Physics, Simulation, and Computer Animation

Professor Adam W. Bargteil
University of Utah

12:00-1:00 Monday, 9 March 2015, ITE325b

Physics-based Computer Animation has revolutionized the world of special effects. I will talk about several success stories including my academy award winning work on fracture, particle skinning, and large-scale splashing liquids. I will also talk about moving beyond cinematic special effects to create tools for artistic authoring of interactive animations and enabling visually predictive simulations that promise to revolutionize industrial design.

Adam W. Bargteil is an assistant professor at the University of Utah. His primary research interests lie in the area of physics-based animation. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley and spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. From 2005 to 2007, he was a consultant at PDI/DreamWorks, developing fluid simulation tools that were used in “Shrek the Third” and “Bee Movie.”

Anne Rubin, an associate professor of history and author of Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory  (UNC Press 2014), recently published an article in the New York Times “Disunion” blog, which follows the Civil War as it unfolded 150 years ago.

Titled “Towns Made for Burning,” the article describes Union General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea in South Carolina: “Sherman did not explicitly order his men to treat South Carolina’s Confederate civilians cruelly, but he did little to dissuade them,” Rubin wrote.

Rubin further described the general’s thought process behind the march, including exploiting fear among Southern whites as a way to quickly end the war: “…he recalled, disingenuously, that ‘somehow the men had got the idea that South Carolina was the cause of all our troubles … and therefore on them should fall the scourge of war in its worst form.’ Sherman appreciated his men’s enthusiasm, and was loath to ‘restrain the army lest its vigor and energy should be impaired.’”

In addition to her article, Rubin also appeared on C-SPAN on February 28. She discussed the Burning of Columbia and how the event has been remembered by the city and in history. To watch the full segment, click here.

After Sen. Barbara Mikulski announced her retirement on March 2, reaction poured in from across the country and state of Maryland. UMBC political science and School of Public Policy faculty were interviewed by several local and national media outlets to provide perspective and analysis on Mikulski’s legacy and what the political future will hold after her seat is vacated in 2016.

In an interview that aired on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” political science professor Roy Meyers said Sen. Mikulski’s legacy crossed party lines: “Many of the women that came into the Senate and the House, regardless of whether they were Republicans or Democrats, really viewed her as a role model,” he said. Meyers said Mikulski was “a groundbreaker in terms of making sure the voices of women legislators were taken seriously.”

Political science professor Thomas Schaller reflected on Sen. Mikulski’s service to Maryland and the nation in an op-ed published in the Baltimore Sun: “She will leave a legacy as one of the state’s most admired politicians and among the most influential women ever to serve in Congress,” Schaller wrote in his column titled “A lifetime spent in service.”

Schaller was also quoted in a Washington Post article about former Gov. Martin O’Malley’s decision not to run for Mikulski’s seat, saying “I think this makes it pretty clear that he’s going to run for president or at least give it a shot.” Schaller was also mentioned in aWashington Post column by E.J. Dionne on his analysis of the national Republican party in his new book The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House.

School of Public Policy director Donald Norris appeared onWJZ-TV and commented on what could happen in the race to fill the vacated Senate seat: “Who the Republicans field, if they field a very serious, well-funded candidate, the Democrats are going to have to match that. So yes, it could be very expensive,” said Norris. “There could be a huge number of Democrats in the primary,” he added in a Capital Gazette article.

For a list of complete coverage, see below:

Roy Meyers:
Sen. Mikulski, Groundbreaker for Female Legislators, Won’t Seek Re-Election (NPR)

Thomas Schaller:
A lifetime spent in service (Baltimore Sun op-ed)
O’Malley will not run for Mikulski’s U.S. Senate Seat (Washington Post)
The GOP’s big ‘yes’ to ‘no’ (Washington Post)

Donald Norris:
Race to Replace Sen. Barbara Mikulski Wide Open (WJZ-TV)
‘Free-for-all’ expected in wake of Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s retirement announcement(Capital Gazette)

CSEE Ph.D. student Kavita Krishnaswamy was featured in a recent CNN story, Will robots help the bedridden see the world?. She has been getting a lot of visibility in the last few months via a collaboration with Suitable Technologies, a Palo Alto based company that makes ‘telepresence robots’. They loaned the department one of their high-end Beam systems last Fall to use in our robotics related research, lead by professors Tim Oates and Cynthia Matuszek, and have been inviting Kavita to use their systems in various ways.

