Bailey Fernandez
Hello! I am a PhD Student in the Design Computation group, which I joined in the Fall of 2024. My interdisciplinary research works on the borders of design computation, theoretical cognitive science, theoretical computer science, and analytic philosophy. Most of my research is motivated by efforts across these disciplines to capture the strange and recalcitrant behavior of creativity, design, and aesthetics using formal methods. I maintain auxiliary interests in generative art, formal logic, the literature in psychology on creativity, the history of design and computation, and the analytic philosophical tradition. I work under the supervision of George Stiny.
Currently, my doctoral research is converging on capturing time within the shape grammars formalism. Shape grammars are a theoretical model of computation which is distinguished by the characteristics of its transition function. Through application of a subshape recognition and replacement mechanism, the formalism effectively models the flexibility that representations have in the design context. There is currently no way to handle temporally extended designs such as animations within the formalism, as aims to incorporate time into the formalism thus far have focused mainly on capturing making time in a related formalism called making grammars. I am currently working on an alternate approach which incorporates temporality directly as an extension of its algebraic portion.
In addition to my academic work, I am a project manager with extensive international experience. I have organized conferences and symposia within my areas of academic interest at the University of Southern Denmark, Univeristy of Salzburg, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, and the University of Vienna. I am a passionate Fulbright student alumnus and supporter of international research exchange, especially betwen the United States and Austria. From 2023-24, I was award the Fulbright FOLD Alumni Symposium Grant by Fulbright Austria, along with additional funding from Fulbright Bulgaria and Central European University, to develop and coordinate a symposium and knowledge exchange between American, Austrian, and Bulgarian NGOs working in disability activism and assistive technology. I currently sit on the Alumni Advisory Panel to the Board of Fulbright Austria.
