Minimal Surfaces and Discrete Differential Geometry

This lecture covers the concepts of minimal surfaces and discrete differential geometry, exploring topics such as curvature, mean curvature, Gaussian curvature, Laplace-Beltrami operator, and Laplace smoothing. The instructor discusses the challenges of modeling curves and surfaces, designing gridshell layouts, and optimizing minimal surfaces. Various numerical solutions and linear system solvers are demonstrated, along with diffusion flow and Laplacian smoothing techniques. The lecture also delves into membrane surfaces, Laplacian smoothing, time integration methods, and literature references for further study.