Levent Burak Kara
Assistant Professor

Carnegie Mellon University
Mechanical Engineering Department
Scaife Hall 315
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
lkara@andrew.cmu.edu
Phone: (412) 268-2509
Administrative Assistant:
Nancy Beatty
Scaife Hall 316
Phone: (412) 268-2908
nlbeatty@andrew.cmu.edu



Research Interests
 (Ph.D., M.S., and Undergraduate Research Positions*)

Intelligent Design Interfaces
Trainable design assistants

Pen-based user interfaces
Conceptual design tools
Design innovation
Artificial intelligence in design
Human Computer interaction
Computational Geometry & Solid Modeling
Curve and surface design
Free-form geometric modeling
Physically-based modeling
Computational aesthetics and styling
Bio-Medical Modeling and Simulation
Design Methodology & Automation
Computational design tools
Computer aided design
Design reasoning
Spatial & geometric reasoning
Qualitative physics


SketchCad Video (zipped AVI file)

SketchCadatWork

Refereed Journal and Conference Publications

car sketch

Levent Burak Kara
, Kenji Shimada (2008)
Supporting Early Styling Design of Automobiles Using Sketch-based 3D Shape Construction.
Computer-Aided Design & Applications, Volume 5, Issue 6, pp 867-876, 2008. Also
CAD'08 conference
vibro2

Levent Burak Kara
, Leslie Gennari, Thomas F. Stahovich (2008)
A Sketch-based tool for Analyzing Vibratory Mechanical Systems.
Journal of Mechanical Design, Volume 130, Issue 10, 2008
Levent Burak Kara, Kenji Shimada, Sarah D. Marmalefsky (2007)
An Evaluation of User Experience with a Sketch-based 3D Modeling System.

Computers & Graphics. Volume 31, Issue 4, August 2007, Pages 580-597
WeeSan Lee, Levent Burak Kara, Thomas F. Stahovich  (2007)
An Efficient Graph-Based Symbol Recognizer.

Computers & Graphics. Volume 31, Issue 4, August 2007, Pages 554-567
Levent Burak Kara, Kenji Shimada  (2007)
Sketch-based 3D Shape Creation for Industrial Styling Design.

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 60-71, 2007.
Levent Burak Kara, Kenji Shimada  (2006)
Construction and Modification of 3D Geometry Using a Sketch-based Interface.
Eurographics Workshop on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling 2006.
WeeSan Lee, Levent Burak Kara, Thomas F. Stahovich  (2006)
An Efficient Graph-Based Symbol Recognizer.
Eurographics Workshop on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling 2006.
 
Paul S. Steif, Anne L. Fay, Levent Burak Kara, Stephen E. Spencer (2006)
Work in Progress - Improving Problem Solving Performance in Statics through Body-Centric Talk.
36rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Diego, CA., October, 28-31, 2006
 
Levent Burak Kara, Chris D'Eramo, Kenji Shimada  (2006)
Pen-based Styling Design of 3D Geometry Using Concept Sketches and Template Models.
ACM Solid and Physical Modeling Conference (SPM) 2006.
Levent Burak Kara, Thomas F. Stahovich   (2005)
An Image-Based, Trainable Symbol Recognizer for Hand-drawn Sketches.
Computers & Graphics 29(4): 501-517  2005.

Leslie Gennari, Levent Burak Kara, Thomas F. Stahovich   (2005)
Combining Geometry and Domain Knowledge to Interpret Hand-Drawn Diagrams.
Computers & Graphics 29(4): 547-562  2005.

Levent Burak Kara, Thomas F. Stahovich   (2004)
An Image-Based Trainable Symbol Recognizer for Sketch-Based Interfaces.
AAAI Fall Symposium Series 2004: Making Pen-Based Interaction Intelligent and Natural.

Leslie Gennari, Levent Burak Kara, Thomas F. Stahovich   (2004)
Combining Geometry and Domain Knowledge to Interpret Hand-Drawn Diagrams.
AAAI Fall Symposium Series 2004: Making Pen-Based Interaction Intelligent and Natural.


video

Levent Burak Kara
, Thomas F. Stahovich   (2004)
Hierarchical Parsing and Recognition of Hand-Sketched Diagrams.
17th ACM User Interface Software Technology (UIST) 2004.


 
video

Levent Burak Kara
, Leslie Gennari, Thomas F. Stahovich   (2004)
A Sketch-Based Interface for the Design and Analysis of Simple Vibratory Mechanical Systems.

2004 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences  (ASME/ DETC 2004).


video

Levent Burak Kara
,  Thomas F. Stahovich   (2004)
Sim-U-Sketch: A Sketch-Based Interface for Simulink.
Proceedings of AVI-2004,
pp  354-357. 

Levent Burak Kara,  Thomas F. Stahovich   (2002)
Causal Reasoning using Geometric Analysis.

AI EDAM, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp 363-384, 2002.

Chris Calhoun, Thomas F. Stahovich, Tolga Kurtoglu, Levent Burak Kara    (2002)
Recognizing Multi-Stroke Symbols.   

AAAI Spring Symposium, Sketch Understanding, 2002.
 
Thomas F. Stahovich, Levent Burak Kara    (2001)
A Representation for Comparing Simulations and Computing the Purpose of Geometric Features.

AI EDAM, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp 189-201, 2001.

Levent Burak Kara
,  Thomas F. Stahovich    (2001)
Spatial Reasoning About Mechanical Behaviors.  

ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference (DTM), DETC 2001/DTM-21684, 2001.
 

 

Ph.D. Thesis

Levent Burak Kara   (September 2004)
Automatic Parsing and Recognition of Hand-Drawn Sketches for Pen-Based Computer Interfaces.
Ph.D. Dissertation.  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA