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Applications Of Computational Homology, Christopher Aaron Johnson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Homology is a field of topology that classifies objects based on the number of n- dimensional holes (cuts, tunnels, voids, etc.) they possess. The number of its real life ap- plications is quickly growing, which requires development of modern computational meth- ods. In my thesis, I will present methods of calculation, algorithms, and implementations of simplicial homology, alpha shapes, and persistent homology.

The Alpha Shapes method represents a point cloud as the union of balls centered at each point, and based on these balls, a complex can be built and homology computed. If the balls are allowed to grow, one …