Vita - Donald H. House

Vita
Donald H. House
September 2003

Professor
Department of Architecture and Visualization Laboratory
College of Architecture, Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-3137
(979) 845-3465, fax (979) 845-4491
house at viz tamu edu, http://www-viz.tamu.edu/faculty/house

Education

Ph.D. 1984, University of Massachusetts (Computer Science)
M.S. 1978, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Electrical Engineering)
B.S. 1969, Union College (Mathematics)

Academic Experience

Professor, Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University, 1999 to present
Coordinator, Master of Science in Visualization Sciences, Texas A&M University, 1993-2003
Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University, 1993-1999
Associate Professor - Computer Science Department, Williams College, 1990-1993
Assistant Professor - Computer Science Department, Williams College, 1984-1990
Visiting Lecturer - Mathematical Sciences Department, Smith College, 1981-1982 and Spring 1984
Lecturer - Mathematical Sciences Department, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1978-1980

Visiting Positions

Visiting Scientist - Department of Computer Science and Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Vis Lab, University of New Hampshire, 2000-2001
Visiting Professor - Department of Architecture and Visualization Laboratory, Texas A&M University, 1992-1993
Part Time Visiting Scientist - Design Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1986-1992

Industrial Experience

General Electric Company, Wilmington, NC, Software Engineer and Systems Programmer for factory floor on-line production control system, 1976-1978
Independent process control software contractor, Schenectady, NY, 1975-1976
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY,

Simulation software Engineer for power systems analysis group, 1974-1975
Instructor and administrator for GE/RPI Advanced Course for Engineers, 1973-1974
Programmer/Lead Programmer for real-time large scale industrial automation projects. Also responsible for design and development of software development tools for GE process-computers, including cross-compilers, cross-assemblers and editors, 1968-1973

Professional Societies

Association for Computing Machinery
SIGGRAPH
IEEE Computer Society

Academic and Professional Honors

Paper of the Year, International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, 1996
Class of 1941 Fellow - Williams College, 1986-1987
University Fellow - University of Massachusetts, 1982-1983
Departmental Fellow - COINS Department, summer 1982
Honorary Member Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society - University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1979, recognition for excellence in teaching.

Teaching

For the past ten years, teaching has dominated my activities, as I was responsible for developing the curriculum of the Master of Science in Visualization Sciences program at Texas A&M (see Service below). This has been a great source of satisfaction and I have always felt that this work was highly synergistic with my research goals.

Happily combining teaching and research, I am currently working on an NSF sponsored educational project to produce a planetarium show entitlied Enlightening Lightning!. The show uses a multi-media mix of video, character animation, animated illustrations, slides and sound to explain lightning science, lore and safety to middle school children. It, and a related web site for teachers, is planned for national release in the Summer of 2004.

My teaching specialties at Texas A&M have been Physically Based Modeling for Visualization and Animation, Computer Graphics, and Programming Methodology. For the Visualization Program I developed four new graduate courses in computer graphics, VIZA 652 and VIZA 653 - Computing for Visualization I & II, VIZA 654 - The Digital Image, and VIZA 659 - Physically Based Modeling. In addition, I regularly teach a graduate seminar covering current graphics research. Computing for Visualization is a one year comprehensive sequence in graphics programming, mathematics for graphics and interactive techniques designed to prepare Visualization graduate students with art or design backgrounds for advanced study in graphics. The Digital Image covers a broad spectrum of topics having to do with generating, storing, compositing, warping and morphing digital images. Physically Based Modeling treats the integration of physical simulation with visualization methods to produce realistic motion sequences for both animation choreography and real-time virtual-world interaction.

While at Williams College my specialties were Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics, and there I developed two courses in Computer Graphics. The first, Computer Graphics, was an upper division undergraduate course focusing on the methodologies underlying three-dimensional shaded graphics. The second course, The Art and Science of Computer Graphics , was developed in collaboration with Steve Levin of the Studio Art Department, with support from both the Sloan Foundation and the New England Consortium for Undergraduate Science Education. We designed the curriculum and associated course software (Jabka) for an audience of undergraduate non-science majors. The course enjoyed wide success, being offered experimentally in January of 1990 and offered regularly since then at Williams. A number of other schools, including Gettysburg, Hamilton, Vassar and Bowdoin offered courses integrating the software and all or part of the curriculum.

SIGGRAPH Conference Courses

Organizer, Cloth and Clothing in Computer Graphics , SIGGRAPH 98, Course No. 31
Organizer, Particle System Modeling, Animation, and Physically Based Techniques, SIGGRAPH 92, Course No. 16.

