CS 598ANH : Calculus on Meshes

Fall 2005

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Computer Science

Instructor : Anil N. Hirani


Overview:

This course is an introduction to the discretization of vector fields and differential forms on meshes (also known as Discrete Exterior Calculus or DEC) and the applications of such a discretization. We will do this with the aim of creating and understanding computational methods for solving partial differential equations that arise in mechanics and other applications. The discretization will attempt to follow the smooth calculus on manifolds which is the language of modern mechanics.

Homeworks:

  1. Homework 1 (POSTED : Sep 5, 2005; DUE : Sep 20, 2005, 10:45 am)
  2. Homework 2 (POSTED : Sep 20, 2005; DUE : Oct 4, 2005, 10:45 am)
  3. Homework 3 (POSTED : Oct 29, 2005; DUE : Nov 8, 2005, 10:45 am)
    Data files for HW3:
  4. Homework 4 (POSTED (on class mailing list) : Nov 9, 2005; DUE : Nov 18, 10:45 am)
  5. Homework 5 (POSTED (on class mailing list) : Nov 28, 2005; DUE : Dec 8, 10:45 am)

Solutions:

  1. Solution to HW 1 : posted on class mailing list (October 25, 2005).
  2. Solution to HW 2 : posted on class mailing list (November 29, 2005).
  3. Solution to HW 3 : everyone did very well in this so consider your solution to be the model solution.

Schedule, Papers, Resources:

Textbook/Papers:

There is no prescribed textbook for the discrete side of things, although my Ph.D thesis ( Discrete Exterior Calculus, Caltech, 2003) will be useful as a reference for that part. For the smooth theory, there is an excellent reference book : Manifolds, Tensor Analysis and Applications by Abraham, Marsden and Ratiu. The draft 3rd edition is being made available online to this class in return for finding and reporting typos. Instructions for accessing the book will be announced in class. About two-thirds of the class consists of presentations and discussions of papers. The list of papers is given below.

Outline:

The rest of the term will be presentations by students and in-class discussions covering the topics given below. The presentations will be based on papers that students will read and the list of papers is given somewhere below on this page. The topics are :

Workload:

There will be 2 written homeworks, 3 small programming assignments and 1 or 2 presentations by each student (depends on how many students are registered). The programming assignments will be done in groups of 2.

Grading:

20% homework, 30% programming, 50% presentation. One late homework or programming assignment will be allowed without penalty.

Reading list:

The presentations will be based on papers that students will read. Here is a partial list of papers in the various topic areas. The reference are given in BibTeX format (easiest for me to copy paste, but probably tedious for you to parse).


Page maintained by Anil N. Hirani.