CS major Matt Flatau and Dr. Barbara Anthony traveled to the 19th International Meshing Roundtable in Chattanooga TN in October 2010 where Matt presented some of their ongoing work, begun as a Faculty-Student Research Project in Summer 2010. They worked together for eight weeks during the summer developing a code for meshing smooth curves in two dimensions, and will continue the work  as an Honors Project/Capstone.

Title: Implementing Ruppert’s Algorithm for Generic Curves in 2D

Abstract: Mesh generation involves dividing a generic domain (a shape) into many simpler regions (here, triangles). The two competing goals of mesh generation are to produce a mesh with: (1) well-shaped triangles and (2) as few triangles as possible. Ruppert’s algorithm is widely used and guaranteed to accomplish both goals for inputs whose boundaries are straight lines. Naturally many shapes people would like to mesh have boundaries with curved portions that cannot be well-approximated by straight lines. We create a software package that
handles a variety of smooth curved inputs in 2D (including circles, arcs, and Bezier curves), deviating from Ruppert’s algorithm only when necessary.

In addition, CS major Yvette Niyomugaba received a scholarship to attend the 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Atlanta, September/October 2010.