Pankaj K. Agarwal

Geometric algorithms, discrete geometry, geometric data analysis, data structures, database systems and data mining, robotics algorithms, geographic information systems.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

RJR Nabisco Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences · 2008 - Present Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Professor of Computer Science · 1998 - Present Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Professor of Mathematics · 2009 - Present Mathematics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Bass Fellow · 2005 - Present Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News

Published November 12, 2023

Five Decades of Creating History and Pushing Boundaries at Duke Computer Science

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Recent Publications

Optimal Motion Planning for Two Square Robots in a Rectilinear Environment

Conference Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics Lipics · June 20, 2025 Let W ⊂ R2 be a rectilinear polygonal environment (that is, a rectilinear polygon potentially with holes) with a total of n vertices, and let A,B be two robots, each modeled as an axis-aligned unit square, that can move rectilinearly inside W. The goal is ... Full text Cite

A Subquadratic Algorithm for Computing the L1-Distance Between Two Terrains

Conference Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics Lipics · June 20, 2025 We study the problem of computing the L1-distance between two piecewise-linear bivariate functions f and g, defined over a bounded polygonal domain M ⊂ R2, that is, computing the quantity ∥f-g∥1 = ∫M|f(x, y)-g(x, y)| dx dy. If f and g are defined by linear ... Full text Cite

Intersection Queries for Flat Semi-Algebraic Objects in Three Dimensions and Related Problems

Journal Article ACM Transactions on Algorithms · June 6, 2025 Let be a set of n flat (planar) semi-algebraic regions in of constant complexity (e.g., triangles, disks), which we call plates. We wish to preprocess into a data structure so that for a query object , which is also a plate, we can quickly answer various i ... Full text Cite

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External Links

Agarwal Website