Initiative in Innovative Computing @ Harvard

Seminar Series

Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 4:00pm

James Sethian, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of California at Berkeley

Seminar Title: Advances in Advancing Interfaces: Building Semiconductors, Inkjet Plotters, Medical Scanners, and Robotic Devices

Abstract:

Propagating interfaces occur in a wide variety of settings, and include ocean waves, burning flames, and material boundaries. In addition, problems not thought of as moving interface problems often can be recast as advancing fronts, including finding robotic navigation and finding shortest paths on contorted surfaces.

We shall show how to cast these problems as partial differential equations, and provide the fundamental mathematical, geometric and algorithmic ideas behind Fast Marching Methods and Level Set Methods. These methods easily accommodate merging boundaries, three dimensionsonality, and complex dynamics.

Applications will focus on industrial engineering collaborations which have led to robust codes for semiconductor manufacturing, the manufacturing of inkjet plotters for building plasma displays, image segmentation and tracking in cardiac scanners, and robotic navigation around obstacles.

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