CGAL: The Computational Geometry Algorithms Library

Saturday, 19 December | 5:30 AM - 9:15 AM | Room 513

The CGAL C++ library offers geometric data structures and algorithms that are reliable, efficient, easy to use, and easy to integrate in existing software. Use of de facto standard libraries like CGAL increases productivity, because they allow software developers to focus on the application layer.

This course is an overview of CGAL geometric algorithms and data structures. The lectures cover:

• CGAL for 2D vector graphics, including Boolean operations on Bézier curves, offsets, simplification, and geometry on the sphere.

• CGAL for 3D point sets, including principal component analysis, bounding volumes, simplification, outlier removal, normal estimation, normal orientation, denoising, triangulation, and surface reconstruction.

• CGAL for mesh-based modeling and processing, including Boolean operations, convex decomposition, simplification, and parameterization.

• CGAL for mesh generation, including surface and volume mesh generation, from 3D images, implicit functions, or polyhedral surfaces. 

The introductory lecture covers non-geometric topics: the exact geometric computing paradigm that makes CGAL reliable without sacrificing efficiency and the generic programming paradigm that facilitates integration into existing software.

Level

Intermediate

Presentation Language

Presented in English

Prerequisites

Knowledge of algorithms and data structures related to the field of computational geometry and knowledge of C++ and C++ templates are helpful but not necessary.

Instructor(s)

Andreas Fabri 
Geometry Factory

Pierre Alliez
INRIA

Instructor Bio(s)

Andreas Fabri
Andreas Fabri is a member of the initial development team of the CGAL project and one of the CGAL library architects. He is member of the CGAL editorial board and chaired it for several years. In 2003, he founded the Geometry Factory as spin-off of the CGAL project, offering licenses, service, and support to commercial users who cannot comply with the open-source license of CGAL. He received his PhD in computer science in 1994 from École des Mines de Paris while working on geometric algorithms for parallel machines at INRIA.
Pierre Alliez
Pierre Alliez is a researcher at INRIA Sophia Antipolis - Mediterranean, France. He obtained a PhD fromEcole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and spent a year as a post-doc at the University of Southern California. His main research interests are in geometry processing. He has worked on various program committees, including SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, and the Eurographics Symposium on Geometry Processing. In 2005, he was awarded the Eurographics Young Researcher Award, and he was co-chair of the Symposium on Geometry Processing in 2008. He is a member of the CGAL Editorial Board.