Ph.D. Committee Chairmanships

completed

Scott Arvin (chair), Architecture, Texas A&M University, Physically Based Space Planning, 2003 (pending/December).
Greg Schmidt (cochair), Computer Science, Texas A&M University, Model Based Gesture Recognition, 2000
Sandra Sudarsky (cochair), Computer Science, Texas A&M University, Motion Data Manipulation and Reuse via B-Splines , 1999
Aladin Ibrahim (chair), Architecture, Texas A&M University, Genetic Shaders: Automatic and Interactive Shader Generation , 1998.
David Breen (cochair), Computer and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, A Particle-Based Model for Simulating the Draping Behavior of Woven Cloth, 1993.

ongoing

Carmen Aroztegui (cochair), Architecture, Texas A&M University, Subjective Visualization.

M.S. Committee Chairmanships

completed (all Visualization Sciences, Texas A&M University)

Robert Moyer, A Wood Burl Shader, 2003 (pending/December)
Jean Michael Mistrot, Particle Staining , 2003 (pending/December)
Jeff David Groves, Video Modeling: Spatio-Temporal Warping, 2003 (pending/December)
Barbara Lynn Ellison, Costume Construction for Digital Characters, 2002
Thomas Moore, Reconstruction of PSA B-727-214 and C-172M Accident of September 25, 1978: San Diego, California, Using Computer Simulation and Visualization, 2000
Maria Pia Miniati, A Physically Based Approach to Modeling and Animating a Sailboat, 1999
Tonya Abna, Loose and Sketchy Rendering, 1999
Kevin Reuter, Fractal Generation of Textures and Backgrounds, 1999
Sunil Segu, Towards Believable Cloth Motion in Computer Animation, 1999
Manuel Calderon, Avoiding Character Collisions in Games, 1998
Everett Hinkley, Toon Physics and the Automation of Cartoon Like Animation, 1998.
Christopher Kocmoud, Constructing Continuous Cartograms: A Constraint Based Approach, 1997.
Michael Ringham, Physically-Based Aerodynamic Flight of Birds: An Interactive Approach to Behavioral Flocking, 1996.
David Hisanaga, Conversion of Digital Images to the Look of Motion Picture Film, 1996.
Umakanth Thumrugoti, Interactive Modeler for Cloth Draping, 1994.
Evelyn Wells (cochair), A Comparison of Interactive Color Specification Systems for Human-Computer Interfaces, 1994.

ongoing

Jeffrey Alcantara, Artistic Rendering of Ocean Waves
Luke Carnevale, Low Cost, High Quality Character Animation
Sarah Fowler, Computer Graphics Techniques for Planetarium Show Production
Shannon Greenwood, Bubbles and Foam in Fluid Simulations
John Halstead, Crayola Rendering

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Supervision

completed (all Computer Science, Williams College)

Brad Cohen, Techniques for Extraction of Three-Dimensional Objects from Serial Cross-Sectional Data, 1992.
Joshua Smith, Evolving Dynamical Systems with the Genetic Algorithm, 1991.
Seth Rogers, Nonphotorealistic Rendering: Image Processing Using G-Buffers, 1991.
Charles Moylan, From Two-Dimensional Images to Three-Dimensional Models, 1990.
Christopher Colapietro, Solving the Hidden Surface and Shadowing Problems for Polygonal Models with Binary Space Partitioning Trees, 1990.
James Bowlby, Reconstruction of 3-Dimensional Objects from Cross-Sectional Data, 1988.

Research

My research efforts have all centered on the use of modeling and simulation in the areas of vision, visualization, and motion. Early in my research career I investigated brain mechanisms, later I became heavily involved in graphics and visualization algorithms, and most recently in issues of human motion and perception.

My doctoral study was in computational neuroscience, investigating neural-computational mechanisms underlying depth perception and visuomotor coordination in anuaran amphibia. The goal was to understand the neural implementation of these processes. The study resulted in the development of two new models for depth perception. The first explained how amphibia might integrate the use of monocular depth cues from lens accommodation with stereoscopic depth cues. The second was a model for visuomotor decision making that used interacting vector fields to represent the spatial configuration of visual objects. I described the study in a book in the Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Biomathematics series, and in several related papers.

