computer science

Mark Overmars

Mark Overmars is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mark Overmars rather than just read about it. In short: Markus Hendrik "Mark" Overmars (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɑrkʏs ˈɦɛndrɪk ˈmɑr(ə)k ˈoːvərmɑrs]; born 29 September 1958) is a Dutch computer scientist and teacher of game programming known for his game development application GameMaker. GameMaker allows users to create computer games using a drag-and-drop interface.

Key takeaways

Mark Overmars belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mark Overmars to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mark Overmars from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Markus Hendrik "Mark" Overmars (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɑrkʏs ˈɦɛndrɪk ˈmɑr(ə)k ˈoːvərmɑrs]; born 29 September 1958) is a Dutch computer scientist and teacher of game programming known for his game development application GameMaker. GameMaker allows users to 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 focuses on computational geometry and its applications in areas such as computer graphics, robotics, geographic information systems, imaging, multimedia, virtual environments, and games. Overmars received his Ph.D. in 1983 from Utrecht University under the supervision of Jan van Leeuwen, and remained a faculty member at the same university until September 2013. Overmars has published over 100 journal papers, largely on computational geometry, and is a co-author of several widely used textbooks on the subject. 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 2,500 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, which was published by YoYo Games. Overmars founded and served as the CTO of Tingly Games from 2012 until its acquisition by CoolGames in 2016. Tingly focused on HTML5 games and e-cards/casual games, the latter of which are also known as "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.

Books Overmars, M. H. (1983). The Design of Dynamic Data Structures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 156. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-12330-X. de Berg, M.; van Kreveld, M.; Overmars, M. H.; Schwarzkopf, O. (1997). Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications. Springer-Verlag. 2nd ed., 2000; 3rd ed., 2008. Habgood, J.; Overmars, M. H. (2006). The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners. APress. ISBN 1-59059-615-3.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mark Overmars

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mark Overmars claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mark Overmars before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mark Overmars ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mark Overmars

In research: Mark Overmars appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mark Overmars in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mark Overmars is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, Academic staff of Utrecht University, Dutch computer programmers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mark Overmars outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mark Overmars in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mark Overmars means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mark Overmars out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mark Overmars in simple terms?

Why does Mark Overmars matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mark Overmars?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mark Overmars.