News & Events
NEW ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ALPER ÜNGÖR IS WELCOMED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
January 18, 2005
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Think popcorn - warm, salty, buttery popcorn. Imagine that popcorn kernel getting hot and then, exploding into a tasty morsel to eat.
There are models of various objects around his office from protein models to a huge popcorn kernel with confetti
sprinkles. On his class Web site and to the right (Picture by Professor Herbert Edelsbrunner, Alper's postdoctoral
superviser in the BioGeometry project at Duke University), there is a model that looks remarkably like popcorn as well.
So what's with the popcorn?.
For a popcorn kernel to burst into a tasty morsel, the kernel must reach a certain temperature for it to explode. It is interesting in that there is a reaction and likewise, a mathematical algorithm that corresponds to this activity.
Assistant Professor Alper Üngör finds these models and explanations incredible teaching tools and a fun way to interact with his research. His research interests include computational geometry, bio-geometric modeling, design and analysis of algorithms, as well as mesh generation and scientific computing.
Üngör joined the CISE faculty in his first faculty position this past August. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in October 2002 and has been working on his post-doctoral studies at Duke University for the past two years. At Illinois, he was honored academically with several awards including the David J. Kuck Best Ph.D. Thesis Award, a Computational Science and Engineering Fellowship, the C.L. Dave and Jane W.S. Liu Award, an Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award. A native of Turkey, in addition to his master's in computer science, Üngör also has an MBA.
Üngör said his first love in high school was geometry, and that is where his research has led him. As part of his post-doctoral studies at Duke, he was involved in modeling biological phenomenon. In an interdisciplinary study, the BioGeometry project addressed fundamental computational problems in the representation of molecular structures and the simulation of biochemical processes in life.
In addition, at the University of Illinois, Üngör with a group of researchers studied the idea of triangulating the entire space-time domain as part of a new approach to doing computational simulations. The traditional approach in numerical simulations is to simulate a type of phenomenon, freeze time, examine the geometry and write complex equations that represent the phenomenon, and then solve them, replicating the process numerous times with many time slices. The researchers formulated an alternative, new set of geometric constraints, which permits evaluating space and time altogether in two-dimensional space across time. They presented several algorithms to compute space-time meshes that satisfy these constraints.
The image to the left is a space-time triangulation model of the United States. This new topic has received
increasingly more attention both from practitioners and theoreticians due its impact and the numerous, interesting
research problems that need to be studied. There have already been two completed Ph.D. studies where the University
of Illinois researchers' space-time algorithms proved essential.
Üngör explained his research as improving practical application with theoretical insight. For instance, his work on the Triangle software, with one small modification to the algorithm, doubled the speed and the quality of the output of this triangulation software leading to its fifth release.
"In a sense what I'm trying to do is balance achievements of success with theory and application," said Üngör.
Üngör has two brothers: one is a dentist and the other a doctor. He said his family was very proud when they realized his brothers were both going to be doctors, yet they didn't really understand what he was doing. A problem that he is currently working on might change that.
Üngör is working on a large scale, interdisciplinary project involving docking problems with pharmaceutical drugs. By designing an algorithm to predict how a drug is performing in reality - whether it is performing its functionality on what it was intended for - could result in immediate impact in drug design, reducing time required to design drugs and improved drug efficiency.
"If I can claim that I had some impact on the drugs my family is buying, they just might take me seriously," Üngör joked.
Üngör enjoys teaching his students by giving them real problems that have yet to be solved and challenging the students to solve them. For example, produce workers have a packing problem: they need to put more apples in a box to be able to ship more to the grocers. Students are amazed that this is their project, and related problems that involve space, time and geometry help illustrate the research possibilities available to them.
In addition to research and teaching, Üngör said balance is very important in his life. He enjoys bicycling, outdoors
activities and traveling. The Computer and Information Science and Engineering Department welcomes Alper and looks
forward to his contributions!
Writer: Mandelyn Hutcherson, 352-392-4700 ext. 5011, HutchersonM@mail.vetmed.ufl.edu
Source: Alper Üngör, 352-392-6835, ungor@cise.ufl.edu
