DGCI

The 15th edition of the International Conference on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery took place for the first time outside of Europe. DGCI was organized Laboratoire de Combinatoire et d’informatique mathématique (LaCIM) of the Universitédu Québec à Montréal.

This conference reached a large international audience as 86 registered participants attended the three day event. Among the 61 submitted papers originating from 14 different countries, the program committee selected 42 papers, scheduled for either an oral (20) or poster presentation (22). All these papers appeared in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series (volume number 5810), and whether a communication was orally presented or not was based on our appreciation of suitability rather than on ranking. The oral and poster session covered the topics: Models for Discrete Geometry, Discrete Shape Representation, Recognition & Analysis, Discrete and Combinatorial Tools for Image Segmentation and Analysis, Discrete and Combinatorial Topology, Geometric Transforms, and Discrete Tomography.

As Discrete Geometry is emerging as a theory from ground work in automated representation and processing of digitized objects, we invited three distinguished speakers of international renown:

– Valérie Berthé from the LIRMM (Montpellier, France) gave an account on discrete planes from the point of view of Combinatorics on words, with relation to number theory and, in particular, multidimensional continued fractions.

– Anders Kock (Emeritus, Aarhus, Denmark) whose research is mostly in category theory, contributed to the development of what is known as Synthetic Differential Geometry. The ground of the theory is the fact that classical differential calculus can be lifted in algebraic geometry where the limit process does not exist: this is achieved by enriching the affine line R with infinitesimals – nilpotent elements in this case – that are distinct from the infinitesimals in non-standard analysis.

– The research of Pierre Gauthier (UQAM, Montréal, Canada) is focused on mathematical modeling of climate. Modeling the atmosphere is necessary for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and the theoretical background for addressing the problem is based on fluid dynamics governed by the Navier-Stokes equations, thermodynamic relationships, and numerous other processes that influence its dynamics.

Following the conference, two special issues in the journals Pattern Recognition Letters and another renowned journal (approval pending), will contain a selection of the best papers of the conference.

The social program took place at Pointe-à-Callière, the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History. A multimedia show related the history of Montreal, from the earliest evidence of Natives’ presence to the settlement of the first Europeans: French period, British period, and contemporary period. The Old Port of Montréal Corporation first began conducting digs on the Pointe-à-Callière site in 1989. The Museum officially opened on the site in 1992, to mark the city’s 350th birthday. Below ground level, the participants discovered the archeological crypt showing the remains of structures erected over the centuries by masons and other trades. The way the remains are superposed in this one spot offers a sort of condensed history of Montréal:

– traces of posts from the town’s wooden palisade (1684) and of the first guardhouse (1698);

– stones from the fortifications (18th century) and from the building owned by Etienne Rochbert;

– a paved street from the late 18th century, walls from the Baby-Bagg house (1767) and from the Würtele Inn (1802);

– the base of a fountain, ringed by the foundations of a low wall that enclosed Customs Square in about 1860;

– the cement base on which a monument to the first Montrealers stood in the 1940s.

The gala dinner took place in the Cabaret Lion d’Or, built in the 1930’s in an intimate and warm atmosphere, serving the fine cuisine of the adjacent Petit Extra restaurant.

The next DGCI conference will be organized in Spring 2011 by the ADAGIo team of the LORIA laboratory with Isabelle Debled-Rennesson as General Chair.

Conference Report: DGCI 2009

Report prepared by Srečko Brlek (Canada) and Xavier Provençal (Canada)