Ming C. Lin is an American computer scientist and a former chair of the Department of Computer Science at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

, where she also holds an endowed faculty position as the Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vari ...

of Computer Science.Ming Lin Named Chair of UMD Department of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland College Park, retrieved 2018-05-21. Prior to moving to Maryland in 2018, Lin was the John R. & Louise S. Parker

Distinguished Professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

of Computer Science at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which r ...

.Faculty Honors: Ming C. Lin
Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, retrieved 2011-02-04.

Research

Lin is known for her work on

collision detection Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting the intersection (Euclidean geometry), intersection of two or more objects. Collision detection is a classic issue of computational geometry and has applications in various computing ...

, and in particular for the Lin–Canny algorithm for maintaining the closest pair of features of two moving objects, for the idea (with Cohen, Manocha, and Ponamgi) of using axis-aligned

bounding box In geometry, the minimum or smallest bounding or enclosing box for a point set in dimensions is the box with the smallest measure (area, volume, or hypervolume in higher dimensions) within which all the points lie. When other kinds of measure ...

es to quickly eliminate from consideration pairs of objects that are far from colliding, and for additional speedups to collision detection using bounding box hierarchies. Her software libraries implementing these algorithms are widely used in commercial applications including

computer aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

and

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

s. More generally, her research interests are in physically based modeling, haptics,

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for t ...

, computational geometry, and

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...

computer simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...

Biography

Lin did her graduate studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

before joining the UNC faculty in 1997. She is the Editor in Chief Emeritus of ''

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics ''IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It covers subjects related to computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the ...

'' (2011-2014). She is currently a member of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors and a member of Computing Research Association-Women (CRA-W) Board of Directors. Lin is married to her frequent collaborator and UMD faculty colleague, Dinesh Manocha.

Awards and honors

In 2003, UNC gave Lin their Hettleman Prize for Scholarly and Artistic Achievements, and in 2007, she was named as the Beverly W. Long Distinguished Professor. She has won many best-paper awards for her research, and was given the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee 2010 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award "in recognition of her seminal contributions in the area of interactive physics-based interaction and simulation for virtual environments."2010 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award citation
, IEEE VGTC, retrieved 2011-02-04. In 2011 she was listed as a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

for her research in

geometric modeling __NOTOC__ Geometric modeling is a branch of applied mathematics and computational geometry that studies methods and algorithms for the mathematical description of shapes. The shapes studied in geometric modeling are mostly two- or three- dimen ...

and

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great deal ...

, and she was listed as one of the 2012

IEEE Fellow As of 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 5,082 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membershi ...

s for her "contributions to real-time physics-based interaction and simulation for virtual environments, robotics and haptics".2012 Newly Elevated Fellows
IEEE, accessed 2011-12-10.

References

External links

Ming C. Lin home page
at the Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
GAMMA research group
at the Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill {{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Ming C. American computer scientists Computer graphics researchers Living people People from College Park, Maryland Researchers in geometric algorithms Taiwanese computer scientists Taiwanese women computer scientists Taiwanese emigrants to the United States University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellow Members of the IEEE American academics of Chinese descent Year of birth missing (living people) Virtual reality pioneers 21st-century American scientists 21st-century Taiwanese scientists 21st-century Taiwanese women