Having an abiding interest in both art and science, after my doctoral studies I gravitated to the study of computer graphics and visualization -- in essence converse problems to vision. I became especially interested in Physically Based Modeling (i.e. dynamic simulation) as an approach to the problem of choreographing motion for computer animation and interactive environments. Within this area, my research has centered on the use of particle-based algorithms as naturally-parallel object-oriented alternatives to conventional physical simulation algorithms.

In the particle approach, one attempts to reduce the complexity of phenomena by describing dynamics at the micro level via laws governing the interactions among small discrete particles. The principal idea behind is that complex nonlinear macroscopic behavior is an emergent property arising from relatively simple interactions taking place at the microscopic level. Instead of beginning with a continuum approximation to a material and breaking it up into a set of elements (as in the finite element approach), we start with a relatively large set of primitive elements (particles) and define a set of constraints or rules governing the interactions between these elements. The approach has the advantages of providing 1) a representation of materials whose structure does not permit accurate continuum approximation, 2) a highly distributed representation with simple primitives that is well suited for implementation on highly parallel computing architectures (like today's GPUs), and 3) a convenient structure for dealing with ill understood materials that facilitates the use of visualization and experimentation for tuning the model. Our best known work in particle-based simulation is a model of the draping behavior of cloth, which has been the foundation for many of the modeling algorithms since developed in both the Computer Graphics and Textile Engineering communities. I summarized much of this work in a recent edited volume published by AK Peters.

I have recently become interested in the problem of human-computer interaction within large-scale immersive environments. Issues here blur the boundaries between vision and visualization, creating the need for sophisticated methods for the modeling and capture of human motion for use in both character choreography and the recognition of pose and gesture. In two recent doctoral dissertations we explored approaches to capturing, processing and reusing human motion sequences using B-Spline representations, and we investigated the use of an articulated dynamic model as part of a motion filtering mechanism for dynamic gesture recognition.

During a recent sabbatical I began work with Colin Ware on the idea of producing visualizations that are, in some sense, perceptually optimal. The key idea of our approach is the use of "human in the loop" methods. Most research in perceptual psychophysics uses carefully controlled experiments that vary a few parameters (typically one or two) to test and develop theory. By contrast, we are interested in developing an "information psychophysics" where we treat visualization problems whose parameter spaces can easily have hundreds of dimensions. We are addressing the gap between current scientific methodologies and real problems by working with algorithms that rapidly generate visualizations that broadly explore a visualization parameter space. Quality of a particular visualization is evaluated via a human observer either by direct scoring or by performance on some related task. These evaluations are in turn used to refine the search of the parameter space. Our early experiments have used genetic algorithm methods to explore the problem of optimally texturing two layered surfaces so that they become simultaneously "readable", and can be understood both as separate surfaces in spatial relationship to each other. Just recently funded by an NSF Medium ITR grant, we will expand on this early work both in methods and problem areas. We plan to build a computer driven stereoscope operating at the level of human visual acuity and to explore a number of real applications with domain experts in meterology, building environmental systems, and oceanography.

Books

D. House, D. Breen (Eds.), Cloth and Clothing in Computer Graphics , A K Peters, Ltd., Natick, MA, 2000.

A. B. Tucker (Ed.), CRC Handbook of Computer Science and Engineering , Section Advisor for nine chapter, 200 page, section on Computer Graphics, CRC Press, 1997.

Depth Perception in Frogs and Toads -- A Study in Neural Computing , Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Biomathematics Series, vol. 80, New York, 1989.

Peer Reviewed Publications

G. Schmidt, D. House. Model Based Motion Filtering for Improving Arm Gesture Recognition Performance, Gesture Workshop 03, (Genoa, Italy) (2003)

G. Greenfield, D. House. Image Recoloring Induced by Palette Color Associations, Journal of WSCG, Vol. 11, No. 1, 189-196 (2003)

D. House, C. Ware. A Method for the Perceptual Optimization of Complex Visualizations, Proceedings of Advanced Visual Interface 2002, (Trento, Italy, May 22-24, 2002) (2002)

G. Schmidt, D. House, Towards Model-Based Gesture Recognition, Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition 2000, (Grenoble, France) (2000)

S. Sudarsky, D. House, An Integrated Approach Towards Representation, Manipulation and Reuse of Pre-Recorded Motion, Computer Animation 2000 , (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)(2000)

G. Schmidt, D. House, Guided Motion Synthesis, Visual 2000, (Mexico City, Mexico) (2000)

S. Arvin, D. House, Modeling Architectural Design Objectives in Physically Based Space Planning, Automation in Construction, (2000)

