Research

My research interests are in the areas of computational geometry and computer science education. My current interests include sequential triangulations and polyhedra unfolding. Below is an animation of a two guard walk around a polygon and the corresponding sequential triangulation that it produces. Click here to see some tools I've developed with students for teaching computer graphics concepts. I also do a lot of independent studies with undergraduates, so check out their projects too.



Publications

" Unfolding Manhattan Towers," Mirela Damian, Robin Y. Flatland, and Joseph O’Rourke. To appear in Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications, 2008.

" Grid Vertex-Unfolding Orthogonal Polyhedra," with Mirela Damian, Robin Flatland and Joseph O'Rourke. To appear in Discrete and Computational Geometry, 2008.

" Epsilon-Unfolding Orthogonal Polyhedra," Mirela Damian, Robin Flatland, and Joseph O’Rourke. Graphs and Combinatorics, 23[Supplemental]: 179-194, 2007.

" Exploring the Polygonizations of a Point Set via Stretches and Twangs," M. Damian, R. Flatland, S. Ramaswami and J. O'Rourke. In 25th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS), 2008.

" A New Lower Bound on Guard Placement for Wireless Localization," M. Damian, R. Flatland, S. Ramaswami and J. O'Rourke. Abstracts of the 17th Fall Workshop on Computational and Combinatorial Geometry, November 2007.

" Exploring the Polygonizations of a Point Set via Stretches and Twangs," M. Damian, R. Flatland, S. Ramaswami and J. O'Rourke. Abstracts of the 17th Fall Workshop on Computational and Combinatorial Geometry, November 2007.

" Linear Reconfiguration of Cube-Style Modular Robots," G. Aloupis, S. Collette, M. Damian, E. D. Demaine, R. Flatland, S. Langerman, J. O'Rourke, S. Ramaswami, V. Sacristan, and S. Wuhrer. In International Symposium of Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC), 2007.

" Vertex Pops and Popturns," G. Aloupis, B. Ballinger, P. Bose, M. Damian, E. Demaine, M. Demaine, R. Flatland, F. Hurtado, S. Langerman, J. O'Rourke, P. Taslakian, and G. Toussaint. In Proceedings of the Nineteenth Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, pages 137-140, 2007.

" Grid Vertex-Unfolding Orthogonal Polyhedra," Mirela Damian, Robin Flatland and Joseph O'Rourke. In 23rd Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS), Marseille, France. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3884, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, vol. 3884, pp. 264-276, Feb. 2006.

" Curves in the Sand," M. Damian, E. Demaine, M. Demaine, V. Dujmovic, D. El-Khechen, R. Flatland, J. Iacono, S. Langerman, H. Meijer, S. Ramaswami, D. Souvaine, P. Taslakian, and G. Toussaint. In Proceedings of the Eightenth Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, pages 11-14, 2006.

" Unfolding Well-Separated Orthotrees," Mirela Damian, Robin Flatland, Henk Meijer, and Joseph O'Rourke. In 15th Annual Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry and Visualization, 2005, pp 25-26.

" Unfolding Manhattan Towers ," Mirela Damian, Robin Flatland, and Joseph O'Rourke. In Proceedings of the 17th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2005, pp 204-207.

" On Sequential Triangulations of Simple Polygons ," Robin Flatland. In Proceedings of the 16th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2004, pp 112-115.

"Using Visualization Tools To Develop Geometric Reasoning Skills in a Computer Graphics Course," Robin Y. Flatland., The Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, 17(6): 150-160, 2002.

"Maintaining Valid Topology with Active Contours: Theory and Application," Amita Perera, C. Tsai, R. Flatland, and Charles V. Stewart. In Proceedings of IEEE Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages 496-502, 2000.

"Extending Range Queries and Nearest Neighbors," Robin Y. Flatland and Charles V. Stewart. Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications, 17: 3-24, 2000.

"Using MINIX in the Closed Lab Environment," Robin Y. Flatland., The Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, 14(4): 9-17, 1999.

"Extending Rectangular Range Reporting with Query Sensitive Analysis," Robin Y. Flatland and Charles V. Stewart. In Proceedings of the 8th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 1996, pp 319-324.

"Geometric Constraints and Stereo Disparity Computation," Charles V. Stewart, Robin Y. Flatland, and Kishore Bubna. International Journal of Computer Vision, 20(3): 143-168, 1996

"Extending Range Queries and Nearest Neighbors," Robin Y. Flatland and Charles V. Stewart. In Proceedings of the 7th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 1995, pp 267-272.

"Simulation and Visualization Tools for Teaching Parallel Merge Sort," Robin Y. (Trahan) Flatland and Susan Rodger. In 24th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 1993, pp 237-241.

Presentations

"Using Visualization Tools To Develop Geometric Reasoning Skills in a Computer Graphics Course," Robin Y. Flatland. Paper Presentation. 5th Annual Conference on Computing at Small Colleges Northeastern Conference. Worcester, Massachusetts. April 2002. [presentation]

"We Didn't Start the Fire, But We Want to Keep it Burning," Mary Anne Egan, Robin Y. Flatland, and Johanna Horowitz. Poster Presentation. 32nd SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Charlotte, North Carolina. February 2001. [poster presentation]

"Using MINIX in the Closed Lab Environment," Robin Y. Flatland. Paper Presentation. 4th Annual Conference on Computing at Small Colleges Northeastern Conference. Providence, Rhode Island. April 1999