Stanley Osher, University of California, Los Angeles
Level Set Methods for Geometric Design and Computing
The level set method for capturing moving fronts was introduced in 1987 by Osher and Sethian. It has proven to be phenomenally successful as a numerical device. For example, typing in "Level Set Methods" on Google's search engine gives roughly 3800 responses. Applications range from capturing multiphase fluid dynamical flows, to special effects in Hollywood to visualization,image processing, control, epitaxial growth, computer vision and many more. In this talk we shall give an overview of the numerical technology and applications to geometric design and computing.