| NSF Org: |
DMS Division Of Mathematical Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 13, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 13, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1619759 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Leland Jameson
DMS Division Of Mathematical Sciences MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 15, 2016 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $9,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $9,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
221 N GRAND BLVD SAINT LOUIS MO US 63103-2006 (314)977-3925 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
İstanbul Bilgi University, Depar Deresi Caddesi 47, Dolapde TU 34435 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
This grant supports travel for US women to the Workshop for Women in Shape Analysis (WiShT), to be held at the Nesin Mathematics Village in Istanbul, Turkey, in the week June 5-12, 2016. The workshop is designed to strengthen the shape modeling community by bringing together women researchers at various stages in their careers (from graduate student to senior researcher) and from across the world, to foster research collaboration and mentorship. Because shape modeling is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from mathematics, computer science, and biotechnology, collaborations are especially crucial. Furthermore, since no single country has many women working in shape modeling, international collaborations are essential to forming robust networks of women researchers. Hosting the workshop in Turkey reflects a conscious effort to make the workshop more accessible for women from the Middle East and Africa. Participants will spend one week working together in small groups to solve one of a selection of open questions in shape modeling. Instead of the more typical workshop structure where participants watch presentations of established results, WiShT participants will begin generating new results in collaboration with other participants. Following the workshop, the research network will be maintained and strengthened by publishing a proceedings volume, establishing a website and listserv, and organizing follow-up conferences and reunions for participants. Mentoring and professional development will happen both formally and informally. For more information about the workshop see http://nesinkoyleri.org/eng/events/2016-wis2/index.php
Shape analysis is a critical component in many applications areas, including image recognition, medical imaging, biomedical engineering, graphics, and computer animation. The workshop will tackle three very different challenging problems in shape modeling and analysis in groups led by experienced researchers, and the broad range of participants will allow an interdisciplinary team of scholars to make substantial progress in each area. Group 1 will explore the many possible definitions of shape complexity and will study the relationships between them in the hope of deriving an overarching mathematical theory of shape complexity and an understanding of when each notion of complexity is most appropriate. The second group will focus on combinatorial optimization for shape-based segmentation models, both discrete and continuous. Each model presents challenges: continuous models may not converge to optimal solutions or may be much slower, while in the discrete setting, integrating shape information or targeting structures with a particular predefined prior is quite challenging. Group 2 will combine these approaches by exploring the mapping of variational formulations to the discrete domain and tackle the challenges associated with optimizing the resultant discrete models. Group 3 will focus on convolution skeletons in both two and three-dimensions. The goal is to develop a method to transform an input shape and associated convolution skeleton into a new skeleton that is robust, compact, and reproducible that gives a smooth parameterization of the original shape. Results from each group will be published in an AWM-Springer volume, as well as disseminated via conference and journal publications.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Shape is a fundamental concept for many applications, from identifying objects in medical scans to creating animations for movies. Yetquantifying, detecting, or defining shape in an automated way is an open area, which is actively being worked on by researchers in mathematics, computer science, and a host of other areas. This grant supported a group of women from the United States who work in mathematics and computer science, which are typically male-dominated fields, to collaborate on shape analysis problems with international researchers. This 2nd Workshop for Women in Shape Analysis was held in Turkey, and supported junior and senior women coming together to tackle problems which included ranking and quantifying shape metrics, computing skeletons to give better shape representations, and developing shape models to aid in computer animation. The funding directly facilitated the publication of 4 papers from working groups at the workshop, as well as the proceedings volume in which these papers will be published along with other shape analysis papers. Several of the participants have continued their collaborations beyond this workshop, and facilitated a great deal of networking and research.
In addition to fostering interdisciplinary research collaborations, the workshop provided formal and informal mentoring for junior participants. The workshop included a job panel and discussion about professional success in academia and industry, tutorials in coding for shape modeling software packages, and an overview of opportunities in related professional societies. Junior members indicated their appreciation for the workshop and its influence on their career success, particularly given the lack of senior women role models in this area.
Last Modified: 09/28/2017
Modified by: Erin W Chambers
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