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'''Thomas A. DeFanti''', Ph.D., (born 1948) is an internationally recognized pioneer in [[visualization]] and [[virtual reality]] technologies. As a leader in the development of next-generation networks to advance science, DeFanti has also overseen a multitude of innovations in the area of [[computer networks]]. |
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'''Tom DeFanti''' (born 1948?) is an American [[computer graphics]] researcher and Director, EVL, and Distinguished Professor of [[Computer Science]] at the department of Computer Science at the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]]. He is an internationally recognized expert in [[computer graphics]] since the early 1970s.<ref name= "TADF07"> Thomas A. DeFanti (2007). [http://www.ijvr.org/reports%20and%20experts/experts-2007.3.pdf "VR Experts around the World"]. In: ''The International Journal of Virtual Reality''. 2007, 6(3):56.</ref> |
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== Biography == |
== Biography == |
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DeFanti received a B.A. in Mathematics from [[Queens College]] in 1969, a M.S. in Computer Information Science from [[Ohio State University]] in 1970, and here three years later in 1973 a Ph.D. in Computer Information Science. He did his PhD work under [[Charles Csuri]] in the Computer Graphics Research Group. For his dissertation, he created the [[GRASS programming language]]. |
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DeFanti is currently a research scientist at the [[California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology ]] (Calit2) at the [[University of California, San Diego]] — a position he has held since March of 2005. DeFanti’s involvement at Calit2 began during his last sabbatical from the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] (UIC), where he is a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of Computer Science, and, until 2010, a director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), and the director of the Software Technologies Research Center. |
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In 1973, he joined the faculty of the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]]. In the next 20 years at the University, DeFanti has amassed a number of credits, including: use of EVL hardware and software for the computer animation produced for the [[Star Wars]] movie.<ref name="Bio08"/> With [[Daniel J. Sandin]], he founded the Circle Graphics Habitat, now known as the [[Electronic Visualization Laboratory]] (EVL). DeFanti contributed greatly to the growth of the [[SIGGRAPH]] organization and conference. He served as Chair of the group from 1981 to 1985, co-organized early film and video presentations, which became the Electronic Theatre, and in 1979 started the SIGGRAPH Video Review, a video archive of computer graphics research. |
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In July 2008, DeFanti and a team of computer scientists and other colleagues at UCSD received a $2 million grant to support the GreenLight Instrument, which will enable five communities of application scientists — drawn from [[metagenomics]], ocean observing, [[microscopy]], [[bioinformatics]], and the [[digital media]] — to gain a better understanding of how to measure and then minimize energy consumption using a variety of computing architectures, software innovations, and UCSD’s alternative energy and cooling sources. |
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DeFanti is a Fellow of the [[Association for Computing Machinery]]. He has received the 1988 ACM Outstanding Contribution Award, the 2000 SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award, and the UIC Inventor of the Year Award. |
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DeFanti also leads Calit2's collaboration with [[King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)]] which has announced an ambitious program to create a world-class scientific visualization and virtual reality facility. DeFanti and his team at Calit2 will assist KAUST in developing a number of 3-D, high-resolution displays, as well as related matters: teleconferencing, networking, computation, and storage. |
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== Work == |
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DeFanti's research interests have included: virtual environments, digital libraries, scientific visualization, new methodologies for informal science and engineering education, paradigms for information display, televisualization (distributed graphics over networks), algorithm optimization for massively parallel computing, sonification, human/computer interfaces, and abstract mathematical visualization. <ref name="Bio08">[http://www.cs.uic.edu/~tom/ Thomas A. DeFanti] Biography at University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved 8 July 2008.</ref> |
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While at Calit2, DeFanti has collaborated with a variety of researchers on LambdaGrid technology, which operates single or multiple lambdas in a fiber-based network. |
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His current research interests are in: devices, applications, software, tele-immersion, networking, visualization, education, data mining, cultural heritage and supercomputing.<ref>[http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=4&type=5&indi=10 Thomas A. DeFanti] website at uic.edu. Retrieved 8 July 2008.</ref> |
