CS 498 TC, Fall 2024:
Computational Geometry
Instructor
Timothy Chan
(tmc "at" illinois.edu, office hours: Tuesdays 2-3pm (or by appointment), Siebel 3230)
Meeting Time/Place
Tue & Thu 3:30-4:45pm, Lu MEB 3101
Course Work
- 5 Homeworks
- Midterm (October 7 Monday 7pm-9pm)
- Final Exam
- For grad students taking the 4-credit version, there is also
a presentation of a research paper.
Administrivia
Course Overview
We will study efficient algorithms for a variety of fundamental geometric problems: convex hulls, Voronoi diagrams/Delaunay triangulations, low-dimensional linear programming, line segment intersection, polygon triangulation, geometric
shortest paths, visibility, etc.
Computational geometry has applications to many areas (geometric data are everywhere), although the focus of the course is on theoretical results and techniques (we will encounter lots of cool algorithmic ideas, including divide-and-conquer, prune-and-search, randomization, plane sweep, etc.). A solid background in algorithm design and analysis is assumed (at the level of CS374).
References
There is no required textbook, but you may find the following useful (all accessible online for UIUC students):
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[BCKO] M. de Berg, O. Cheong, M. van Kreveld, and M. Overmars,
Computational
Geometry: Algorithms and Applications (3rd ed.),
Springer-Verlag, 2008
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[PS] F. P. Preparata and M. I. Shamos,
Computational Geometry: An Introduction,
Springer-Verlag, 1985
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[GRT] J. Goodman, J. O'Rourke, and C. D. Toth (eds.),
Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry (3rd ed.),
CRC Press, 2017
Lectures
(Scribbles from class, and links to relevant book chapters or papers, will be provided below.
For registered students, lecture recordings may be accessed
on mediaspace.)