Wolfram Computation Meets Knowledge

Wolfram Summer School

Alumni

Minjie Lei

Science and Technology

Class of 2016

Bio

I was born in China, and have attended high school in the US since I was 16. This year I graduated from Gould Academy in Maine, and have decided to go to the University of Michigan, where I plan to major in physics. My main interests are theoretical particle physics and computer science. Mathematica has provided me the perfect tool to bridge my two areas of interest. Therefore, I decided to join the Wolfram Summer School to improve my Wolfram Language skills and learn more in depth about its applications in the two areas.

Project: Classifying the Long-Term Behavior of the Code 1599 Totalistic Cellular Automaton

The long-term behavior of the code 1599 three-color totalistic cellular automaton has been an open problem. Some initial conditions produce simple patterns, but a small change in initial conditions can result in very interesting patterns that evolve for many steps before they turn into simple repetitive patterns. Stephen Wolfram, in his book A New Kind of Science, uses the rule to illustrate his idea of computational irreducibility. Here we try to study the long-term evolution of this rule and categorize its behavior under different initial conditions by applying methods like Classify and neural networks.

References

[1] S. Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, Champaign: Wolfram Media, 2002.

[2] T. Krause, “Insights into a Cellular Automata Model of Abstract Painting,” Journal of Cellular Automata, 2.2, 2006) pp. 165–182.

Favorite 3-Color 2D Totalistic Cellular Automaton

Rule 32319980