The beauty of our universe is that it can be described by elegant mathematical formulas and patterns. That beauty, it seems, extends to stir-fried rice. David Hu and his team tracked the movements of the chef when stirring the rice. They called these oscillations. Based on those oscillations, they created a mathematical model that would, theoretically, make the perfect stir-fried rice. And a robot chef to program it into may not be far away. Now, who's hungry?

Hu is an associate professor in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and of Biological Sciences and an adjunct associate professor in the School of Physics.