Final Appraisal Seminar for Tenure Track Assistant Professor Mikkel Abrahamsen

Mikkel Abrahamsen Tenure Track Seminar banner

Title

Geometric packing and decomposition problems

Abstract

Much of my research has been focused on geometric packing and decomposition problems. Packing is about placing given objects in the most space-efficient way. These problems appear everywhere in our daily lives and in several big industries such as clothing manufacturing and shipping. Decomposition is about describing complex objects in terms of simpler ones, which is often a first step in algorithms for more complicated tasks and therefore important to other branches of computer science.

Besides their tremendous practical importance, both packing and decomposition problems are theoretically tantalizing. They have a fundamental nature and can be stated in very simple terms, and yet they require ample amounts of ingenuity and technical skills to be solved.

In this talk, I will present my work on these problems during the past four years as a tenure-track assistant professor. This includes answers to questions that were older than myself as well as pioneer papers on exciting new variants of the problems. I will also present my plans for future work, both in research and teaching at DIKU.

Program

13:00 - 13:10: Introduction by Lise Arleth

13:10 - 15:10: Presentation and discussion by candidate and board

15:10 - 15:30: Evaluation by the board (the board will step out of the auditorium)

15:30 - 15:45: Concluding questions and discussion and presentation of the final recommendation

15:45: Reception

Assessment Committee

  • Associate Dean of Research, Lise Arleth, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Chairperson)
  • Head of Department, Professor Jakob Grue Simonsen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Vice-Head of Department of Teaching, Ken Friis Larsen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Prof.Dr. Sándor Fekete, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
  • Nutan Limaye, Associate Professor, ITU Copenhagen, Denmark