David Bindel

I have moved to Cornell.

As of Fall 06, I am a Courant Instructor in the department of mathematics at NYU. Prior to that, I was a graduate student in the computer science division at UC Berkeley. Parts of these pages were written prior to my move, and some sections may be out of date or may have broken links. Caveat lector.

Research interests include:

• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
• Numerical linear algebra
• Finite element analysis
• Floating point computation
• Network tomography

More generally, I'm interested in a variety of topics that involve software design, mathematical analysis, and physical modeling. I work with engineers and scientists to simulate systems as diverse as cell phone components, peer-to-peer overlay networks, and musical instruments. My work is described in more detail in my CV and research statement; some of this work is described in much more detail in my dissertation.

MEMS Simulation

My current work with MEMS simulation primarily involves the design of high-frequency resonators for RF applications, and in particular studying damping in these systems. To simulate these devices, I've written a finite element code (HiQLab), which is currently under active development.

• HiQLab: A code for simulating resonant MEMS
• Model Reduction and Mode Computation for Damped Resonant MEMS. Presented at SIAM CSE 07, Feb 2007.
• D. S. Bindel and S. Govindjee. Elastic PMLs for resonator anchor loss simulation. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, v 64, 789--818 (2005). See also the earlier tech report UCB/SEMM-2005/01.
• T. Koyama, D.S. Bindel, W. He, E.P. Quevy, S. Govindjee, J.W. Demmel, and R.T. Howe. Simulation tools for high frequency resonators. Proceedings of IEEE Sensors 05, Irvine, CA, 2005.
• D.S. Bindel, E. Quevy, T. Koyama, S. Govindjee, J.W. Demmel, and R.T. Howe. Anchor Loss Simulation in Resonators. In Proceedings of MEMS 2005. Miami, FL, February 2005.
• Model reduction for RF MEMS simulation. [slides]. In Proceedings of PARA 04, Lyngby, Denmark, 2004. Springer LNCS 3732/2006, pp. 286--295.
• Computer-Aided Design of MEMS: Eigenvalues, Energy Losses, and Dick Tracy Watches. Seminar talk given November 2004 at NYU.
• Simulating RF MEMS. Bay Area Scientific Computing Day, March 2004.

SUGAR is a system-level simulator for MEMS, meant to follow in the steps of the popular SPICE circuit simulator. I wrote much of the code for SUGAR 2, and most of the code for SUGAR 3, but now spend much more time on HiQLab.

• SUGAR project home page (includes some older SUGAR group papers)
• SUGAR: A MEMS Simulation Tool. Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems (MSM), April 2002.
• SUGAR tutorial at BSAC IAB meeting, March 2002.
• M&MEMS, a web front-end to SUGAR, now defunct.

Numerical linear algebra

Much of my recent work focuses on algorithms for structured and parameter-dependent eigenvalue calculations. The structured eigensolvers are joint work with Ming Gu; work on continuation of invariant subspaces is joint with Mark Friedman and Jim Demmel. I also collaborate with Zhaojun Bai on structured model reduction procedures.

• Bounds and Error Estimates for Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems. Berkeley Applied Math Seminar, October 08.
• Numerical Methods for Resonance Calculations. BIRS Workshop on Mathematical Theory of Resonances, October 08.
• Computer Aided Design of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems: From Energy Losses to Dick Tracy Watches. Householder XVII, June 08.
  (This was the talk for the Householder Prize for best dissertation in numerical linear algebra. There is substantial overlap with many of my MEMS talks.)
• Error Bounds and Error Estimates for Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems. Householder XVII, June 08.
• D. Bindel, J. Demmel, and M. Friedman. Continuation of Invariant Subspaces in Large Bifurcation Problems. SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 30, Number 2 (March 2008), 637--656.
• D. Bindel and M. Zworski, Symmetry of Bound and Antibound States in the Semiclassical Limit. Letters in Math Physics, 81, Number 2 (2007), 107-117. See also math-ph/0702083.
• D. Bindel and M. Zworski, Theory and Computation of Resonances in 1D Scattering. (Notes and codes, both still in progress.)
• Spectral Inclusion Regions for Bifurcation Analysis. NYU NA seminar, Oct 06. Earlier version Stanford LA/Opt seminar, Aug 2006.
• Continuation of Sparse Eigendecompositions. Presented at SIAM CSE 07, Feb 2007.
• D.S. Bindel, J.W. Demmel, and M.J. Friedman. Continuation of invariant subspaces for large bifurcation problems. Technical report UCB/EECS-2006-13.
• Eigenproblems in Resonant MEMS Design. SIAM Annual Meeting, Jul 2005.
• Continuation of Invariant Subspaces of Sparse Parameter-Dependent Matrices. Householder XVI Numerical Linear Algebra Symposium, May 2005.
• Bifurcation Analysis of Large Equilibrium Systems in MATLAB. Proceedings of ICCS 05 (Springer LNCS vol 3514).
• Reduced order models in microsystems and RF MEMS [slides]. PARA04, June 2004.
• Fast QR Iteration for Companion Matrices. SIAM Linear Algebra Meeting, June 2003.
• Continuation of Invariant Subspaces for Large Bifurcation Problems. SIAM Linear Algebra Meeting, June 2003.
• A Fast Nonsymmetric Eigensolver for Structured Matrices. Berkeley matrix computations seminar, September 2003.
• Parameter-Dependent Eigencomputations and MEMS Applications. Berkeley matrix computations seminar, April 2003.

