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Pierre Boulanger Ph.D., P.Eng Professor/
iCORE Industrial Chair Director of the Advanced Man-Machine Interface Laboratory
University of Alberta
Athabasca
Hall, Room 411 Edmonton,
Alberta T6G 2E8, Canada
Email: pierreb@cs.ualberta.ca |
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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 New Media
at TRLabs.
In 2004, I was awarded an iCORE/TRLabs Industrial Chair in
Collaborative Virtual Environments. I have published more than 210 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.
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
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 2011
Current Grants
§ Canadian Funds for Innovation (WestGrid
II)
§ TRLabs Scholarships
§ Servier University Collaboration Grants
§ NSERC Discovery Grant
§ NSERC Equipment Grant
§ CIHR STAIR Grant
Teaching
During
the winter term 2011, I am not teaching. I will teach again in autumn 2011. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Current Graduate Students
Post-docs and Visiting Professors
No-one this year
PhD
Students
Fraser Anderson, PhD, TBD, in
collaboration with Prof. Walter Bischof from the UofA Computing Science.
Robyn Taylor,
PhD, Interactive Art and Experience-Centered Design, in collaboration
with Prof. Walter Bischof from the UofA Computing Science and Prof. Patrick Olivier, Culture
Lab. Newcastle, England.
Xing Dong Yang, PhD, 3D
Haptic Learning and Guidance, in collaboration
with Prof. Walter Bischof from the UofA Computing Science and Prof. Irani, from the University of Manitoba Computer Science
Department.
Andres Eleazar Jaramillo Velasquez, PhD, Deformable
Part Inspection Without Fixturing, in collaboration
with Prof. Flavio Prieto, from the National University of Colombia, Bogota,
Colombia.
Matthew Hamilton, PhD, Multi-scale
Visualization of Molecular Dynamic Systems, in collaboration with Prof. Walter
Bischof from the UofA Computing
Science.
Steven Eliuk,
PhD, CT Visualization and Reconstruction Using a GPU
Cluster. In collaboration with Dr.
Noga, Dept. Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, UofA.
Xiaozhou Zhou, PhD Real-time
View Morphing from Multiple Cameras, in
Collaboration with TRLabs.
Idanis Diaz, PhD, Non-linear Interpolation Technique for MRI
Filtering and Reconstruction. In collaboration with
Prof. Greiner from the UofA Computing Science.
Amir
Ali Sharifi,
PhD, Virtual Exploration of Arteries from CT Angiograms and 3D Ultrasound.
In collaboration with Dr. Noga, Dept. Radiology and
Diagnostic Imaging, UofA.
Qiong
(Emily) Wu,
PhD, Immersive Virtual Theatre.
Master
Students
Omar Gomez, MSc, Collaborative
Multi-Modal Interface over High-Speed Networks for CFD, in collaboration with
Prof. Helmuth Trefftz, EAFIT University, Medellin, Colombia.
Elizabeth Mesa, MSc, In-vivo
Bio-material Property Estimation for Needle Insertion Simulator at the National University of Colombia, in collaboration with Prof. John
Branch from National University of Colombia, Medellin, Colombia.
Juan Ramirez, MSc, Real-time Mesh-less Simulator for Needle
Insertion at the National University of Colombia, in
collaboration with Prof. John Branch, National University of Colombia,
Medellin, Colombia.
Juan Duque, MSc, A Virtual Wind Tunnel Based on OpenFOAM, in collaboration with Prof. Manuel Garcia from
EAFIT University, Medellin, Colombia.
Current
Collaborations
§ TRLABS
§ Quanzer
§ Banff Centre, New Media Institute
§ Laval University Computer Vision
Laboratory
§ Simon Frazer University IRMAC
§ National University of Columbia, Colombia
§ University of Los Andes, Colombia
§ UofA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
§ UofA
Mechanical Engineering Department
§ National Research Council, Institute for Information
Technology
§ CNRS/LIMSI Laboratory, Orsay, France
§ INSA, Ampere Laboratory,
Lyon, France
§ UofA Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
§
Centre for
the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery (CAMIS), an Alberta Health
Services (AHS)
§
Institute for Reconstructive
Sciences in Medicine (iRSM)
§
Faculty of Rehabilitation
Medicine
§
AHS
Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital
Last
Update February, 2011