Welcome to my homepage! My name is Scott Summers, and I am currently a fifth year doctoral candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University. If you would like to contact me, my e-mail address is summers "at" cs "dot" iastate "dot" edu. My office is located on campus in Atanasoff Hall in room B23.

Education

Iowa State University, Ames IA, USA
Ph.D. student in Computer Science, GPA: 3.82
Major professors: Dr. Jack Lutz and Dr. James Lathrop
Expected graduation: May 2010

Iowa State University, Ames IA, USA
M.S. in Computer Science, 2007, GPA: 3.82
Thesis: Strict Self-Assembly of Discrete Sierpinski Triangles

University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, Green Bay WI, USA
B.S. in Computer Science (minor in Mathematics), 2004, GPA: 3.98

Research Interests

In general, I am interested in the theory of computation but I am specifically interested in algorithmic self-assembly, verification techniques for self-assembly systems, and the self-assembly of discrete fractal structures.

I am a member of the Laboratory for Nanoscale Self-Assembly.

Scientific Contributions

• Refereed Conference publications:

  • Matthew J. Patitz, and Scott M. Summers, Self-Assembly of Decidable Sets (extended abstract). Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Unconventional Computation (Vienna, Austria, August 25-28, 2008). Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 5204, Spring-Verlag, 2008, pp. 206-219.

  • Matthew J. Patitz, and Scott M. Summers, Self-Assembly of Discrete Self-Similar Fractals (extended abstract). Proceedings of The Fourteenth International Meeting on DNA Computing (Prague, Czech Republic, June 2-6, 2008). Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, to appear.

  • James I. Lathrop, Jack H. Lutz, Matthew J. Patitz, and Scott M. Summers, Computability and Complexity in Self-Assembly (extended abstract). Logic and Theory of Algorithms: Proceedings of The Fourth Conference on Computability in Europe (Athens, Greece, June 15-20, 2008). Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 5028, Spring-Verlag, 2007, pp. 349-358.

  • James I. Lathrop, Jack H. Lutz, and Scott M. Summers, Strict Self-Assembly of Discrete Sierpinski Triangles (extended abstract). Computation and Logic in the Real World: Proceedings of The Third Conference on Computability in Europe (Siena, Italy, June 18-23, 2007). Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 4497, Spring-Verlag, 2007, pp. 455-464.

• Journal publications:

  • James I. Lathrop, Jack H. Lutz, and Scott M. Summers, Strict Self-Assembly of Discrete Sierpinski Triangles. Theoretical Computer Science. To appear.

Academic and Professional Awards

• Iowa State University (Graduate College) Professional Advancement Grant, April 2008
• Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL) Travel Grant, June 2008
• NSF-IGERT Training Project in Computational Molecular Biology, Summer 2007
• Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL) Travel Grant, June 2007
• NSF IGERT Travel Grant, June 2007
• Iowa State University (Graduate College) Professional Advancement Grant, June 2007
• Iowa State University (Department of Computer Science) John V. Atanasoff Research Excellence Award, May 2007
• Iowa State University (Department of Computer Science) PACE Award, September 2004

• Strict Self-Assembly of Discrete Sierpinski Triangles, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, May 9 2008.

Teaching Activities

One of my favorite activities as a graduate student is teaching. The following is a list of courses for which I have been (or am currently) an instructor.

• Summer 2008 Com S 207 Introduction to Programming 1
• Spring 2008 Com S 331 Theory of Computation

• Fall 2008
  • Course: Com S 227 Introduction to Object-oriented Programming
  • Instructors: Pavan Aduri, Chris Johnson, and Steve Kautz
• Fall 2007
  • Course: Com S 511 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
  • Instructor: Giora Slutzki
• Summer 2007
  • Courses: Com S 207 Programming 1, and Com S 227 Introduction to Object-oriented Programming
  • Instructor: Shashi Gadia
• Spring 2007
  • Course: Com S 331 Theory of Computation
  • Instructor: Jack Lutz
• Fall 2006
  • Course: Com S 311 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
  • Instructors: Giora Slutzki and Oliver Eulenstein
• Summer 2006
  • Course: Com S 311 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
  • Instructor: Giora Slutzki
• Spring 2006
  • Course: Com S 330 Discrete Computational Structures
  • Instructor: Giora Slutzki
• Fall 2005
  • Course: Com S 311 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
  • Instructors: Giora Slutzki and David Fernández-Baca
• Summer 2005
  • Course: Com S 311 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
  • Instructor: Giora Slutzki
• Spring 2005
  • Course: Com S 330 Discrete Computational Structures
  • Instructor: Jack Lutz
• Fall 2004
  • Course: Com S 331 Theory of Computation
  • Instructor: Pavan Aduri

Graduate Coursework

The following is a list of the courses I have taken (or am currently taking) at Iowa State University.

• Fall 2008
  • Com S 631 Computational Complexity
  • Com S 699 Research
• Spring 2008
  • Com S 699 Research
• Fall 2007
  • Com S 699 Research
• Summer 2007
  • Com S 699 Research
• Spring 2007
  • Com S 699 Research
• Fall 2006
  • Com S 433x/533x Computational Models of Nanoscale Self-Assembly
  • Com S 699 Research
• Summer 2006
  • Com S 699 Research
• Spring 2006
  • Com S 525 Numerical Analysis of High Performance Computing
  • Math 350 Number Theory
  • Com S 699 Research
• Fall 2005
  • Com S 633 Randomness in Computation
  • Com S 577 Problem Solving Techniques for Applied Computer Science
  • Com S 699 Research
• Summer 2005
  • Com S 699 Research
• Spring 2005
  • Com S 531 Theory of Computation
  • Com S 634 Game Theory
• Fall 2004
  • Com S 511 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
  • Com S 586 Computer Network Architechture
  • Com S 591 Graduate Orientation