For example she presented her dissertation proposal in December via Beam, participated in a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show show in January, has been visiting museums via Beam this month, helped lead a debate on the ethics of brain-computer interfaces this past Monday, and will take part in in a SWSX panel in March.

Here is an excerpt from the CNN story:

“A PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Krishnaswamy has spinal muscular atrophy and requires assistance 24 hours a day. She was able to make the museum trips using a Beam telepresence robot — a remotely controlled 16-inch screen mounted five feet above motorized wheels.
…
“I really enjoy the autonomy. It allows me to focus in on the things I want to see,” said Krishnaswamy. “And it’s not controlled by somebody else. I really like being independent.”

Since her first experience using a Beam to attend a computing conference in Seattle, Krishnaswamy says her life has changed drastically. She has more confidence and her calendar is suddenly filled. In a single day this week, she will take part in a debate on her campus, drop in on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and be in Washington D.C. for the Human Robot Interaction conference.

Krishnaswamy has never had the ability to stand. The Beam puts her at eye-level and gives her a new perspective on the world, she says.”

Editor’s note: Here at UMBC, our students are the heartbeat of campus, and we are committed to providing them the best possible education. So, for the month of March, we will be highlighting our amazing academic departments, some of their recent achievements, and ways that you can help fund their continued excellence.

Your gift is extremely important and many of our students are depending on you. Please show your support and make an impact today. With you we can make a difference.

The Chemical, Biochemical & Environmental Engineering department is proud to share a few testimonials of its undergraduate research program.

“As an undergrad at UMBC, I studied the same curriculum that all of you had: learning to size reactors, heat exchangers, separators, etc. [. . .] In contrast, my research gave me a chance to tackle problems that don’t have an answer yet, and that might not even have a satisfying answer. [. . .] That was an exciting challenge for me so I went to grad school to continue working with that kind of problem.” Sean Kshimetski ’14, chemical engineering

“My experience as an undergraduate researcher gave me the confidence and experience to pursue a Ph.D. Through my UG research experience, I was able to build not only a tool set of research techniques but an understanding of how scientific research is conducted in an academic setting. When I was starting my graduate program, I was able to more easily acclimate to a new laboratory setting because I had gained familiarity with basic laboratory protocols from working in Dr. Marten’s lab.” Colleen Courtney ’12, chemical engineering

With your help, the Chemical, Biochemical & Environmental Engineering department can continue supporting students like these in their achievements. Click here to donate.

The Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department is proud to announce that UMBC will be partnering with MITRE Corporation to found national cybersecurity research center that supports the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and help businesses secure their data and digital infrastructure. The department would also like to announce that Professor Chintan Patel M.S. ‘01, Ph.D. ‘04, and computer engineering student Gurashish Singh recently demonstrated a prototype system that can detect distracted driving behavior at the ATPA Expo, the largest gathering of industries involved with transportation.

With your help, the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department can continue supplying new equipment and providing resources to build a sense of community among our students.

Click here to donate.

The Information Systems department is pleased to share that a research team led by Dr. Nirmalya Roy, assistant professor of information systems at UMBC, is exploring how to retrofit homes with sensor networks that monitor a resident’s behavior and activity levels. The team is also exploring ways to modify existing sensors and other smart-home technologies to help health care providers and caregivers remotely monitor seniors in their own homes at a lower cost. The department would also like to congratulate Victoria Lentz ’15, cybersecurity, on receiving one of the Scholarship for Women Studying Information Security program’s HP-backed scholarships. Lentz, one of ten recipients, plans to work in the cybersecurity industry and pursue a master’s degree.

With your help, the Information Systems department can continue sponsoring speakers through our Council of Majors and providing travel fellowships for International Field Research.

Click here to donate.

The Mechanical Engineering department is thrilled to announce that Dr. Carlos Romero-Talamas, assistant professor in the UMBC Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been recognized with a DARPA Young Faculty Award for his research in computational models of nuclear fusion technology. The department would also like to share that Anne Spence, ME professor of the practice, participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Congressman Elijah Cummings. The panel was part of a congressional initiative to learn about issues women educators encounter in building and sustaining economic security and focused on strategies to increase the number of women pursuing STEM fields.

With your help, the Mechanical Engineering department can continue developing a prototyping space to brainstorm ideas and assemble preliminary models and supporting our Baja team — $500 sends a Baja team member to national competition.

Click here to donate.