S. Arvin, D. House. Modeling Architectural Design Objectives in Physically Based Space Planning. Media and Design Process, O. Ataman, J. Bermudez (Eds.), Proceedings of ACADIA 99, (Salt Lake City, Utah, October 28-31, 1999) 212-225 (1999)

S. Arvin, D. House, Making Designs Come Alive: Using Physically Based Modeling Techniques in Space Layout Planning, Computers in Building: Proceedings of the CAADfutures 99 Conference, G. Augenbroe, C. Eastman (Eds.), (Atlanta, Georgia, June, 7-8, 1999) 245-262 (1999)

S. Sudarsky, D. House, Motion Capture Data Manipulation and Reuse via B-Splines, Modeling and Motion Capture Techniques for Virtual Environments , N. Magnenat-Thalmann, D. Thalmann (Eds.), Proceedings of CAPTECH 98, (Geneva, Switzerland, November 26-27, 1998), 55-69 (1998)

D. House, C. Kocmoud, Continuous Cartogram Construction, Proceedings of Vis 98 IEEE Visualization 1998, (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, October 18-23, 1998), 197-204 (1998)

C. Kocmoud, D. House, A Constraint-Based Approach to Constructing Continuous Cartograms, Proceedings of 8th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (Vancouver, July 11-15, 1998), (1998)

D. House, G. Schmidt, S. Arvin, M. Kitagawa-DeLeon, Visualizing a Real Forest, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 18, no. 1, 12-15 (1998)

G. Schmidt, M. Ringham, D. House, Choreographing Realistic Animated Birds Using Gesture Recognition, Proceedings of VRAIS 98 IEEE Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (Atlanta, Georgia, March 14-18, 1998), poster paper, 211 (1998)

M. Ringham, D. House, Aerodynamic Bird Flight: A Physically-Based Approach to Behavioral Flocking, Proceedings of CAD & Graphics '97 Fifth International Conference on CAD & CG (Shenzhen, China, December 2-5, 1997), Vol. 1, 69-74 (1997)

D. House, G. Schmidt, S. Arvin, M. Kitagawa-DeLeon, A Realistic Animated Walkthrough of an Existing Forest, Proceedings of Data Visualization 97 (St. Louis, Missouri, October 8-10, 1997) on-line WWW document, 1997.

A. Ibrahim, D. House, Genetic Shaders: Interactive and Automatic Shader Generation, Visual Proceedings SIGGRAPH 97 Sketches (Los Angeles, California, August 3-8, 1997) pg. 189 (1997)

D. House, S. Arvin, G. Schmidt, M. Kitagawa-DeLeon, Visualizing the Midway Face of the Dixie National Forest, Visual Proceedings SIGGRAPH 97 Sketches (Los Angeles, California, August 3-8, 1997) pg. 207 (1997)

D. House, R. DeVaul, D. Breen, Towards simulating cloth dynamics using interacting particles, International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology , vol. 8, no. 3, 75-94 (1996). IJCST 1996 Paper of the Year.

D. Breen, D. House, M. Wozny, A particle-based model for simulating the draping behavior of woven cloth, Textile Research Journal, vol. 64, no. 11, 663-685 (1994)

D. Breen, D. House, M. Wozny, Predicting the drape of woven cloth using interacting particles, Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 94 (Orlando, Florida, July 24-29, 1994). In Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, ACM SIGGRAPH, 365-372 (1994)

D. House, D. Levine, The Art and Science of Computer Graphics: a very depth-first approach to the non-majors course, Proceedings of SIGCSE 94 (Phoenix, Arizona, March 10-11, 1994). In SIGCSE Bulletin, ACM SIGCSE, 334-338 (1994)

J. Smith, D. House, Evolving models of dynamical systems with a genetic algorithm, Proceedings of IEE Colloquium on Genetic Algorithms for Control and Systems Engineering (London 1992). IEE Digest 1992/106.

D.Breen, D. House, P.Getto, A physically-based particle model of woven cloth, The Visual Computer, vol. 8, no. 5-6, 264-267 (1992)

D.Breen, D. House, P.Getto, A particle-based computational model of cloth draping behavior, in Scientific Visualization of Physical Phenomena , N.M. Patrikalakis (Ed.), Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, 1991.

D.Breen, D. House, Particles: a naturally parallel approach to modeling, Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on the Frontiers of Massively Parallel Computation, 1991.

