Carola Wenk

Carola Wenk is a Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Tulane University, within the School of Science and Engineering. She also holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Mathematics. Her research focuses on algorithms, computational geometry, shape matching, and topological data analysis, with applications in geospatial analysis, biomedical informatics, and transportation systems.

Wenk earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Freie Universität Berlin (2002) and a Diplom in Mathematics (1998), both with distinction. She has held academic positions at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and the University of Arizona.

Her work includes pioneering contributions to Fréchet distance algorithms, map construction from GPS trajectories, and computational methods for prostate cancer diagnosis. Her research has been funded by NSF, NIH, DARPA, IARPA, and ARPA-H, totaling over $40M in grants.

• Key Projects:
• MAGIC-SCAN: Machine Learning Assisted Gigantic Image Cancer Margin Scanner (ARPA-H, $22.9M)
• METROPOL: Modeling and Encoding TRajectories Of Patterns Of Life (IARPA, $953K)
• PathCAM: Real-time pathology slide imaging (NIH, $1.69M)

Wenk has received prestigious awards including the NSF CAREER Award (2007), Mortar Board Excellence in Teaching (2014), and multiple Best Paper Awards at SIGSPATIAL, IEEE Vis, and computational geometry conferences. She leads interdisciplinary initiatives, such as the Computational Systems Biology Core at Tulane.

Her lab focuses on topological data analysis, geospatial algorithms, and medical imaging, collaborating with biomedical engineers and clinicians to translate computational methods into clinical applications.