CURIOUS Lunch Meetings - Summer 2008
Wednesdays

May 28, 2008
12:30pm
North N311
Introductions
June 4, 2008
11:45am
North N311
Owen Astrachan Babble
June 11, 2008
12:30pm
North N311
Vamsidhar Thummala

June 18, 2008
North N311
12:30pm
Jeff Phillips

Approximation and Random Sampling in Computational Geometry.



I will give a brief and intuitive look into the power of random
sampling in geometric problems. I will keep math to a minimum.
Finally I will describe a improvement to a classic theorem from a
recent paper of mine - most likely only stating the result, since the
proof is probably not of interest to the audience.

June 25, 2008
North N311
12:30pm
Will Mendoza and others
Virtual Conflict Resolution
Will Mendoza, graduate student from the Duke-UNC Rotary Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution will provide an overview of the 3D Virtual Simulation project funded by the MacArthur Foundation. This project is a collaboration between Duke, the Rotary Center, and the Virtual Heroes Company. The simulation will train mid-career level participants how to deliver effective humanitarian assistance in disaster situation with good coordination among engaged parties, using conflict resolution skills.

The simulation is based on hurricane Mitch case in 1998. The players are expected to act upon the aftermath of the disaster, allocating their resources to relieve suffering of the affected people, providing shelters and food/medical aid and planning for their recovery and reconstruction.

The three MacArthur interns, Rosie Kilgore, Vanessa Sochat, and Whitney Mickens, will then demonstrate and discuss some of the Maya avatars that they have been creating for the simulation.
July 2
North N311
12:30pm
Alice Group

Demos

July 9, 2008
North N311
12:30pm
Duke Photo today
July 16, 2008
North N311
12:30pm
Martin Azizyan SurroundSense: Mobile Phone Localization Using Ambient Sound and Light

"[We propose] to sense the surrounding in which a phone is located, and use this ambient information to classify its location. Put differently, we postulate that different surroundings have photo-acoustic fingerprints, that can be sensed and used for localization."

The general idea is to improve on existing localization methods (like GPS) by combining data from other sensors on a phone, like microphone, camera, etc.
July 23, 2008
July 30, 2008
August 6, 2008


Last modified: Tue May 22 13:46:28 EDT 2007