D. House, D.Breen, Particles as modeling primitives for surgical simulation, Proceedings of the 11th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, 1989.

A parallel algorithm for object localization within the binocular visual field, Parallel Processing for Computer Vision and Display, P.M.Dew, R.A.Earnshaw & T.R.Heywood (Eds.), Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, 1989.

A model of the visual localization of prey by frog and toad, Biological Cybernetics, 58, 173-192 (1988)

M.A. Arbib, D. House, Depth and detours: An essay on visually guided behavior, in Vision, Brain and Cooperative Computation, M. Arbib & A. Hanson (Eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987.

D. House, M.A. Arbib, Depth and detours: Decision making in parallel systems, Proceedings of the 1985 IEEE Workshop on Languages for Automation: Cognitive Aspects in Information Processing, 1985.

Neural Models of Depth Perception in Frogs and Toads, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts, 1984.

Invited Papers

D. House, R. DeVaul, Cloth and Clothing in Computer Graphics, Course Notes, SIGGRAPH 98 Course 31, 1998.

D. House, D. Breen, Representation of Woven Fabrics, Course Notes, SIGGRAPH 98 Course 31, 1998.

D. House, G. Schmidt, S. Arvin, M. Kitagawa-DeLeon, Visualizing a Real Forest, Computer Graphics and Applications, Visualization Blackboard , vol. 18, no. 1, 12-15 (1998)

Overview of Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics, in A. B. Tucker (Ed.), The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook, pp. 1193 - 1210, CRC Press, 1997.

Overview of Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics, Computing Surveys , vol. 28, no. 1 (1996)

Non-Reviewed Conference Papers

G. Vasquez de Velasco, E. Akleman, M. Clayton, D. House, R. Warden, Living in a Magazine: Alternatives in the Use of Shared Virtual Reality, Proceedings EAAE/AEEA Conference (Las Palmas, Spain, November 13-15, 1997) 175-184, 1997.

External Grants and Awards

NSF Medium ITR, 2003-2005, Perceptual Optimization of Data Visualization , PI on $392,549 Texas A&M portion of a 3 year nearly $1,000,000 project. This is a multi-university collaboration with PI's Colin Ware of the University of New Hampshire, David Laidlaw of Brown University, and Jeffrey Proehl of Dartmouth College. My responsibility is the development of "human in the loop" algorithms for exploring spaces of visualizations with the goal of beginning to elaborate an "information psychophysics".

NSF Educational, 2002-2004 Enlightening Lightning! Coupling Earth Systems Research to K-12 Education using Planetarium Presentations. $181,840 project, Co-PI with Richard Orville of Meterology, Texas A&M and Michael Hibbs, Tarelton State University to develop a planetarium show on lightning for national distribution, aimed at middle school aged children. Responsible for all aspects of the production of show content, including video, character animation and animated full-dome illustrations.

USDA Forest Service, 1993-1995. Human Response-based Evaluation of Environmental Data Visualization Systems. $30,000 subcontract from University of Arizona to produce a highly realistic forest walk animation using geographic and tree data from the Dixie National Forest in Utah. The project goal is to quantify the efficacy of computer visualizations in eliciting human responses comparable to those attained with video and actual experience.

NECUSE (New England Consortium for Undergraduate Science Education), received jointly with Andries van Dam of Brown University and Allen Tucker of Bowdoin College. $20,000 project to further the development of an object-oriented graphics system for the teaching of both a non-majors course in graphics, and a course for computer science majors.

Defense Logistics Agency, 1990. Grant to Rensselaer, in excess of $500,000 to develop technology for the automation of pressing in clothing manufacture. Co-PI on modeling component of project with budget of $110,000. Charged with responsibility to develop a physically-based dynamic model of cloth.

SIGGRAPH Educator's Grant, 1990 award for teaching of computer graphics, included admission to conference and courses, and various conference materials.

National Science Foundation. 1989-1991. $57,638 ILI Program award for equipping a laboratory for undergraduate computer science instruction.

National Science Foundation. 1987-1988, 1988-1989. Two $30,000 RUI Program awards for studies of particle system simulation models of biological tissues.

Medical Simulation Foundation, Inc. 1987-1988. $50,000 award, through Rensselaer's Design Research Center Industrial Associates Program, for studies leading to the development of a surgical simulation model of the human knee.

Conferences and Invited Talks

Model Based Motion Filtering for Improving Arm Gesture Recognition Performance , Gesture Workshop 2003, Genoa, Italy, April 2003.