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DeFanti was also integral in forging a partnership between the National Lambda Rail (NLR) and the Illinois-based company Darkstrand, which later led to a doubling of the NLR's wavelengths using Darkstrand capital, a significant technology offering to academia and industry that is unparalleled worldwide. The CAVEwave, another of DeFanti’s NLR efforts, is the first example of a 10G lightpath deployed for a single principal investigator to connect his national research nodes. |
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=== Electronic Visualization Laboratory === |
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With [[Daniel J. Sandin]], he founded the Circle Graphics Habitat, now known as the [[Electronic Visualization Laboratory]] (EVL). Some of the significant work done at EVL includes development of the graphics system for the [[Bally]] home computer, co-editing the 1987 [[National Science Foundation|NSF]]-sponsored report ''Visualization in Scientific Computing'', invention of [[PHSCologram]]s, and invention of the [[Cave Automatic Virtual Environment|CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment]]. |
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Together with his colleagues Greg Dawe and Dan Sandin, whom he worked with for 3 decades previously, DeFanti designed and built the Calit2 StarCAVE, one of the world’s most advanced virtual-reality system, taking the original CAVE conception by DeFanti and Sandin to much higher resolution and contrast. |
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=== Global Lambda Integrated Facility === |
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In 2007 DeFanti is principal investigator of the NSF International Research Network Connections Program TransLight/StarLight award to UIC that provides a persistent 10 Gigabit networking infrastructure between the USA and Europe, and he is co-principal investigator of the NSF OptIPuter cooperative agreement with UCSD.<ref name= "TADF07"/> |
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In 2005, DeFanti, Calit2 Director [[Larry Smarr]] and colleagues Laurin Herr and created the CineGrid initiative to fully exploit and leverage Calit2's the state-of-the-art digital cinema installation. CineGrid has now attracted a worldwide membership of dozens of universities, companies, networks and non-profits (like the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]), and networks, and has held major conference and demonstration events at Calit2. The CineGrid Exchange, a hundreds-of-terabytes globally distributed digital cinema archiving system, is currently in development at Calit2 and is being propagated to Chicago, Toronto, Amsterdam, Prague and Tokyo. |
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Striving for a more than a decade to connect high-resolution visualization and virtual reality devices over long distances, DeFanti has collaborated with Maxine Brown to lead state, national and international teams to build the most advanced production-quality networks available to scientists, with major NSF funding. <ref name= "TADF07"/> |
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Also in 2005, DeFanti co-chaired and co-organized iGrid2005 with assisting longtime colleague Maxine Brown, iGrid2005 chair, which brought 100 Gigabits of networking and several dozen major international e-science and electronic art experiments into Calit2. The event established Calit2 as one of a handful of world-class Global Lambda Integrated Facility Optical Lambda Exchanges (GLIF GOLEs). |
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DeFanti is a founding member of GLIF, the Global Lambda Integrated Facility, a global group that manages international switched wavelength networks for research and education. In the USA, DeFanti established the 10 Gigabit Ethernet CAVEwave research network between EVL/StarLight, Seattle/Pacific Northwest GigaPop, and UCSD/Calit2 for OptIPuter and other national/international research uses, which is a model for future high-end science and engineering collaboration infrastructure.<ref name= "TADF07"/> |
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DeFanti’s prior efforts have also included a role directing significant parts of the OptiPuter project –- a $13.5 million virtual [[parallel computer]] that incorporates widely distributed processor clusters connected over one or more dedicated circuits, and mass storage systems that serve as large distributed scientific data repositories. The OptIPuter is an embodiment of the vision of the “hollowing out of the computer” prophesized by Erich Schmidt in the mid-1990s. Its fundamental inventions include software and middleware to deliver unique capabilities in a world in which bandwidth is greater than individual computers can saturate. |
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The OptIPuter has become a cornerstone upon which to build Calit2’s large cyberinfrastructure activities, including the Moore Foundation-sponsored [[CAMERA]] project, NSF’s LOOKING ocean observatory prototype, NSF’s Ocean Sciences Division [[Ocean Observatories Initiative ]] (OOI) Cyberinfrastructure grant, the CineGrid initiative, and several major outreach activities in progress and proposal form. |
