A different kind of rose

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics recently completed a mathematical art project on the second floor of the CASL Building thanks to the generosity of more than 70 alumni, faculty and staff members who contributed to the project.

In the photo above, U-M alumnus Kim Sauve, artist and owner of Quadratic Masonry, installed the Penrose tile project---a 64-square foot mosaic made of 1,400 Pewabic Pottery tiles---opposite the elevators on the second floor of CASL. The project is named after Roger Penrose, who is well known for his 1974 discovery of Penrose tilings, which are formed from two tiles that can only tile the plane nonperiodically, and are the first tilings to exhibit fivefold rotational symmetry.

For more photos of the installation and finished wall are below, courtesy Kim Sauve, quadraticmasonry.com.