Project description
Geometric networks are the main tool to model flow of traffic, goods
or information. They have applications in routing of railway systems,
VLSI layout and the analysis of the world wide web. The networks are
represented by geometric graphs whose objects (cities, persons, etc.)
are points in a two- or more-dimesional space and whose relations
(roads, blood relationship, etc.) are lines or curves that connect two
points.
The project consists of two parts: (a) analysis and construction, and
(b) visualization of geometric networks. In part (a) the focus is on
networks where the distance of two geometric objects (like points or
rectangles) within the network is bounded by a constant times their
bee-line (i.e. Euclidean) distance. Such networks are called Euclidean
spanners. They have many applications in distributed systems,
communication network design, robotics, pattern recognition, data
compression, and in biology. Part (b) deals with the question how
networks with an underlying geometry (like subway networks) have to be
distorted in the visualization process in order to improve their
readability.
GeoNet is a research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It
started in April 2003 and lasts for at most 5 years. Project leader
is Dr. Alexander
Wolff, the PhD students within the project are Marc
Benkert, Martin
Nöllenburg, and Ignaz Rutter. Besides doing research, various related topics
are taught in lectures,
seminars, and tutorials and master
students are supervised.
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