Dr. Oskar Elek is a computational scientist and adjunct lecturer at University of California in Santa Cruz, departments of Computer Science and Computational Media. His expertise includes computer graphics, data visualization, numerical simulation and computational art. His work draws inspiration from the complexity of nature and fractal geometry.

Oskar’s main project is PolyPhy, an open source Python-centric interdisciplinary software that builds on an earlier prototype Polyphorm. This work demonstrates that a multi-agent algorithm inspired by Physarum polycephalum “slime mold” can be used to reconstruct the intergalactic network of gas and dark matter known as the Cosmic web. The same algorithm can be used to reconstruct network structures in various kinds of data and even perform geometric and structural modeling.

You can find all about this work on Oskar’s personal website, and contact him directly if you’d like to get involved in any capacity.