Yan Cao ,  Assistant Professor

        Department of Mathematical Sciences
        University of Texas at Dallas
        P.O. Box 830688, EC 35
        Richardson TX 75083-0688
        Tel: (972)883-6458
        Email:  yan 'dot' cao 'at' utdallas 'dot' edu
 

Education

• Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Brown University, 2003. Advisor: Prof. David Mumford

• M. Sc. in Mathematics, University of Iowa, 1997.

• B. S. in Computational Mathematics, Peking University, 1996.

Research Interests

My research interests lie in the general areas of computer vision and pattern theory, especially biomedical applications. My current research is focused on shape analysis and shape models in two and three dimensions. People can recognize the same or similar shapes in any circumstance, and they have a good intuition on what is the main structure and what is the variation of a shape. We want the computer to do the same thing. There is a lot of mathematics to be done to achieve this goal. The theory in three dimensions is especially challenging. In two dimensions, the medial axis and the geometric heat equation are powerful tools, but both of these are less satisfactory in three dimensions. Understanding the geometry of three-dimensional shapes still presents many problems.

• Medical image analysis, computational anatomy

• Computer vision, pattern theory

• Shape analysis and shape models

• Geometric PDE

Selected Publications

Teaching

• Fall 2006

            Math 6390: Math Methods in Image Processing and Analysis

• Spring 2007

            Math 6345: Math Methods in Medicine and Biology

• Fall 2007

            Math 6301: Real Analysis

            Math 4301: Mathematical Analysis I

• Spring 2008

            Math 6302: Real and Functional Analysis

            Math 4302: Mathematical Analysis II