Computational Geometry

Catalog description

Computational Geometry is the study of algorithms for geometric problems. Since the computer does not "see" geometry, but works only with numbers, problems that "look" easy might be more difficult to solve by programs. Samples of the problems we will consider are point location on geometric maps and subdivisions; nearest neighbor search; ray shooting and intersection search; the reconstruction of geometric shapes from clouds of sample points; the creation of meshes for surfaces and volumes; Path Planning and Guard Placement. The Class will require four implementation projects in C/C++; these are major projects of typically around 500 lines of code, so competence in programming is essential.