I was also responsible for release 3.0 of the CLAPACK library, a C translation of LAPACK, a popular package of Fortran routines for dense linear algebra.

• CLAPACK software
• CLAwrap: A more natural C-style interface to LAPACK
• CLAwrap-win is LAPACK + CLAwrap compiled for Windows
• A wrapper around the standard C bindings to the BLAS allows CBLAS routines to be called from f2c'd code.

Floating point computation

Partly due to the influence of W. Kahan, I have become interested in floating-point arithmetic.

• IEEE 754R committee
• D. Bindel, J. Demmel, W. Kahan, O. Marques. On computing Givens rotations reliably and efficiently. ACM TOMS, 28 (2): 206--238, June 2002. Also LAPACK Working Note 148.
• Annotated floating point bibliography
• Unfinished notes from Kahan's floating-point course

Network Tomography and Peer-to-Peer Systems

Recently, I have worked with Yan Chen on a linear-algebraic approach to monitoring the behavior of overlay networks.

• Y. Zhao, Y. Chen, and D. Bindel. Deterministic Overlay Diagnosis. Poster paper in ACM SIGMETRICS 2006.
• Y. Zhao, Y. Chen, and D.S. Bindel. Scalable and deterministic overlay network diagnosis. Poster in SIGCOMM 2005.
• Linear Algebra for Network Loss Characterization. Berkeley matrix computation seminar, March 2004.
• Linear Algebra for Network Loss Characterization. Berkeley matrix computation seminar, June 2003.
• Y. Chen, D. Bindel, H. Song, and R. H. Katz. An Algebraic Approach to Practical and Scalable Overlay Network Monitoring, to appear in ACM SIGCOMM, 2004.
• Y. Chen, D. Bindel, and R. H. Katz, Tomography-based Overlay Network Monitoring, poster in ACM SIGCOMM, 2003. Abstract of the poster to appear in ACM Computer Communication Review(CCR), 2004.
• Y. Chen, D. Bindel, and R. H. Katz, Tomography-based Overlay Network Monitoring, Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) (6-page extended abstract), 2003.
• Y. Chen, D. Bindel, H. Song, and R. H. Katz. Tomography-based Overlay Network Monitoring UCB/CSD Tech Report No. CSD-03-1252, June, 2003.

I was previously involved in the OceanStore project.

• Y. Chen, A. Bargteil, D. Bindel. Quantifying Network Denial of Service: A Location Service Case Study. International Conference on Information and Communications Security (ICICS), November 2001.
• Kubiatowicz et. al. OceanStore: An Architecture for Global-Scale Persistent Storage. International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS), November 2000.
• Metadata issues for file system security. Winter 2000 IRAM/ISTORE/OceanStore retreat.

Finite element analysis

I write my own finite element codes for some simulations, and for others I use FEAP. I developed the memory management system used in FEAP 7.5, as well as a few add-ons which are not part of the main distribution.

• Finite Element Analysis of Human Bone Models. NYU Biomath Lunch Seminar, April 08.
• FEAPMEX: A Matlab interface to FEAP.
• HiQLab: A finite element code for resonant MEMS simulation.
• FEAP I/O patches for improved graphics handling, better command editing, and command history.
• I've helped Cynthia Bruyns with physical modeling for sound synthesis.