Mathematical descriptions of finite rotations have a long history dating to the great work by Leonhard Euler in the mid 1750s. These descriptions find applications in many areas ranging from  navigation systems to prosthetic orthopaedic devices and planetary motions. They are also the source of many illuminating historical anecdotes. In this talk, Professor O'Reilly will explore several such stories some of which feature well-known mathematicans such as Gauss and Hamilton, and illuminate them with some recently developed toys such as the Hoberman sphere, the Dynabee and Euler's disk.

Oliver M. O'Reilly is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and a SFI Walton Visiting Researcher in the Department of Applied Mathematics at UCC. He received his BE in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Ireland in Galway in 1985, and MS and PhD degrees from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Prior to his appointment as a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, he was a postdoctoral assistant at ETH-Zürich in Switzerland from 1990-1992.  

Professor O'Reilly's research interests lie in continuum mechanics and nonlinear dynamics; specifically the dynamics of rigid bodies and particles, Cosserat and directed  continua, dynamics of rod, spinal kinetics, history of mechanics, and vehicle dynamics. O'Reilly is the  author of over 50 archival publications, the text book "Engineering Dynamics: A Primer," (Springer-Verlag, 2001), and a forthcoming text book "Intermediate Engineering Dynamics: A Unified Treatment of Newton-Euler and Lagrangian Mechanics" (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He is also the recipient of the University of California at Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award and three departmental teaching awards.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday, July 16th in the Cavanagh Pharmacy Building, Room LG52 at 8pm.  All are welcome.


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