The V-Unit is an optional elective unit that students can take for credit at Carnegie Mellon University. The goal of a V-Unit project is to see how computer science and technology can improve society in non-traditional and under-funded areas. GlobalSale is an undertaking implemented as part of the VUnit framework and it tries to show how technology can lead to a more fair-trade global market. O...

Tiling Theory studies how one might cover the plane with various shapes. Medieval Islamic artisans developed intricate geometric tilings to decorate their mosques, mausoleums, and shrines. Some of these patterns, called girih tilings, first appeared in the 12 Century AD. Recent investigations show these medieval tilings contain symmetries similar to those found in aperiodic Penrose tilings firs...

Body, Text, and Stone: The Crafting and Connoisseurship of Inkstones in Eighteenth-Century China Dorothy Ko Barnard College, Columbia University I’m writing a book that traces the movement of one class of object (the inkstone) and two groups of people (artisans 1 and scholars) through four locales (Zhaoqing肇慶, on the southern edge of the empire; Fuzhou, on the southeastern seaboard; Suzhou, at ...

Coronavirus detrimentally impacted textile craft production and the income of indigenous artisans, including those working in Lake Atitlán area. The article focuses on how five enterprises diversified their entrepreneurial practices actioned strategies to support communities during crisis. Interviews with host companies based Guatemala, US UK were conducted inform case studies documenting artis...