Education and Career
– Mark Overmars received his Ph.D. in 1983 from Utrecht University.
– He was a member of the faculty at Utrecht University until September 2013.
– Overmars has published over 100 journal papers, largely on computational geometry.
– He is the co-author of several books, including a widely used computational geometry text.
– Overmars has worked in robotics and developed the probabilistic roadmap method in 1992.
Research Areas
– Overmars’s research center focuses on computational geometry.
– The center applies computational geometry in computer graphics, robotics, geographic information systems, imaging, multimedia, virtual environments, and games.
– His joint paper on probabilistic roadmaps for path planning is considered influential in motion planning.
– The paper has been widely cited, with over 2500 citations as of 2014.
– Overmars has also worked on the development of the XForms toolkit.
Entrepreneurship
– Overmars co-developed a snake video game called Super Snake HD.
– The game was published as a mobile app by YoYo Games.
– He founded and was CTO of Tingly Games, which focused on HTML5 games and e-cards/casual games.
– Tingly Games was acquired by CoolGames in 2016.
– Overmars founded Quarterfall in 2020, a teaching product that helps improve student learning processes through formative assessment.
Books
– Overmars authored ‘The Design of Dynamic Data Structures’ in 1983.
– He co-authored ‘Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications’ in 1997, with subsequent editions in 2000 and 2008.
– Overmars co-authored ‘The Game Makers Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners’ in 2006.
– His books cover topics such as dynamic data structures, computational geometry, and game development.
– These books have contributed to the field of computer science.
References and Recognition
– Overmars’s curriculum vitae is available on the Utrecht University website.
– He is listed as a former colleague at the GIVE Center.
– Overmars is documented on the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
– His joint paper on probabilistic roadmaps has been referenced in the field of robotics.
– Overmars’s work has received recognition and citations from scholars and researchers.
Markus Hendrik Overmars (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɑrkʏs ˈɦɛndrɪk ˈmɑr(ə)k ˈoːvərˌmɑrs]; born 29 September 1958 in Zeist, Netherlands) is a Dutch computer scientist and teacher of game programming known for his game development application GameMaker. GameMaker lets people create computer games using a drag-and-drop interface. He is the former head of the Center for Geometry, Imaging, and Virtual Environments at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. This research center concentrates on computational geometry and its application in areas like computer graphics, robotics, geographic information systems, imaging, multimedia, virtual environments, and games.
Mark Overmars | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 September 1958 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | Utrecht University |
| Known for | Probabilistic Roadmap Method, GameMaker |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computational geometry Robotics |
| Institutions | Utrecht University |
| Thesis | The Design of Dynamic Data Structures (1983) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jan van Leeuwen |
| Doctoral students | Marc van Kreveld |
Overmars received his Ph.D. in 1983 from Utrecht University under the supervision of Jan van Leeuwen, and continued to be a member of the faculty of the same university until September 2013. Overmars has published over 100 journal papers, largely on computational geometry, and is the co-author of several books including a widely used computational geometry text.
Overmars has also worked in robotics. He was the first to develop the probabilistic roadmap method in 1992, which was later independently discovered by Kavraki and Latombe in 1994. Their joint paper, Probabilistic roadmaps for path planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces, is considered one of the most influential studies in motion planning, and has been widely cited (more than 2500 times as of 2014 according to Google Scholar).
In 2011, Overmars and game designer Jochem Schut developed a snake video game called Super Snake HD as a mobile app; it was published by YoYo Games.
Overmars founded and was CTO of Tingly Games from 2012 until it was acquired by CoolGames in 2016. Tingly focused on HTML5 games and e-cards / casual games, the latter of which is called "greeting games".
He founded Quarterfall in June 2020 together with Arjan Egges. Quarterfall is a teaching product that helps teachers use formative assessment to improve the learning processes their students, compared to just assessing their performance.
He is also the original author of the XForms toolkit.
