Abstract: Given a parameterized surface in P^3, the implicitization problem is to find the single implicit equation defining the surface. Implicitization is an important step for intersection problems in geometric modelling. I describe two methods for finding the implicit equation which exploit the monomial structure and sparsity of the parametric equations. The surface is viewed as a projection from a certain toric variety. The two techniques correspond to algebraic geometry and commutative algebra on the toric variety.
This talk will be accessible to graduate students.