Dear Reader,

I hope you are doing okay. I wanted to reflect about a recent journey I have started with designing of complex lattice structures. I will also bring back some of the features of my newsletters.

Lets go!

Technical Reflections

Challenge of designing Complex Lattice structures

I have always enjoyed creating unit cells and representative volume elements of lattice structures. Most of the structures I have designed and published video about on the CM Videos YouTube Channel, have been about truss-based lattices. I never ventured into some really challenging lattice structures such as: hexagonal, auxetic and re-entrant lattice structures.

So, when I got a comment from my YouTube channel which requested I make a video about cellular hexagonal lattice structures, I decided to explore this. I had tried in the past to model hexagonal lattice structures but I realized right away how challenging that was. So, I decided that sometime in future I would make videos about this sort of lattice structure.

I also recently reviewed a journal paper for Composite Part B where the authors were working on a re-entrant lattice structure. They used an interesting approach where they created the sketch of the structure and expanded it into a 2D truss-sized structure before finally extruding it to get a complex 3D re-entrant lattice structure. Reviewing that paper following that journal review, the paper painted a picture in my mind of how I could go about creating complex lattice structures.

So, I took all that into creating a cellular hexagonal lattice structures. It was a really good experience and if you are interested, then here is the video I made from that experience which is now published on the channel and helping my audience.

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Challenges: To be able to develop lattice structures like the above, here are things you need to consider:

1. Decide on what the smallest unit cell of the lattice structure that you want to work with. This is often not always what you think. For example, for the hexagonal lattice structure, it is not a simple hexagon but rather a half of the hexagonal structure.
2. Identify how to replicate the unit cells which can be either horizontal or vertical or a combination of both. This will be based on identify lines of symmetry in the structure that will form how you replicate the structures.
3. Work off construction lines is really important because the construction lines will help you position the cells appropriately.
4. Extrusion is preferred as you can create easily a 3D model of the lattice structures. This will mean you spend quite a lot of time sketching out the 2D representative of the virtual domain which once it is complete, you then extrude to create the 3D structure.
5. Re-entrant and auxetic lattices with curvatures can be really difficult to create because it becomes difficult to harness the power of symmetries which you could get with regular linear section lattices.

In future, I hope to continue my exploration into creating easy to follow video tutorials that can help my audience understand how to develop these complex lattice structures. Please let me know your thoughts on this or any suggestion you have for me in this regard.

Behind the Scenes at CM Videos

YouTube Milestones and the transformation through YouTube

A lot has been happening behind the scenes at CM Videos with progress being made constantly on the channel growth. Here are some of them:

• I recently passed 375,000 total views on the channel, which is insane considering how specialist the topics we cover on this channel.
• I also exceeded 5500 subscribers which in itself is mind boggling. I remember when I started and used to see how impossible it is to reach 1000 subscribers. Now, I am beyond 5000 and steading heading towards 10k. Thanks for your support.
• Viewers on the channel can see the view count and subscriber count but one thing you do not see, which is only visible to the channel hosts analytics is the total number of hours watched. This channel has achieved over 22,000 hours watched which is over 1.3 million minutes that viewers actually stayed on the channel to watch my content. This speaks to a great interest in the audience in following my video and this number is consistently high every month. Thank you.
• To be able to arrive here, I have published now 181 videos which is quite amazing, I would say so. These videos have been filmed, edited, published and post-analysed by myself. I have been able to do so with a very busy academic life as a university professor with a young family and busy life as a christian leader in my local church.

As I review all these, it gives me great joy to know beyond these numbers the impact the channel is having on others. Regularly, I hear feedback on how the channel is influencing many.

I recently read a journal paper in which one of the authors is a subscriber of mine, who we have been in touch with. The content of the paper were based on ideas I share on this channel. Students have been able to complete their PhDs based on insights on the channel. A PhD student from Ireland once emailed me stating how videos I made on stents have helped them enormously. All these are things you do not see when you come to the channel but do impact me immensely and give me great fire to continue pushing ahead.

Quote for the Week

Identity and Habits and James Clear

If you have been reading this newsletter for a while, you would realize that I am a big fan of James Clear's book - Atomic Habit. I am taking a quote for this week from that book:

James Clear’s quote profoundly resonates with my journey as a YouTube host, computational modeller, and university academic. In the context of the above discussion on transformative impact of publishing YouTube videos, the habits I choose to develop are those that drive such outputs even with a very busy schedule.

As a YouTube host, my identity has been shaped by the consistent creation and sharing of valuable content, learning from feedback, and engaging with my audience. These habits have established my belief in my ability to impact and educate. I feel my teaching and engagement skills when I teach students and talk at conferences, because I have learnt how to engage audiences on YouTube.

In computational modelling, my expertise and problem-solving skills have developed through persistent practice, analysis, and the habit of approaching challenges with a meticulous mindset. Each project reinforces my identity as a reliable and innovative modeller. In fact, I spend a lot of times researching topics I publish on my channel. These research is really crucial if you want your content to be impactful beyond what every Tom, Dick and Harry is publishing on YouTube under ABAQUS tutorials. I have had several persons contact me to say they are attracted to my content mainly because of the fact they feel they learn the mechanics behind the videos and not just clicking and following ABAQUS tutorials.

As an Associate Professor, my effectiveness in teaching and research is cultivated through daily preparation, staying current with research, and mentoring students. These habits affirm my academic capabilities and commitment to excellence.

These roles intersect and enrich one another, with skills from each area enhancing the others. Clear’s philosophy reminds us that our identity is dynamic, shaped by our habits and experiences. By cultivating positive habits, we continually shape our beliefs and identities, allowing for growth and evolution in our professional and personal lives.

For you, I believe you can also identify what you want to become: what you want to be known for, and start identifying the habits that will allow you get there. Your current identity and the identity of who you become in future truly stems from the habits you create and engage in right now.