Pierre Boulanger Ph.D., P.Eng

Professor

Director of the Advanced Man-Machine Interface

Laboratory

Department of Computing Science

University of Alberta

Athabasca Hall, Room 411

Edmonton, Alberta

T6G 2E8, Canada

Tel: (780) 492-3031
Fax: (780) 492-1071

Email: pierreb@cs.ualberta.ca

Who am I?

Date of Birth: April 24, 1957

Hometown: Beautiful Quebec City

I am a man who loves life, music, fine food and most importantly, ideas

A Short CV

I worked for 18 years at the National Research Council of Canada as a senior research officer where my primary research interests were in 3D computer vision, rapid product development, and virtualized reality systems. I now hold a double appointment as a professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Computing Science and in the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging (Faculty of Medicine). I am the Director of the Advanced Man Machine Interface Laboratory as well as the scientific director of the Alberta Radiological Visualization Center. My main research topics and teachings are on virtualized reality systems and medical imaging. I am also a Principal Investigator for Stereo IPTV at TRLabs.

In 2004, I was awarded an iCORE/TRLabs Industrial Chair in Collaborative Virtual Environments. I have published more than 260 scientific papers in various journals and conferences. I am also on the editorial board of two major academic journals. I am on many international committees and frequently give lectures on rapid product development and virtualized reality. On the commercial side, I am the President of PROTEUS Consulting Inc., an Alberta-based consulting firm specialized in Virtual Reality Applications.

Full CV

University Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering (1994), University of Montreal (Ecole Polytechnique), Department of Electrical Engineering, Montreal, Canada.

Advising Professor: P. Cohen

Dissertation: Multi-Scale Extraction of Geometric Elements

MSc in Physics (1982), Laval University, Department of Physics Quebec City, Canada.

Advising Professor: M. Baril

Dissertation: Multi-Passage Mass Spectrometer

BSc in Engineering Physics (1980), Laval University, Department of Engineering Physics, Quebec City, Canada.

Dissertation: Design and Construction of a Multi-Channel Analyzer for an Electron Spectrometer

Research Interests

3D Computer Vision

Virtualized Reality Systems

Collaborative Virtual Environments

Tele-Immersion

Medical Imaging

Physical Modeling

Sensor-Based Geometric Modeling

Rapid Product Development

3D Industrial Inspection

Current and Past Projects

See AMMI Laboratory WebSite

Publication List

The most recent publication list can be found at: Publications

Recent Committee Work

Director of the Advanced Man-Machine Interface Laboratory

Technical Director of the SERVIER Virtual Heart Center

Member of TRLabs

Member of the steering committee of SERVIER Virtual Heart Centre

Member of the HSERC Steering Committee

Member of the Department of Computing Science hiring committee

Member of the Killam Prize Selection Committee

Member of the FQRNT Selection Committee

Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship Review Committee

Chair of Smart Graphics 2010

Program Committee of MVA 2011

Program Committee of 3DIMPVT 2013

Current Grants

Canadian Funds for Innovation (WestGrid II)

TRLabs Scholarships

Servier University Collaboration Grants

NSERC Discovery Grant

NSERC Equipment Grant

CIHR STAIR Grant

Teaching

I am currently on sabbatical leave until July 2013. The other courses I teach are:

Introduction to Computer Graphics

This course is an introduction to computer graphics concentrating on two- and three-dimensional graphics and interactive techniques. Course topics include fundamental concepts of raster graphics, simple output primitives, windowing, clipping and 2D transformations, 3D transformations, modeling and viewing, hidden-line and hidden-surface removal, illumination and shading models, morphing and warping, texture mapping, ray-tracing, radiosity, and introduction to animation.

Introduction to Virtual Reality

This graduate course introduces students to Virtual Reality from a new viewpoint called Virtualized Reality. We discuss the nuts and bolts of this rapidly growing field from display systems, software tools (VRML, Performer, and Java 3D), haptic rendering, sensor based model creation, and telepresence. This course is addressed to students with a background in graphics and computer vision.

Introduction to Multimedia Technology

This course is an introductory to basic principles and algorithms used in current technologies of multimedia systems. One of the goals of this course is to give the student hands-on experience in issues relating to multimedia data representation, compression, processing, and retrieval. In addition, the course address issues relating to sound transmission, music streaming, 2-D and 3-D graphics, image and video. It also explores human perceptual issues associated to multimedia technologies.

Introduction to Scientific Visualization

Among the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century, will be to effectively understand and make use of the vast amount of information being produced. By its very nature, visualization addresses the challenges created by such excess: too many data points, too many variables, too many time steps, and too many potential explanations. Thus, as we work to tame the accelerating information explosion and employ it to advance scientific, biomedical, and engineering research, visualization will be among our most important tools. This course aims at introducing scientists, engineers, as well as practitioners in medicine the basic fundamentals of data visualization.

