Project Introduction and Preparing for the Coding Period

Project Introduction

As part of Google Summer of Code 2025, I’ll be working with the SymPy organization on the project: “Classical Mechanics: Implement Wrapping Geometry and Pathways for Musculoskeletal Modeling”. Here is My GSoC Project Page

The goal of this project is to enhance SymPy’s symbolic mechanics capabilities by introducing wrapping geometries that allow modeling of how forces wrap around anatomical surfaces—crucial for realistic musculoskeletal simulations.

This work involves computing symbolic geodesics (shortest paths) and geodesic tangent vectors (force directions) on several 3D surfaces.

Key Definitions

• wrapping geometry A surface (like a cone, ellipsoid, or torus) that a force-carrying structure wraps around, affecting the force direction and length.

• geodesic The shortest path between two points on a surface. On a curved surface, it bends while remaining on the surface to minimize distance.

The project will introduce the following classes to sympy.mechanics:

• WrappingCone – models a right circular cone
• WrappingEllipsoid – models a spheroidal shape
• WrappingToroid – models a torus

Each class will support symbolic computation of geodesic lengths and endpoint tangent vectors.

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Preparing for the Coding Period

During the community bonding period, I had my first meeting with my mentor Hwayeon Kang. We:

• Reviewed the project timeline and development milestones
• Finalized a weekly meeting schedule
• Decided to begin with Phase 1: Conical Wrapping Geometry

We’ll start by implementing the WrappingCone class. Since cones are developable surfaces, they can be unfolded into a 2D sector—making it possible to derive exact symbolic expressions for geodesics and their tangent directions.

Initial work will focus on:

• Implementing point_on_surface, geodesic_length, and geodesic_end_vectors methods
• Writing tests and documentation
• Adding an example

Looking forward to diving deeper into the implementation and sharing progress, holdups and learnings as the project develops!