Helmut Alt (born 1950) is a German computer scientist whose research concerns
graph algorithm
The following is a list of well-known algorithms along with one-line descriptions for each.
Automated planning
Combinatorial algorithms
General combinatorial algorithms
* Brent's algorithm: finds a cycle in function value iterations using on ...
s and
computational geometry. He is known for his work on matching geometric shapes, including methods for efficiently computing the
Fréchet distance
In mathematics, the Fréchet distance is a measure of similarity between curves that takes into account the location and ordering of the points along the curves. It is named after Maurice Fréchet.
Intuitive definition
Imagine a person traversin ...
between shapes. He was also the first to use the German phrase "Algorithmische Geometrie"
lgorithmic geometryto refer to
computational geometry. He is a professor of computer science at the
Free University of Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in poli ...
.
Education and career
Alt was born in 1950 in Wolfersweiler, a town in
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and t ...
that later became incorporated into
Nohfelden
Nohfelden is a municipality in the district of Sankt Wendel, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately north of Sankt Wendel, and southwest of Idar-Oberstein. It was formed during administrative reform in January 1974 from the merger o ...
. He became a student of
Kurt Mehlhorn at
Saarland University
Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in si ...
, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1976 on algorithms for parsing
context-free language
In formal language theory, a context-free language (CFL) is a language generated by a context-free grammar (CFG).
Context-free languages have many applications in programming languages, in particular, most arithmetic expressions are generated by ...
s.
At the Free University of Berlin, he became the doctoral advisor of many successful students, including
Otfried Cheong (1992), Johannes Blömer (1993), Christian Knauer (2002),
Carola Wenk
Carola Wenk (born 1973) is a German-American computer scientist known for her research on algorithms for finding similarities between geometric shapes, such as matching vehicle trajectories to road networks, comparing trajectories with each other ...
(2002), and
Maike Buchin (2007).
Recognition
The Free University of Berlin held a symposium on 2015 in honor of Alt's 65th birthday. Another symposium in honor of Alt and Günter Rote was held in 2022 at the Free University of Berlin, in conjunction with the annual
International Symposium on Computational Geometry. At the same International Symposium on Computational Geometry, Alt's work with Michael Godau on using Fréchet distance to measure the similarity of shapes (announced at the 1992 symposium and published in a 1995 journal paper) was given the SoCG Test of Time Award.
Selected publications
Edited volumes
*''Computational Discrete Mathematics: Advanced Lectures'' (Springer, LNCS 2122, 2001)
*''Efficient Algorithms: Essays Dedicated to Kurt Mehlhorn on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday'' (with
Susanne Albers and Stefan Näher, Springer, LNCS 5760, 2009)
*''Algorithms Unplugged'' (with B. Vöcking, M. Dietzfelbinger, R. Reischuk, C. Scheideler, H. Vollmer, and
D. Wagner, Springer, 2011)
Research articles
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alt, Helmut
1950 births
Living people
German computer scientists
Researchers in geometric algorithms
Saarland University alumni
Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin