Syed Muhammad Mashhood Ishaque

        Phd Candidate
        in the Department of Computer Science,
        School of Engineering, Tufts University
        working in Computational Geometry Research Group
        with Prof. Diane L. Souvaine

Research

Research Interests
- Computational Geometry.
- Geometric Data Structures.
- Algorithmic Self-Assembly.
- Temporal Planning and Reasoning.
Papers
- Journal Articles
  1. Relative Convex Hulls in Semi-Dynamic Arrangements, with Csaba Toth. Submitted.
  2. Shooting Permanent Rays Among Disjoint Polygons in the Plane, with Bettina Speckmann, and Csaba Toth. Submitted.
  3. Augmenting the edge connectivity of planar straight line graphs to three, with Marwan Al-Jubeh, Kristof Redei, Diane L. Souvaine, Csaba Toth, and Pavel Valtr. Submitted to Algorithmica.
  4. Convex Partitions with 2-Edge Connected Dual Graphs, with Marwan Al-Jubeh, Michael Hoffmann, Diane L. Souvaine, and Csaba Toth. Special issue of Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, 2010, to appear.
  5. Project Management Using Point Graphs, with Abbas K. Zaidi and Alexander H. Levis. Journal of System Engineering, 12(1), 2009.
  6. Staged Self-Assembly: Nanomanufacture of Arbitrary Shapes with O(1) Glues, with Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Sándor P. Fekete, Eynat Rafalin, Robert Schweller, and Diane L. Souvaine. Natural Computing, 7(3), 2008. Special issue of selected papers from the 13th International Meeting on DNA Computing, 2007.
  7. Using Temporal Reasoning for Criminal Forensics against Terrorists, with Abbas K. Zaidi and Alexander H. Levis. Collection of selected papers from Descartes Conference on Mathematical Models in Counterterrorism (2007), Center for Advanced Defense Studies, Springer Series.
- Book Chapters
  - Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Temporal Reasoning for Criminal Forensics, with Abbas K. Zaidi and Alexander H. Levis. Mathematical Methods in Counterterrorism, 2009, Springer.
- Conference Papers
  1. Even Orientations with Forbidden Pairs and Demands, with Sarah Cannon, and Csaba Toth, 20th Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry, 2010, Stony Brook, NY.
  2. Constrained Tri-Connected Planar Straight Line Graphs, with Diane L. Souvaine, Csaba Toth, and Andrew Winslow, 20th Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry, 2010, Stony Brook, NY.
  3. Bounded-Degree Polyhedronization of Point Sets, with Gill Barequet, Nadia Benbernou, David Charlton, Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine, Anna Lubiw, Andre Schulz, Diane L. Souvaine, Godfried T. Toussaint, and Andrew Winslow, 22nd Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2010.
  4. Connecting Obstacles in Vertex-Disjoint Paths (presentation), with Marwan Al-Jubeh, Gill Barequet, Diane L. Souvaine, Csaba Toth, and Andrew Winslow, 26th European Workshop on Computational Geometry, 2010, Dortmund, Germany.
  5. Tri-Edge-Connectivity Augmentation for Straight Line Graphs (presentation), with Marwan Al-Jubeh, Kristof Redei, Diane L. Souvaine, and Csaba Toth, 20th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation, 2009, Honolulu, HI.
  6. Convex Partitions with 2-Edge Connected Dual Graphs (presentation), with Marwan Al-Jubeh, Michael Hoffmann, Diane L. Souvaine, and Csaba Toth, 15th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference, 2009, Buffalo, NY. Abstract appeared in 18th Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry, 2008, Troy, NY.
  7. Shooting Permanent Rays Among Disjoint Polygons in the Plane, with Bettina Speckmann and Csaba Toth, 25th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry, 2009, Aarhus, Denmark.
  8. Relative Convex Hulls in Semi-Dynamic Subdivisions, with Csaba Toth, 16th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms, 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany.
