Direct For Computer & Information Science & Engineering, Numerical, Symbol & Geometric Computation
Principal Investigator: Jack Snoeyink
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Agency Number: CCR-9988742
Abstract
Applications that perform geometric computation--Geographic Information Systems (GISs), computer graphics, solid modeling, and scientific computation, to name just a few--are proliferating. Often they are doing so on geometrically-impoverished data structures. This research into computational geometry seeks to answer the question, "How can the explicit representation of geometric structure enrich the set of operations in spatial data handling?"
The proposed research has three targets:
- Geometric algorithms and data structures in Geographic Information Systems, with focus on robust algorithms for GIS operations, visualization and analysis of dynamic data, and geometric partitioning and optimization
- Topological approaches in protein crystallography and molecular modeling, with a focus on flexible contouring of 3D density data, and representations of surface models, and
- Problems of combinatorial geometry and algorithms that arise when considering these applications.
This research not only addresses fundamental questions in silence, it also has a practical importance through its relationship with the industries in these application areas and the training of students.