# Key Technical Discussions from #hplusroadmap

• Participants explored advanced shape analysis techniques including Gaussian curvature, geodesic distances, and Reeb graphs, with particular focus on defining regions based on geodesic distances from curvature extrema points.

• The group discussed exoskeleton technology in detail, including Lockheed Martin's design and the Berkeley exoskeleton's power requirements (250W average), along with potential battery solutions such as virus-assembled electrodes for high-power lithium-ion batteries.

• A significant debate occurred about DIYbio versus institutional synthetic biology (iGEM), examining whether small teams can achieve meaningful results without institutional backing, with examples of notable iGEM projects including engineered lactobacillus and biofabrication platforms.

• Participants advocated for community science labs and "fablabs," debating centralized versus distributed models and arguing for neighborhood-level community spaces rather than individual basement labs or heavily-funded institutional approaches.

• Kanzure shared computational work involving a thousand-by-thousand matrix of distances between designs, using euclidean norms of component matrices to measure differences and identify divergent configurations.

• The group discussed evolutionary design of LEGO structures using assembly representations and shape grammars, though noting limitations to only three types of LEGO pieces.

• Several technical resources were shared, including geodesic mesh tools and papers on shape analysis, with specific applications for analyzing part connections using Reeb graphs and geometric compatibility analysis.