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In addition to his role on the OptiPuter team, DeFanti also designed and implemented the local infrastructure for very high-end visualization and virtual reality experiments in Calit2's New Media Arts Wing, equipping its auditorium with the world’s most advanced digital cinema projector and hardware, software, and the 10 gigabit Ethernet networking to drive it. DeFanti procured and deployed the world’s highest resolution (40 megapixels/eye) autostereo system, dubbed the Varrier, designed by Dan Sandin of EVL, which allows people to see 3D visuals without special glasses. |
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== Academic Background == |
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DeFanti received his B.A. in Mathematics from Queens College (1969), and his M.S. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in Computer and Information Science from The Ohio State University. |
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== Recognition == |
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DeFanti has received numerous honors and awards, including: |
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* ACM Outstanding Contribution Award, 1988. |
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* University Scholar, University of Illinois, 1989-1992 |
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* ACM Fellow, elected 1994. |
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* Pioneer Award, Center for New TV, Chicago, IL, 1998 |
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* Recipient, UIC College of Engineering Faculty Research Award, April 1999. |
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* UIC Inventor of the Year Award, (for conceiving and developing the CAVE virtual reality theater), May 2000. |
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* Outstanding Service Award, ACM SIGGRAPH, July 2000. |
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* Fellow, International Engineering Consortium, Chicago, IL, October 2000 |
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* UIC Distinguished Professor, awarded March 2001. |
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* The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California |
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* (CENIC) 2006 Innovation in Networking Award, March 2006 (NEW) |
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* Outstanding Research Achievement, UIC's College of Engineering November, 2006 |
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* IEEE Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award, March 2007 |
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== Publications == |
== Publications == |
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Revision as of 00:34, 7 July 2009
Thomas A. DeFanti, Ph.D., (born 1948) is an internationally recognized pioneer in visualization and virtual reality technologies. As a leader in the development of next-generation networks to advance science, DeFanti has also overseen a multitude of innovations in the area of computer networks.
Biography and Work
DeFanti is currently a research scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California, San Diego — a position he has held since March of 2005. DeFanti’s involvement at Calit2 began during his last sabbatical from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he is a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of Computer Science, and, until 2010, a director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), and the director of the Software Technologies Research Center.
In July 2008, DeFanti and a team of computer scientists and other colleagues at UCSD received a $2 million grant to support the GreenLight Instrument, which will enable five communities of application scientists — drawn from metagenomics, ocean observing, microscopy, bioinformatics, and the digital media — to gain a better understanding of how to measure and then minimize energy consumption using a variety of computing architectures, software innovations, and UCSD’s alternative energy and cooling sources.
DeFanti also leads Calit2's collaboration with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) which has announced an ambitious program to create a world-class scientific visualization and virtual reality facility. DeFanti and his team at Calit2 will assist KAUST in developing a number of 3-D, high-resolution displays, as well as related matters: teleconferencing, networking, computation, and storage.
While at Calit2, DeFanti has collaborated with a variety of researchers on LambdaGrid technology, which operates single or multiple lambdas in a fiber-based network.
DeFanti was also integral in forging a partnership between the National Lambda Rail (NLR) and the Illinois-based company Darkstrand, which later led to a doubling of the NLR's wavelengths using Darkstrand capital, a significant technology offering to academia and industry that is unparalleled worldwide. The CAVEwave, another of DeFanti’s NLR efforts, is the first example of a 10G lightpath deployed for a single principal investigator to connect his national research nodes.
Together with his colleagues Greg Dawe and Dan Sandin, whom he worked with for 3 decades previously, DeFanti designed and built the Calit2 StarCAVE, one of the world’s most advanced virtual-reality system, taking the original CAVE conception by DeFanti and Sandin to much higher resolution and contrast.
