I often find that I have difficulty saying what exactly it is that I do.

Although I am trained as a mathematician - I have a PhD in Math from Cambridge - what I do in reality is much more interdisciplinary. In my work life, I design and code computer algorithms for solving a range of problems, varying from image processing to seismic wave simulation to methane leak detection. I don't think that there is any neat label for this kind of work - in the period from 2010-2015, I found that I was usually given the work title "research engineer", a term that I think my then boss made up. These days, the buzzword seems to be "data scientist".

For my personal projects I'm mainly interested in mathematics as an art form. My objective is to take abstract ideas and to make them tangible; my three main mediums for doing so are 3D prints, glass etchings, and most recently digital holograms. More often then not, I don't know when I start a project what the object I'm trying to visualize looks like, and in that sense I view mathematical art less as a process of creation and more as one of discovery.

Just to drive that last point home, here's an example of one of my (currently unpublished) pieces - it's a 3D cross-section of 5D Menger sponge. Did I design it to look that way? No. Do I have any idea why it looks the way that it does? Well, I've managed to figure out why it has the rotational symmetries that it does, but that's as far as I've gotten.

Some of my better work has been presented at - and published in the proceeding of - Bridges, a mathematical art conference that I attend every summer.

Contact: rob.l.hocking@gmail.com