He is also working with Duke University researchers on external memory algorithms. Both of these problems relate to geometry. For example, most of the time when theoreticians design algorithms, they do not worry about available memory. But in many large-scale applications, one must deal with more data than will fit in the computer's main memory. You want to organize data and design algorithms to access that data in an efficient way.
Nobody wants to walk all the way to the library to get one book just to read the title page.
It's the same with collision detection. Graphics and robotics people have been looking at these problems forever. What I'm trying to do is come up with algorithms that I can actually prove something about, in the hopes that I can turn that into more efficient practice. But nobody knows why they work well, or when they work well. Erickson enjoys practicing Aikido and reading independent comic books.