INFORMATION CSC 547/647: Computational Geometry, Fall 2011 Victor J. Milenkovic COURSE URL: http://www.cs.miami.edu --> follow links to Victor Milenkovic INSTRUCTOR: Professor Victor J. Milenkovic Ungar 433A, 284-4194, vjm@cs.miami.edu SYSADMIN: Irina Kaliman Ungar 427, 284-2272, irina@cs.miami.edu What do I need to do? 1. Buy the textbook: Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications Third Edition (March 2008) Mark de Berg, TU Eindhoven (the Netherlands) Otfried Cheong, KAIST (Korea) Marc van Kreveld, Mark Overmars, Utrecht University (the Netherlands) published by Springer-Verlag 3rd rev. ed. 2008. 386 pages, 370 fig. Hardcover approx. EUR 35,- ISBN: 978-3-540-77973-5 2. Get your course lab account. Your userid should be ``vjmi547'' or ``vjmi647''. Your initial password is vjmi1234, where 1234 are the last four digits of your student ID. 2. Do assigned work: reading, problems, programming. 3. Do you reading before lecture. Attend lecture. Ask questions about what you don't understand. 4. Read email FREQUENTLY. Subscribe to the Blackboard discussion forum. What will I learn? We cannot cover all the chapters in ``CG''. I would like you to implement things as much as possible because you can't implement something unless you really understand it. I would rather you understand something well than cover more. For now, the chapters we will cover are: 1 Computational Geometry 2 Line Segment Intersection 4 Linear Programming 6 Point Location 7 Voronoi Diagrams 9 Delaunay Triangulations 10 More Geometric Data Structures 11 Convex Hulls 12 Binary Space Parititions 13 Robot Motion Planning 15 Visibility Graphs Mainly because these have beem most useful to me! What languages can we use? Java. I suggest you use Eclipse. As part of an NSF project, I have developed a numerical library in Java that should make your life easier. That's the whole point of the project. What is my lab account for? Your lab account is where you back up your work in progress and turn in your final work. At the beginning of class, on the day an assignment is due, I will just take a snapshot of your files. What if I have questions? 0. If you are having a problem with a program, make sure to back it up in your lab account so I can help you debug it. 1. Post your question as a reply to the appropriate thread on Blackboard. I have subscribed to the Blackboard discussion forum so I will receive your question as an email. I urge you to subscribe as well. I am often logged in late at night. You will often be surprised at how quickly you get an answer. 2. Ask at the BEGINNING of lecture. 3. Ask anytime! How will I be graded? 50% assignments (programs, problem sets, and project) 10% quizzes 10% midterm 30% final or final project Students taking CSC 647 or CSC547 plus CSC402 will have a final project and will be given more assignments than students in CSC 547. What about late work and extensions? Nope. We will agree on a due date in class and stick to it. I need to be able to go over the solution on the day the assignment is due. Can we work together? The best way to work together is the discussion forum because everyone can see the conversation. Of course, you won't have access to each others' files like I do, but often you will have an easily described problem that others have already dealt with. Don't share code. Don't email code. Don't post code. Da Rules 1. Do the reading before the lecture. Yes, before. 2. If you have to miss or do miss a lecture or lab, send email with a reasonable explanation to vjm@cs.miami.edu no later than the next day. 3. Read your email. Subscribe to the discussion. 4. Post all non-private questions to the discussion. 5. Never email code. Just put it in your course account. 6. Help each other. Just no copying.