Algorithms in GIS (cs3225): Schedule

Here is a detailed schedule of the class, to be updated as the semester progresses:

Sept 1:

Topics: Introduction and setup.
Notes:
- Class introduction: intro.pdf
- Lab: Basic Unix commands (connecting to dover, directory navigation, file manipulation, pipes, processes, redirection)
- Lab: Hello World from the terminal
- Lab: Using make and Makefiles
- Notes: C-Programming (briefly pointers, working with multiple files)
- Exercise: Allocating memory
Other useful materials:
- Sean's unix tutorial | Emacs and vim | C 101

Sept 6, 8, 13, 15:

Topics: Data models in GIS and topological representation: Networks, grids, TINs and polygonal meshes. Raster and vector models.
Notes:
- Slides: pointers.pdf | datamodels (I).pdf | datamodels (II).pdf
- Worksheets: worksheetI.pdf | worksheetII.pdf
Assignments:
- Programming 1 (reading an ascii grid file) [due Tue 9/13] | Using svn for this class
- Programming 2 (computing flow direction and flow accumulation) [due Thu 9/22] | report sheet.
Other useful materials:

Sept 20, 22:

Topics: Hydrologic modeling on terrains (flow direction, flow accumulation, flooding, river and watershed hierarchy, sea level rise).
Notes:
- Slides: flow1.pdf | flow2.pdf
- Worksheets: fd-example.pdf
Assignments: Working on assignment 2. You need to implement both the quadratic as well as an efficient algorithm to compute FA on the whole grid, run experimenst and be ready to discuss.
Other useful materials:

Sept 27:

Topics: Sea level rise.
Notes:
Assignments: Wrap up assignment 2 and fill the quick report sheet. Programming 3 (computing viewsheds) is posted.
Other useful materials:
- Global sea level rise map from geology.com

Sept 29, Oct 4th:

Topics: Visibility on terrains (basic algorithm; viewshed via radial sweep; a detour through augmenting red-black trees; visibility and horizons; viewshed via a concentric sweep; total viewshed).
Notes:
- Slides: vis.pdf
Assignments: Work on Programming 3 (computing viewsheds). Due before fall break. Report sheet.
Other useful materials:

Oct 6th, 13th:

Topics: Parallel programming with OpenMP.
Notes:
- Notes: OpenMP (html)
- Code: openmp
- We'll use the OpenMP hands-on tutorial by Tim Mattson from Intel, available on YouTube ( link). You need to go through the first 10 videos (modules 1 through 5).
  - 01: intro (4.5 min)
  - 02: part 1 (8 min) Module 1
  - 02: part 2 (7 min) Module 1
  - 03: Module 2 (5 min) compiling
  - 04: Discussion 1 (10 min)
  - 05: Module 3 (11.5 min) creating threads
  - 06: Discussion 2 (11 min) the simple PI program in parallel
  - 07: Module 4 (8 min) synchronization
  - 08: Discussion 3 (5 min) overhead and eliminating false sharing
  - 09: part 1 Module 5 (10 min) parallel loops
  - 09: part 2 Module 5 (7 min) parallel loops
  - 10: Discussion 4 (6.5 min) parallel PI program wrap -up
Assignments:
- Programming 4 (parallel viewshed with OpenMP). Due Tuesday 10/25 (or, when you are ready).
Other useful materials:
- Slides: A hands-on intro to OpenMP by Tim Mattson, Intel
- A 1.5 hour talk, called "Intro to SMP programming with OpenMP" also by Tim Mattson

Oct 18th:

Guest lecture by Eileen Johnson (ES).
Time: usual class time
Location: Electronic classroom, HL
Eileen teaches GIS classes in the ES program. She will do a hands-on tutorial on ArcGIS, including working with LiDAR data.
Notes:
Assignments:
- work on PA4 (parallelizing your viewshed)
- post questions on piazza
Other useful materials:

Oct 20th:

Meeting I with Peter Norvig and CS students and faculty.
Time: Class meets 2:30 to 4. Come if you can.
Location: Maine Lounge, Moulton Union
Material:
- Ongoing projects at Google, like Google's Earth engine
- Google's hybrid approach to research: Hybrid research
- Russell and Norvig on friendly AI
- Building tomorrow's intelligent systems
- Role of CS in a sustainable future: 2016 commencement at Berkeley
- Keynote: Machine learning for programming
Assignments:
- work on PA4 (parallelizing your viewshed)
- post questions on piazza

Oct 25th, 27th:

Topics: OpenMP exercises. LiDAR data in GIS. Preview of LiDAR to grid. Quadtrees.
Notes:
- Code: Check out sum?.c here
- Slides: lidar.pdf | quadtrees(I).pdf
Readings/Internet:
- Web LiDAR visualizer: potree.org (for large data; from TU Wien) | plas.io
- LAStools by Martin Isenburg
- Papers; From point cloud to Grid DEM: a scalable approach (Agarwal, Arge, Danner, SDH 2006) | A hybrid MPI/GPU interpolation for grid DEM construction (Danner et al, ACMGIS 2012)
Assignment:
- Assignment 3 should be done and your times posted on piazza.
- This week you shoud be wrapping up assignment 4
- Read papers and prepare for a class discussion using the following questions review1 | review2
- Install LAStools (on a Mac, first get wine: brew install wine) and run lasinfo, lasview, lasground and lasdem on one las dataset.

Nov 1st, 3rd:

Topics: LiDAR data and problems on LiDAR data. Memory-hierarchy-efficient algorithms. Quadtrees.
Notes:
- Code: iobasics.c
- quadtrees (I) | quadtrees (II)
Internet:
- xkcd Map of the INternet
Assignment:
- You should be running experimenst on the grid and thinking of false sharing and asking lots of questions on piazza. Who can obtain the best speedup on washington dataset?
- Assignment 5 (quadtrees) posted. Due on Thursday 11/10.

Nov 8th, 10th:

Topics: Neighbor queries with quadtrees. Compressed quadtrees. Handling large data: Quadtrees and tiling. From point cloud to grid (las2grid). Surface simplification.
Notes: quadtrees (II) | simplification
Internet:
- The classic: Fast polygonal approximations of terrain and height fields (Garland and Heckbert 1995)
- Garland's Terra, Scape, QSlim
- Jonathan Shewchuck's website
Assignment:
- Assignment 5 (quadtrees) posted. Due on Thursday 11/10.
- read line simplification with Douglas Peucker algorithm; read paper on terrain simplification above

Nov 15th, 17th:

Nov 22nd:

Thu Nov 24th, Thanksgiving break

Nov 29th, Dec 1st, Dec 6th:

Dec 8th:

Dec 18th, 2-5pm: