Prof. Dr. Helmut Pottmann

Tuesday, 11.00-12.00

• Dr. techn. in Mathematics, Vienna University of Technology, 6/83
• 'Mag. rer. nat.' (comparable to M.S.) in Mathematics, Vienna University of Technology, 4/82
• Study of Mathematics and Descriptive Geometry, Vienna University of Technology, 9/77-6/83

• Visiting Chair Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 3/04 - 4/04, 5/04 - 6/04
• Key Researcher, Competence Center 'Advanced Computer Vision,' Vienna, since 7/00
• Adjunct Professor, University of California, Davis, USA, since 6/99
• Director, Institute of Geometry, Vienna University of Technology, 10/94-5/97
• Professor of Geometry, Vienna University of Technology, since 3/92
• Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Germany, 4/91 - 2/92
• Visiting Associate Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University, USA, 8/90 - 4/91
• Visiting Associate Professor of Computer Science, University Kaiserslautern, Germany, 7/89 - 6/90
• Research stay, Center of Applied Mathematics, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany, 4/89 - 6/89
• Assistant Professor, Institute of Geometry, Vienna University of Technology, 10/88 - 4/91
• Habilitation in `Geometry', Vienna University of Technology, 4/86
• 'Universitätsassistent', Institute of Geometry, TU Wien, 5/82 - 10/88

• Industrial Geometry
• Architectural Geometry
• Discrete Differential Geometry
• Relations between Geometry, Numerical Analysis and Approximation Theory
• Computer Aided Geometric Design, Geometric Modelling and Computer Vision
• Applications of Geometry in Manufacturing
• Kinematical Geometry and Robot Kinematics

H. Pottmann, A. Asperl, M. Hofer and A. Kilian: Architectural Geometry. Bentley Institute Press (2007), 724 pages, 2200 figures in color, ISBN 978-1-934493-04-5..

Geometry lies at the core of the architectural design process. It is omnipresent, from the initial form-finding stages to the actual construction. Modern constructive geometry provides a variety of tools for the efficient design, analysis, and manufacture of complex shapes. This results in new challenges for architecture. However, the architectural application also poses new problems to geometry. Architectural geometry is therefore an entire research area, currently emerging at the border between applied geometry and architecture.

This book has been written as a textbook for students of architecture or industrial design. It comprises material at all levels, from the basics of geometric modeling to the cutting edge of research. During the architectural journey through geometry, topics typically reserved for a mathematically well-trained audience are addressed in an easily understandable way. These include central concepts on freeform curves and surfaces, differential geometry, kinematic geometry, mesh processing, digital reconstruction, and optimization of shapes.

This book is also intended as a geometry consultant for architects, construction engineers, and industrial designers and as a source of inspiration for scientists interested in applications of geometry processing in architecture and art.

Helmut Pottmann, Johannes Wallner, Computational Line Geometry, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin u.a. 2001. (ISBN 3-540-42058-4, 565 pp. 264 figs., 17 in color)

This book for the first time studies line geometry from the viewpoint of scientific computation and shows the interplay between theory and numerous applications. On the one hand, the reader will find a modern presentation of `classical' material. On the other hand we show how the methods of line geometry enable an elegant approach to many problems whose connection to line geometry is not obvious at first sight.

The geometry of lines occurs naturally in such different areas as sculptured surface machining, computation of offsets and medial axes, surface reconstruction for reverse engineering, geometrical optics, kinematics and motion design, and modeling of developable surfaces. This book covers line geometry from various viewpoints and aims towards computation and visualization. Besides applications, it contains a tutorial on projective geometry and an introduction into the theory of smooth and algebraic manifolds of lines. It will be useful to researchers, graduate students, and anyone interested either in the theory or in computational aspects in general, or in applications in particular.

• M. Peternell, H. Pottmann, T. Steiner, H. Zhao (2005) Swept volumes. Technical Report 130, Geometry Preprint Series, Vienna Univ. of Technology, Computer Aided Design and Applications, to appear. [Pdf]
• J. Wallner, H. Pottmann, M. Hofer (2005) Fair webs. Technical Report 134, Geometry Preprint Series, Vienna Univ. of Technology, [Pdf]
• Pottmann, H., Hofer, M. (2005) A variational approach to spline curves on surfaces. Computer Aided Geometric Design, to appear. [Pdf]

• Pottmann, H., Leopoldseder, S., Hofer, M., Registration without ICP, Computer Vision and Image Understanding 95(1), 2004, pp. 54-71. [Pdf]
• Hofer, M., Pottmann, H., Ravani, B. (2004) From curve design algorithms to the design of rigid body motions. The Visual Computer 20, pp. 279-297. [Pdf]
• Pottmann, H., Hofer, M., Ravani, B. (2004) Variational motion design. Proceedings of ARK 2004, Kluwer, pp. 361-370. [Pdf]
• Wallner, J., Pottmann, H. (2004) Variational interpolation of subsets. Constr. Approx 20, 233-248. [Pdf]
• J. Wallner, H. Pottmann (2004) Intrinsic subdivision with smooth limits for graphics and animation. Technical Report 120, Geometry Preprint Series, Vienna Univ. of Technology, [Pdf]

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board Geometry and Computing (Springer)
• Associate Editor of the journal Computer Aided Geometric Design (Elsevier)
• Associate Editor of the journal Advances in Computational Mathematics (Springer)
• Associate Editor of The Visual Computer (Springer)
• Associate Editor of the journal SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences
• Member of the editorial board of  IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
• Associate Editor of Virtual and Physical Prototyping (Taylor & Francis)

Courses for students of geometry, mathematics, computer science, architecture, civil engineering and geodesy.

• Geometrie in der Technik
• Computer Aided Geometric Design
• Geometrie für Informatiker
• Line Geometry
• Projective Geometry
• Erschließung neuer Geometrien für Architekten
• CAAD und Geometrie
• Grundkurs Architektur und Darstellung - Darstellende Geometrie
• Geometrie und CAD