Haptics Systems

This graduate-level course is an introduction to the field of haptics focusing on tele-operated and virtual environments that are displayed through the sense of touch. Topics covered include human haptic sensing and control, design of haptic interfaces (tactile and force), haptics for teleoperation, haptic rendering and modeling of virtual environments, control and stability issues, and medical applications such as tele-surgery and surgical simulation. This course is addressed to students with interests in robotics, virtual reality, or computer-integrated surgical systems.

Real-Time Graphics Architectures and Algorithms

The computing performance of a PCs graphics chip (GPU) is now greater than that of the CPU. This course covers recent developments in graphics architectures and programming systems, and explores related topics from general-purpose parallel computation on GPU. The course also examines the connection between the algorithms used for real-time graphics, and the architectures that are chosen to support them.

Point Based Graphics

This course presents the latest research results in point-based computer graphics. After an overview of the key research issues, 3D scanning devices are discussed, and novel concepts for mathematical representation of point-sampled shapes are presented. The course describes methods for high-performance and high-quality rendering of point models, including advanced shading, anti-aliasing, and transparency. It also presents efficient data structures for hierarchical rendering on modern graphics processors and summarizes methods for geometric processing, filtering, re-sampling of point models, and physical modeling.

Sensor Based Modeling

In recent years, sensors and algorithms for three-dimensional (3D) imaging and modeling of real objects have received significant attention, not only in the computer vision and graphics research communities, but are also increasingly being used as tools for a variety of applications in medicine, manufacturing, archeology, and any field requiring 3D modeling of real environments. The main goal of this course is to present a general overview of digital 3D imaging technology from photogrammetry to tomographic systems and the various modeling techniques necessary to create 3D models of large and small structures that are compatible with various manufacturing and medical applications.

Programming Multi-Core Architectures

This course is intended to give students an understanding of multi-core architectures and parallel programming models. Student will get an appreciation of the problems and solutions researchers have identified in the field of multi-cores. Also, students will get experience in writing critical paper reviews and in presenting research. Finally, students will get a thorough understanding of how to write parallel programs for current multi-core architectures.

Human Computer Interaction

Being a complementary course to software engineering, we aim at educating the students to acquire a user-centered approach to software design. This implies that students must first know how humans interact with physical and information environments, and how to design software with human's information needs and their cognitive capacities in mind. In this course, we will first study some basic principles on how humans interact with computers, and then we will focus on the user-centered design cycle: user task analysis, task models, graphical interface design, prototyping, and evaluation. In addition, this course introduces several evaluation methods which help software designers discover usability problems in interface design.

Advanced Signal Processing for Computer Scientists

This class addresses the representation, analysis, and design of discrete time signals and systems. The major concepts covered include: discrete-time processing of continuous-time signals; decimation, interpolation, and sampling rate conversion; flow-graph structures for DT systems; time-and frequency-domain design techniques for recursive (IIR) and non-recursive (FIR) filters; linear prediction; discrete Fourier transform, FFT algorithm; short-time Fourier analysis and filter banks; Wavelet Transform; Wiener and Kalman Filters, and various applications. This course qualifies as a breadth requirement in theory.

Fundamentals of Medical Imaging

The course will first review two dimensional signal processing theory after reviewing one dimensional signal processing and sampling. We will then study four general medical imaging modalities: projection radiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound. The goal will be to understand these modalities in terms familiar to engineers and physicists. Flexibility exists for the instructor to vary the depth and penetration of each topic area after determining the general background and experience of the students.

Computers and Society

The course deals with moral, legal and social issues of computer technology. Many ethical issues that did not exist before are now omnipresent. For example, one can get our news from many free, online sources but their existence is threatening the existence of the newspapers that employ the reporters who gather the news. Social media are a great way to interact but they can threaten personal privacy. This course explore these issues and more.

Current Graduate Students

Post-docs and Visiting Professors

No-one this year

PhD Students

Fraser Anderson, PhD, Design of Gestural Interfaces, in collaboration with Prof. Walter Bischof from the UofA Computing Science.

Jenny Cifuentes, PhD, Objective Assessment of Surgical Skills, in collaboration with Prof. Prieto, National University of Colombia.

Idanis Diaz, PhD, Tracking Brain Tumor Evolution Using Deformable Atlases. In collaboration with Prof. Greiner from the UofA Computing Science.

Matthew Hamilton, PhD, Multiscale Spatio-Temporal Visualization.

Amir Ali Sharifi, PhD, Virtual Heart and Vascular Endoscopy Using Ultrasound, CT, and MRI Data. In collaboration with Dr. Noga, Dept. Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, UofA.

Qiong (Emily) Wu, PhD, Automatic Creation of Personalized Interactive Avatars.

Xing Dong Yang, PhD, Blurring the Boundary between Direct & Indirect Input Shared Environments.

Xiaozhou Zhou, PhD, Real-time View Morphing for Free-viewpoint Video, in Collaboration with TRLabs.

Master Students

Kyrylo Shegeda, MSc, Free-viewpoint TV over IPTV, in Collaboration with TRLabs and Telus.

Current Collaborations