In 2005, DeFanti, Calit2 Director Larry Smarr and colleagues Laurin Herr and created the CineGrid initiative to fully exploit and leverage Calit2's the state-of-the-art digital cinema installation. CineGrid has now attracted a worldwide membership of dozens of universities, companies, networks and non-profits (like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), and networks, and has held major conference and demonstration events at Calit2. The CineGrid Exchange, a hundreds-of-terabytes globally distributed digital cinema archiving system, is currently in development at Calit2 and is being propagated to Chicago, Toronto, Amsterdam, Prague and Tokyo.
Also in 2005, DeFanti co-chaired and co-organized iGrid2005 with assisting longtime colleague Maxine Brown, iGrid2005 chair, which brought 100 Gigabits of networking and several dozen major international e-science and electronic art experiments into Calit2. The event established Calit2 as one of a handful of world-class Global Lambda Integrated Facility Optical Lambda Exchanges (GLIF GOLEs).
DeFanti’s prior efforts have also included a role directing significant parts of the OptiPuter project –- a $13.5 million virtual parallel computer that incorporates widely distributed processor clusters connected over one or more dedicated circuits, and mass storage systems that serve as large distributed scientific data repositories. The OptIPuter is an embodiment of the vision of the “hollowing out of the computer” prophesized by Erich Schmidt in the mid-1990s. Its fundamental inventions include software and middleware to deliver unique capabilities in a world in which bandwidth is greater than individual computers can saturate.
The OptIPuter has become a cornerstone upon which to build Calit2’s large cyberinfrastructure activities, including the Moore Foundation-sponsored CAMERA project, NSF’s LOOKING ocean observatory prototype, NSF’s Ocean Sciences Division Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Cyberinfrastructure grant, the CineGrid initiative, and several major outreach activities in progress and proposal form.
In addition to his role on the OptiPuter team, DeFanti also designed and implemented the local infrastructure for very high-end visualization and virtual reality experiments in Calit2's New Media Arts Wing, equipping its auditorium with the world’s most advanced digital cinema projector and hardware, software, and the 10 gigabit Ethernet networking to drive it. DeFanti procured and deployed the world’s highest resolution (40 megapixels/eye) autostereo system, dubbed the Varrier, designed by Dan Sandin of EVL, which allows people to see 3D visuals without special glasses.
Academic Background
DeFanti received his B.A. in Mathematics from Queens College (1969), and his M.S. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in Computer and Information Science from The Ohio State University.
Recognition
DeFanti has received numerous honors and awards, including:
- ACM Outstanding Contribution Award, 1988.
- University Scholar, University of Illinois, 1989-1992
- ACM Fellow, elected 1994.
- Pioneer Award, Center for New TV, Chicago, IL, 1998
- Recipient, UIC College of Engineering Faculty Research Award, April 1999.
- UIC Inventor of the Year Award, (for conceiving and developing the CAVE virtual reality theater), May 2000.
- Outstanding Service Award, ACM SIGGRAPH, July 2000.
- Fellow, International Engineering Consortium, Chicago, IL, October 2000
- UIC Distinguished Professor, awarded March 2001.
- The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California
- (CENIC) 2006 Innovation in Networking Award, March 2006 (NEW)
- Outstanding Research Achievement, UIC's College of Engineering November, 2006
- IEEE Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award, March 2007
Publications
Books, chapter in books, and article. A selection:[1][2]
- 1987. Visualization in Scientific Computing. Edited with Bruce H. McCormick and Maxine D. Brown. ACM Press.
- 1989. "Computer-Generated Barrier-Strip Autostereography". With others. In: Proceedings of SPIE, Three-Dimensional Visualization and Display Technologies, S S Fisher|W E Robbins, 1083, 65-75, 09/01/1989 - 09/01/1989
- 1991. "Simulacra/Stimulacra::Fractal". With others. In: Art Futura. 01/01/1991
- 1994. "Foreword", With Maxine D. Brown. In: Scientific Visualization : Advances and challenges. Lawrence J. Rosenblum (ed.). Academic Press Academic Press, 1994. pp. xv-xvi.
References
- ^ bibliography: Thomas A. DeFanti. Retrieved 8 July 2008.
- ^ Thomas A. DeFanti. List of publications from the DBLP Bibliography Server.
External links
- Thomas A. DeFanti website at uic.edu