  9. Data Structures for Restricted Triangular Range Searching (presentation), with Nadia M. Benbernou and Diane L. Souvaine, 20th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2008, Montreal, Canada.
  10. An Inference Mechanism for Point-Interval Logic (presentation), with Faisal Mansoor, and Abbas K. Zaidi, 21st International FLAIRS Conference, 2008, Coconut Grove, FL.
  11. Disjoint segments have convex partitions with 2-edge connected dual graphs (presentation), (Erratum), with Nadia M. Benbernou, Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Michael Hoffmann, Diane L. Souvaine, and Csaba Toth. 19th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2007, Ottawa, Canada.
  12. Staged Self-Assembly: Nanomanufacture of Arbitrary Shapes with O(1) Glues (presentation), with Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Sándor P. Fekete, Eynat Rafalin, Robert Schweller, and Diane L. Souvaine. 13th International Meeting on DNA Computing, 2007, Memphis, TN.
  13. Project Management Using Point Graphs (presentation), with Abbas K. Zaidi and Alexander H. Levis. 5th Conference on Systems Engineering Research, 2007, Hoboken, NJ.
  14. On Applying Point-Interval Logic to Criminal Forensics (presentation), with Abbas K. Zaidi and Alexander H. Levis. Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, 2006, San Diego, CA. Nominated for Best Student Paper award.
  15. Time-Sensitive Planning Using Point-Interval Logic (presentation), with Abbas K. Zaidi. 10th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, 2005, McLean, VA.
- Theses
  - Doctoral Thesis: Geometric Data Structures (2010), CS, Tufts University.
  - MS Thesis: On Temporal Planning and Reasoning (2006), CS, George Mason University.
  - BS Thesis: Knowledge Verification of Intelligent Agents (2003), CS, Karachi University.
Talks
- Lower Bounds for Simplex Emptiness and Related Problems, Graduate Student Council, 14th Annual Research Symposium, Tufts, Spring 2010.
- Lower Bounds for Simplex Emptiness and Related Problems, CS Colloquium, Tufts, Spring 2010.
- Convex Partitions with 2-Edge Connected Dual Graphs, Graduate Student Council, 13th Annual Research Symposium, Tufts, Spring 2009.
- Restricted Simplex Emptiness Queries, Graduate Student Council, 12th Annual Research Symposium, Tufts, Spring 2008.
- Restricted Simplex Emptiness Queries, PhD Lunch, Computer Science Department, Tufts, Spring 2008.
- Project Management using Point Graphs, CS Colloquium, Tufts, Spring 2007.
- Staged Self-Assembly, Graduate Student Council, 11th Annual Research Symposium, Tufts, Spring 2007.
- Staged Self-Assembly (presentation), Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Fall Seminar Series, Tufts, 2006.
- Jigsaw-Puzzle Technique for Staged Model of Self-Assembly (poster), Graduate Research Virtual Expo, Tufts, 2006-07.
- On Designing and Evaluating Computer Science Curricula in Pakistan, One Day International Conference on Computer Science Trends in Pakistan, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Feb 2002.
CV in PostScript or PDF, last updated on May 18th, 2010.
I worked as a Research Assistant in System Architectures Laboratory, at George Mason University.
I have been an external reviewer for the conferences: CCCG, ESA, IEEE SMC, SoCG,.
My Erdos number is 3. My co-authors are: Marwan Al-Jubeh, Gill Barequet, Nadia Benbernou, Sarah Cannon, David Charlton, Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Sándor P. Fekete, Michael Hoffmann, Alexander H. Levis, Anna Lubiw, Faisal Mansoor, Eynat Rafalin, Kristof Redei, Andr� Schulz, Robert T. Schweller, Diane L. Souvaine, Bettina Speckmann, Godfried T. Toussaint, Csaba D. Toth, Pavel Valtr, Andrew Winslow, Abbas K. Zaidi

