Computer Science Professor Honored with “Lasting Impact” Award
The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, a premier conference for developments in human and computer interaction, awarded LSU Professor Brygg Ullmer its 2009 Lasting Impact award for a paper on tangible and embedded interaction he authored during his graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with Hiroshi Ishii, his former adviser.
Tangible and embedded interaction is Ullmer’s research specialty at LSU, where he is a professor with the Department of Computer Science and holds a joint appointment with the CCT. Researchers in this emerging field manipulate physical objects not traditionally used for computation, such as paper, blocks, furniture and clothing, to make them interfaces for digital information. Tangible and embedded interaction has important implications for many businesses, including video conferencing, health care, digital media, consumer products, interfaces for computational science applications, and more.
The Lasting Impact award honors researchers who further their disciplines in innovative ways that create future and ongoing opportunities for scientific and technological discovery. Ullmer and Ishii submitted the paper, "The metaDESK: Models and Prototypes for Tangible User Interfaces" to the ACM symposium in 1997. Ishii was Ullmer’s graduate adviser at that time. They were honored this year for the work they have done to advance tangible and embedded interaction in the past decade.
Since his arrival at LSU in 2005, Ullmer has created the tangible and visualization laboratory within CCT, where he conducts research and introduces current LSU students to opportunities in this field. In 2007, Ullmer led the CCT’s annual Mardi Gras Conference, centered around the theme “Tangible and Embedded Interaction.” That conference since has become an annual, international event, entering its fourth year.
In 2008, the Baton Rouge Business Report named Ullmer one of its “Forty Under 40” award recipients, and he also was named one of LSU’s Rainmakers in 2009 for his creative research and work with students. Ullmer, a faculty member in the College of Basic Sciences, recently collaborated with faculty in the LSU College of Art & Design on a grant-funded project to produce a tangible interaction kiosk that helps middle school students learn about science.
"I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award with Professor Ishii for our early efforts on tangible interfaces," Ullmer said. "We've been truly delighted by the rapidly growing academic, commercial, and cultural interests in tangible interaction over the past dozen years, and we look forward to continuing our activities and collaborations in this and surrounding areas, both toward further cutting-edge and applied mass-market impacts."
Pats on the Back:
• Susanne Brenner recently returned from a month as Overseas Visiting Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Scientific and Engineering Computing (LSEC) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. During her visit, she taught a short course on Discontinuous Galerkin Methods.
• The LSU Office of Research and Economic Development has selected 100 University Rainmakers, honoring research and creative faculty who are nationally and internationally recognized for innovative research and creative scholarship, who compete for external funding at the highest levels and who attract and mentor exceptional graduate students. Included on this year's list of Rainmakers are 14 faculty members with the CCT, who were honored for their work in their respective departments across campus. The University held a reception earlier this month to honor the 2009 Rainmakers. To see a complete list of the winners, please visit http://www.research.lsu.edu/rainmakers.shtml .
CCT in the News:
• LSU Computer Science Professor Honored with Lasting Impact Award
Source: HPC Wire
http://www.hpcwire.com/industry/academia/LSU-Computer-Science-Professor-Honored-with-Lasting-Impact-Award-65209182.html
• Louisiana Students Collaborate to Compete in Programming Contest
Source: HPC Wire
http://www.hpcwire.com/industry/academia/Louisiana-Students-Collaborate-to-Compete-in-Programming-Contest-65653227.html
Lectures This Week:
• Hongchao Zang, LSU Department of Mathematics and CCT, will speak as part of the Computational Mathematics Seminar Series with a lecture on “An Affine-scaling Method For Nonlinear Optimization With Continuous Knapsack Constraints.” This lecture will take place today, Oct. 27, at 3 p.m. in Johnston 338.
• Arun Bansil, Northeastern University, will speak as part of the CCT Colloquium Series this Friday, Oct. 30, at 1 p.m. in Johnston 338. Bansil will give a lecture on “Explorations In The Physics Of Materials And Connections Between The Arts And Science, Engineering And Technology.”
• Xin Li, Assistant Professor at CCT and Electrical and Computer Engineering, will be organizing this year's CCT Colloquium Series. He is working hard to put together an interesting program for the coming year and would appreciate any input or suggestions. Feel free to contact Xin at xinli@cct.lsu.edu.
Please Note:
• Future ALL CCT meetings for the Fall 2009 semester will take place Nov. 11 and Dec. 16. All meetings are at 3 p.m. in Johnston 338 unless otherwise announced. Please make every effort to attend these important meetings.
• This is the last week to register teams for the ACM South Central Regional Collegiate Programming Contest. The contest is part of annual events leading up to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals. In the semester prior to the international contest, students from universities around the world compete regionally in teams of three undergraduate students and one professor, who acts as the coach. The top regional teams worldwide earn an invitation to compete at the World Finals, which will take place in spring 2010. The regional contest will take place Saturday, Nov. 7, with an introductory scripting contest on Friday, Nov. 6. The registration deadline is Saturday, Oct. 31. Please encourage students to sign up for this opportunity. Register online at http://icpc.baylor.edu .
• There will be a training on OpenMP Part 2 on Thursday, Oct. 29 from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. For more information or to register, visit http://www.hpc.lsu.edu/training
• Beginning at the end of October, the LSU Office of Communications and University Relations will merge LSU Today, the University's faculty/staff newsletter, with LSU Wire, the University's weekly e-newsletter. This effort is part of the University's sustainability initiative, aimed at decreasing printed copies of LSU Today. CCT news items regularly appear in both publications, so faculty and staff who previously received the printed copies of LSU Today should sign up to receive the electronic edition using an online form available at www.LSU.edu/lsutoday . Beginning in November, subscribers will receive an electronic LSU Today Mondays-Thursdays, then will receive a weekly recap/LSU Wire on Fridays. There is no cost to subscribe to these publications, and users can decide whether to receive the daily updates (LSU Today) or only the weekly recap (LSU Wire), or both.
• Follow CCT on Twitter for updates on news and breaking information! http://www.twitter.com/LSUCCT
• Please remember to send your news concerning grants, awards, conferences, or other pertinent information that should be communicated to CCT to PR Manager Kristen Sunde at ksunde@cct.lsu.edu.
Upcoming Grant Deadlines:
Please see the CCT deadline Web site, as many NSF deadlines are listed here:
http://www.cct.lsu.edu/about/grants/deadlines/events.php
Publish Date:
10-27-2009
