CGL Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, April 15, 1998

Location:
DC 1304
Time:
1:30
Chair:
Eric Hall

1. Adoption of the Agenda - additions or deletions

2. Coffee Hour

Coffee hour this week:
Eric Hall
Coffee hour next week:
Blair Conrad

3. Next meeting

Date:
Wednesday, April 22, 1998
Location:
DC 1304
Time:
1:30
Chair:
Kirk Haller
Technical presentation:
Itai Danan

4. Forthcoming

Chairs:
  1. Rob Kroeger (April 29nd)
  2. Celine Latulipe (May 6th)
  3. Nathan Litke (May 13th)
Tech Presenters:
  1. Glen Evans (April 29nd)
  2. Patrick Gilhuly (May 6th)
  3. Eric Hall (May 13th)

5. Technical Presentations

Presenter:
Ed Dengler
Title: The Selfish Gene
 
Abstract:
A talk about genetic algorithms.

6. General Discussion Items

7. Action List

8. Director's Meeting

9. Seminars

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES

SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION SEMINAR

            Tuesday, April 21, 1998

Fue-Sang Lien, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Waterloo will speak on "High Performance
Computing of Turbulent Flows".

TIME:   1:30 pm

ROOM:   DC 1304 

ABSTRACT:

The quest for unlimited geometric flexibility as a
prerequite to the integration of CFD into design cycle for
real engineering components has led, over the past few
years, to the development of flexible three-dimensional
multi-block scheme for complex turbulent flows.  Although
there are three distinctly different computational routes by
which turbulence and its effects can be resolved: Direct
Numerical Simulation (DNS), Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and
Turbulence Modelling, the consensus view is that modelling
most engineering turbulent flows will continue to be based,
well into the 21st century, on the solution of the
Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations.

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES

SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION SEMINAR

            Wednesday, April 22, 1998

Michael A. Saunders of the Systems Optimization Laboratory,
Department of Engineering Economic Systems and Operations
Research, Stanford University, will speak on "Optimization
at SOL: Algorithms and Applications".

TIME:   10:30 am

ROOM:   DC 1304 

ABSTRACT:

The Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) was formed by
George Dantzig and Richard Cottle 24 years ago.  The aim is
to foster research on constrained optimization (linear and
nonlinear programming).  The emphasis is on "computational
methods" and "large-scale systems".

We review the main algorithms and several applications, such
as design of the America's Cup yachts and trajectory
optimization for aircraft and spacecraft.  We also mention
some of the entertaining aspects of software development.

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES


Computer Science Seminar


               - Monday, April 27, 1998


Dr.  Marek  Teichmann, MIT Computer Graphics Group will
speak on "Creating and Animating Polygonal Models''

ROOM:          Davis Centre Room DC1304

TIME:          10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

ABSTRACT

Creating  articulated geometric models is a common task
in   animation  systems.   With  the  advent  of  laser
scanners,  it  is  now  practical  to  obtain polygonal
models  of  actual  objects.   I  will  describe  a new
algorithm  for  the  reconstruction of polygonal meshes
from point sets with normal information at each point.

Then, starting from a 3D polygonal mesh representing an
object  to  be animated, a common, but tedious approach
is  to  manually  design a skeleton, and the binding to
couple model motions to those of the skeleton.

I  will also present a simple method for automating the
above tasks.  Given a 3D polygonal mesh representing an
object,  an  approximation to the mesh's medial axis is
efficiently  computed using a 3D Voronoi diagram of the
mesh  vertices, and connectivity information within the
mesh.   Selected  nodes of the resulting tree structure
are  then interpreted as joints of an I-K skeleton, and
the  chains  connecting  them  as  its links.  A spring
network  is  then generated to bind the I-K skeleton to
the  object  boundary,  so  that  skeletal motions will
affect  the  boundary in a reasonable way, as specified
by the animator.

10. Lab Cleanup