Rob Welch

KOBRA is a fluctuating Kirchoff elastic rod algorithm for performing dynamical simulations of slender biomolecules, such as alpha-helices and coiled-coils. It can support parameterisations of objects with arbitrary equilibrium shapes and inhomogeneous, anisotropic material parameters, and it can reach second-scale trajectories of quite large systems on modest workstation hardware. It’s written in C++ and is released, for free, under the GPLv3 free software license. So far, KOBRA has been used to build models of Ndc80C, the SMC complex and Myosin-V, and may soon be deployed to study COVID-19 spike proteins. This page will contain links to the KOBRA publication, my PhD thesis, download links and installation instructions.

I had intended to give this presentation over the spring and summer of 2020, but I only got to give it once in person. It’s a quick overview of the KOBRA algorithm and software, with some discussion of Ndc80c and the kinetochore.

Hell Bent is a tale of crime and redemption beyond life and death. This is a feature length screenplay for a supernatural comedy/crime movie. I wrote this in 2016 in a span of around three weeks, as a writing experiment. It is available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Logline: An aging mobster concocts a plan to steal ambrosia from the gods, but ends up fighting to save his soul.

Download Hell Bent

The Sound of Max Everdrive is my third album, a collection of ambient and experimental music written for the apocalypse by myself and M. Richard Talley. You can download it for free.

‘Never Obsolete’, my second album, a compilation of music featuring old synthesizers and samples. From the quiet hiss of the Yamaha CS-80 to the crackle of a 4-channel Amiga module, Never Obsolete is a celebration of the old technology that helped to shape modern music. It’s also pay-what-you-want, open-source, and all of the proceeds go toward charities focused on archiving and preserving digital information and protecting software freedom.

I gave this presentation at the 2017 Visegrad Symposium at Nove Hrady, Czechia, and again in 2018 at the CompBioMed AHM. It’s a quick overview of the FFEA algorithm and software package.

FFEA is a continuum mechanics biophysics simulation package designed for large, complex systems of biomolecules. It had been in use at Leeds for a few years (mostly for simulations of the motor protein Dynein), but now it’s free software that anyone can download. In this article I’ll talk about my work on the software so far and on the FFEA software publication in PLOS CompBio.

Tower of Solomon is a free couch multiplayer tower-climbing game for 2-4 players. Build blocks to climb the tower, and try to outlast the other players. If you die, you turn into a screaming skull, so don’t do that. You can also find the game on my itch.io page.

Tetrahedron Alley is the third level developed for Lawyer Guy: Defender of Justice, an action-platformer set to be released sometime. This article contains talk of level design and pacing, drawing level graphics, porting to Linux, difficulty and game balance, and designing user interfaces.

Fake Christ Teardrop Girl LED Star is my first album, released in mid-2016. It’s inspired by chiptune, demoscene and early synth music. It was written very, very sporadically between 2009 (2 years after I began writing music) and 2016. You can download and listen to it for free!