Title:

Real-Time Biomedical and Material Image-to-Mesh Conversion: Requirements 
and Progress

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.

Bio:

Andrey Chernikov graduated with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the
College of William and Mary in 2007 under the guidance of Prof. Nikos
Chrisochoides. His dissertation work "Parallel Generalized Delaunay Mesh
Refinement" was awarded a Distinguished Dissertation Award in the
Natural and Computational Sciences by the Graduate Studies Advisory
Board, College of William and Mary. Prior to his Ph.D. work he obtained
M.S. and B.S. degrees with distinction in Applied Mathematics and
Computer Science from the Kabardino-Balkar State University in Russia.
He was also twice named a Soros Student. After the Ph.D. work he had
been a Visiting Assistant Professor and a Postdoctoral Associate in
Computer Science at William and Mary. From Fall 2010 he has been working
as a Research Assistant Professor in Computer Science at ODU. His
research interests include image analysis in medical and material
modeling and simulation, quality mesh generation, high-performance
scientific computing, and geometry aspects of mobile networks.