visually-impaired students? This is an experiment\prototype I created for a blind student in our quantum information research group.

Experiments with him were successful, and he was able to identify and even predict the sound of several functions. A future experiment is to use timbre and binaural\3D audio to enhance the experience and perhaps even create 3D plots with multiple audio layers.

A weird strategical action-puzzle game created for the Ludum Dare 49 Game Jam in 72 hours, then expanded post event. Made together with my sister, who was the lead art designer.

I coded the entire game from scratch using JavaScript, based on a custom game engine, and composed all the music. We hope to develop it into a mobile version in the future.

Custom-built tool for visualizing simulated gel networks developed in 2015 for Emanuela Del Gado's research group at Georgetown University. It allows more careful exploration of the rheological and structural properties of simulated gels under shear stresses, and generates publication-quality figures.

The tool was able to reveal the fact that most of the stress is supported by a handful of molecular chains in the gels. Video example included.

The chromatic scale divides notes into 12 pitch classes in multiple octaves. This cyclic but increasing scale naturally fits the geometry of a spiral.

Out of curiosity, I wrote a program to visualize piano MIDI music as a spiral. Interesting patterns emerge for different composers and types of music.

Chiptunes are music generated by audio chips in old computers and video games. These audio chips are limited to simple but captivating waveforms.

I started a series of videos visualizing some of this music, with each channel visualized separately. This series of videos inspired many other YouTube users to create their own series of visualizations in the same style.

Resonance is an universal and fascinating physical phenomenon. Ever since I was a kid I've "played" with resonance of everyday objects. This was the first prototype of a device that automatically detects and reproduces the resonant frequency of surfaces its placed upon.

A custom-made and (as far as I know) novel "Lazy" Discrete Fourier Transform algorithm was developed, capable of running in real time on an Arduino Uno, including real-time spectrum display! Project will continue in the near future.

Software to convert Atari POKEY audio chip instructions into faithful and clean MIDI files. This required a lot of studying of an old Atari computer and audio chip datasheets and many hours of experimentation.

The MIDI files are being used in digital orchestrations of some of my favorite Atari computer music.

(See "Digital Orchestration" project below.)

I created a custom scientific calculator app for my phone, as no existing app had all the features I wanted, and most attempted to simulate traditional physical calculators.

calc supports command-line expressions, custom functions and variables, many physical constants, chemical and astronomic data and arbitrary unit conversions.

A planned future version will include dimensional analysis and symbolic algebraic expressions.

Inspired by the rock hammer from my favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption, I made this necklace as a personal reminder of perseverance, patience and hope.

A legitimate metal and wood miniaturized tool, made with real traditional tool-making techniques and improvised materials and tools.

"Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'" - Andy Dufresne

A tiny, 100% metal sword made as a gift for a dear friend of mine. The sword was created by forging a nail and using copper, tin and steel wires for the other details.

I'm passionate about orchestral music and the variety of sounds and the physics behind musical instruments.

I've been experimenting with digital orchestration remakes of some obscure music I enjoy, as a method to learn more about music theory and orchestration.

When I joined the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in 2012, I quickly got in touch with physics professor Elmo Alves.

I joined him in his ongoing Physics Demonstration Lab project, and offered to create a new, custom-tailored website for organizing and promoting their demonstrations, as well as to help creating new experiments and training new students.

Ongoing\future project for an educational YouTube channel about physics and mathematics, with accessible and technical explanations.

The goal is to explain, without "dumbing down" or frivolous graphics, important subjects such as calculus, linear algebra, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and relativity. Some videos will be accompanied by interactive explorable explanations.