Guided Motion Synthesis, Visual 2000, Mexico City, Mexico, 2000.

Automatic Construction of Continuous Cartogram Map Deformations , Universidad de Las Américas - Puebla, México, May 1999.

Continuous Cartogram Construction, Wilhelm Schickard Institut für Informatik, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, November 1999.

Continuous Cartogram Construction, IEEE Visualization 1998, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, October 1998.

Representation of Woven Fabrics, SIGGRAPH 98, Course 31, Cloth and Clothing in Computer Graphics, Orlando, July 1998.

Aerodynamic Bird Flight: A Physically-Based Approach to Behavioral Flocking , State Key Lab for Computer Graphics, Hangzhou, China, December 1997.

Aerodynamic Bird Flight: A Physically-Based Approach to Behavioral Flocking , CAD & Graphics '97, Shenzhen, China, December 1997.

(presented jointly with D. Breen) Predicting the drape of woven cloth using interacting particles, SIGGRAPH 94, Orlando, July 1994.

The Art and Science of Computer Graphics: a very depth-first approach to the non-majors course, SIGCSE 94, Phoenix, Arizona, March 1994.

Visualization, Visualizers, and the Natural World, invited talk, Fourth Annual Conference on AI, Simulation, and Planning in High Autonomy Systems, Tucson, September 1993.

Coupled Particles: Theory, SIGGRAPH 92 Course 16, Particle System Modeling, Animation, and Physically Based Techniques, Chicago, July 1992.

A particle-based computational model of cloth draping behavior, 9th Annual International Conference of the Computer Graphics Society (CGI '91), Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 1991.

Computer Science for the Non-major: The Art and Science of Computer Graphics, Computing Strategies Across the Curriculum Conference, Burlington, Vermont, April 1991.

Computer Imaging, NERCOMP Conference on The Arts, Technology and Computers, New London, February, 1990.

Particles as Modeling Primitives for Surgical Simulation, 11th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, Seattle, November 1989.

A Parallel Algorithm for Object Localization Within the Binocular Visual Field, International Conference on Parallel Processing for Computer Vision and Display, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, January 1988.

Global Representations: Are They Needed for Sensory-Motor Integration? , invited talk, Woods Hole Workshop on Computational Neuroscience, Woods Hole Marine Biological Research Station, August 1985.

Depth and Detours: Decision Making in Parallel Systems, 1985 IEEE Workshop on Languages for Automation, Universitat de Palma, Palma de Mallorca, June 1985.

Depth and Detours: Towards Neural Models, Second Workshop on Visuomotor Coordination in Frog and Toad, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, November 1982.

The Frog/Toad Depth Perception System - A Cooperative/Competitive Model , Workshop on Visuomotor Coordination in Frog and Toad, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, November 1981.

Service

From 1993 until 2003 I served as Academic Program Coordinator of the Master of Science in Visualization Sciences program at Texas A&M University. In this capacity I reported to the Head of the Department of Architecture, and worked directly with the Director of the Visualization Laboratory to oversee all academic programs within the Laboratory. My chief responsibilities included curriculum development and implementation, faculty recruiting and advising the Department Head on hiring, student recruiting and admissions, course scheduling and teaching assignments, and strategic planning. The M.S. Program is a unique, ground breaking academic program, dedicated to providing a broad-based multidisciplinary program in electronic visualization. It is admired across the animation, visual effects, and game industries for the unusual skills and visual problem solving abilities of its graduates, and it is emulated by other universities. With over sixty graduate students and six faculty, the program admits students from a variety of disciplines, including computer science, engineering, art and design, and architecture. It is designed to foster a broad foundation knowledge in the art, science and technology of electronic visualization, as well as expertise in a focus area. All graduates complete a research project and thesis. The physical facilities of the Laboratory, which supports this academic program and associated research efforts, cover major portions of two floors of the Architecture complex. It includes a network of over thirty graphics workstations, a broadcast quality TV studio and video postproduction facility, darkrooms, offices, and class and viewing rooms. The Laboratory has four support staff members.

I serve or have served on a number of committees at various levels within the Department, College and University. In addition to a number of adhoc committees, these include the Departmental Executive Committee, the Promotion and Tenure Committee (chair in 2002), and various faculty search committees; the College Academic Affairs Committee; and the University Development Leave Committee, and the Council of Principal Investigators. I have also served the Computer Science Department as an outside member on committees to review senior faculty, and on the Department Head Search Committee.