Computer Science Department News

There will be a Colloquium on April 1, 2011 at 11:00 AM by Andrey Chernikov.

Title: Real-Time Biomedical and Material Image-to-Mesh Conversion: Requirements and Progress.
Location: E&CS Building First Floor Auditorium
Student: Andrey Chernikov

Abstract:
The modeling of physical phenomena in biomedical and material image analysis is based on solving systems of partial differential equations (PDEs). When PDEs are defined over geometrically complex domains, they often do not admit closed form solutions. In these cases, the PDEs are solved approximately using discretizations of domains into simple elements like triangles in two dimensions, and tetrahedra in three dimensions. These discretizations are called finite element meshes.

In this talk I will describe a number of key requirements imposed on image-to-mesh conversion by real-time medical applications. Many applications, for example real-time computer assisted surgery, or medical surgery simulators impose time and/or mesh size constraints that cannot be met on a single sequential machine. As a result, the development of parallel mesh generation algorithms is required. In addition, problems such as shape, size, and location of mesh elements impose additional and often conflicting constraints. Being able to guarantee these properties of the resulting meshes is critical for the robustness and usability of the software, and the problem is exacerbated when parallel machines are used. I will describe the recent progress in addressing these requirements using a combination of the novel parallel generalized Delaunay refinement approach and its exploitation on multiple levels of concurrency. I will also briefly describe the current and emerging multi-area collaborations in which our group is involved, and will welcome comments and suggestions.