Academics

Education:
- PhD, Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA, November 2010.
- MS, Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 2005.
- BS, Computer Science, Karachi University, Karachi, Pakistan, 2002.
- HSc, Pre-Engineering, DJ Sindh Govt. Science College, Karachi, Pakistan, 1998.
- SSc, Science Group, PAF Intermediate College (now Fazaia), Karachi, Pakistan, 1996.
Awards and Honors:
- Outstanding Graduate Researcher in Engineering, Tufts University, 2009-10.
- Tufts Graduate Institute for College Teaching (GIFT) Fellow, 2008.
- Awarded student travel grant for DNA13 conference, Memphis, TN, 2007.
- Awarded scholarship to attend NATO Advanced Study Institute's summer school on Combinatorial Optimization: Methods and Applications, Montreal, CA, 2006 (declined).
- Outstanding Graduate Student, Computer Science Department, George Mason University, 2005-06.
- George Mason University Masters Fellowship, 2004 and 2005.
- Developed the software "ACM Curriculum Analyzer" that helped ACM Chapter (University of Karachi) win "ACM Excellence Award for Community Service", 2001-02.
- Awarded HSc Merit Scholarship from Karachi Board of Education, 1998 (awarded to top 20 students out of approximately 15,000 students).
- Participated in Second National Physics Talent Constest, Nilore, 1998 (only 50 students were invited from all over the country).
- Invited to PAF Leadership Camp, Kalabagh, June 1996.
- Chief of Air Staff Honor Student (9th grade) for year 1995 (only five 9th graders were selected from all over the country).
Teaching Activities:
- Teaching Assistant for Computational Geometry, Fall 2009, Spring 2008, Fall 2006.
- Teaching Assistant for Computational Geometry Seminar, Spring 2009.
- Co-Instructor for Algorithms, Fall 2008.
- Algorithms and Data Structures, Guest Lecture in Comp 7 (Great Advances in Computer Science), Tufts, Fall 2008.
- Petri Nets, guest lecture in Comp 180 (Software Engineering), Tufts, Fall 2006, Fall 2007, and Fall 2008.
- Geometric Data Structures, Guest Lecture in Comp 15 (Data Structures), Tufts, Summer 2008.
- Emptiness Queries, Guest Lecture in Comp 11 (Introduction to Computer Science), Tufts, Fall 2007.
- Computational Geometry and Data Structures (presentation), Guest Lecture in Comp 11 (Introduction to Computer Science), Tufts, Summer 2007.
- Algorithmic Self-Assembly, Guest Lecture in Comp 11 (Introduction to Computer Science), Tufts, Fall 2006.
- Taught a mini course on Computational Geometry at Karachi University, Summer 2006.
- Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Computer Science, Spring 2006.
- Lecturer for Theory of Computation course at Karachi University, Spring 2003.
Courses I have taken at graduate level:
- Courses while at Tufts: Computational Learning Theory, Computational Geometry, Software Engineering (audit), Advanced Computational Geometry, Advanced Data Structures (MIT), Probability in Computer Science, Wireless Sensor Networks (audit), Advanced Algorithms (MIT), Graph Theory (audit), Computational Geometry Seminar
- Course while at George Mason: Language Processors, Operating Systems, Analysis of Algorithms, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Discrete Event Systems, Parallel Algorithms (UMD), Approximation Algorithms (Directed Study with Dana Richards), Network Modeling

Contact Information

Name: Mashhood Ishaque
Email: mishaque@cs.tufts.edu
Mailing address:

Mashhood Ishaque
Computer Science Department
161 College Ave
Medford, Massachusetts 02155
USA

Personal Information

Languages (Reading, Writing, Speaking):
- English (fluent, fluent, fluent)
- Urdu (fluent, fluent, fluent)
- Hindi ( , , fluent)
Hobbies: Music, Poetry, Movies, Cricket, Squash, NFL, PhD Comics, Big Nate
Citizenship: Pakistani
Birthplace: Karachi, Pakistan
Birthdate: February 22, 1980

Useful Links

Last updated Nov 16th, 2010 by Mashhood Ishaque