From dralansherman@starpower.net Thu Apr 12 15:00:28 2007 Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:08:04 -0400 From: Dr. Alan T. Sherman To: CSEE ALL Cc: 'Warren DeVries' , Freeman Hrabowski , Arthur Johnson , Scott Bass , Mike Lurie , Chip Rose Subject: [csee-faculty-lecturer] 2006-7 CSEE Research Awards [ Part 1, Text/PLAIN 85 lines. ] [ Unable to print this part. ] Congratulations to Jonathan Bronson (MS) and Sandor Dornbush (PhD) for winning the 2006-7 CSEE Dept. Awards for best research by MS and PhD students! Each will present a 20min talk at the May 4 CSEE Research Review at South Campus and then receive $100. I also thank and applaud the many students who submitted outstanding papers in this annual research celebration. Soon we will announce the 18 student posters that are accepted for display at the Research Review. Alan Sherman, Organizer CSEE Research Review P.S. No undergraduate student applied this year—I hope this will change next year. Jonathan Bronson (Advisor: Rheingans) – Award for Best Research by an MS Student Automated Stencils and Gobos from 3D Models Stencils are widely used as templates for easy reproduction of common symbols and images, as well as in the production of street art. In theatrical lighting, stencils known as gobos, templates, or cookies are placed in the light path to cast shadows. Due to the physical constraints for stencils to remain connected, it can be difficult to create visually pleasing results for complicated imagery. We present a method for generating expressive stencils from arbitrary 3D models. Users provide input geometry and can interactively adjust desired view, line thicknesses, and lighting to achieve their final desired stencil. Stencil connections are then automatically chosen in a few seconds in a manner which will cause the least amount of destruction to the image while satisfying physical connectivity constraints. The final stencils can be used digitally or physically fabricated for personal or business use. A well done fabrication can produce theatrical gobos used for complex stage lighting effects. We demonstrate virtual stencil images, physical stencils used with spray paint, and custom lighting gobos created from our stencil images. Sandor Dornbush (Advisor: Anupam Joshi), eBiquity — Award for Best Research by a PhD Student XPod: A Human Activity Aware Learning Mobile Music Player The XPod system, presented in this paper, aims to integrate awareness of human activity and musical preferences to produce an adaptive system that plays the contextually correct music. The XPod project introduces a “smart” music player that learns its user’s preferences and activity, and tailors its music selections accordingly. We are using a BodyMedia device that has been shown to accurately measure a user's physiological state. The device is able to monitor a number of variables to determine its user's levels of activity, motion and physical state so that it may predict what music is appropriate at that point. The XPod user trains the player to understand what music is preferred and under what conditions. After training, the XPod, using various machine-learning techniques, is able to predict the desirability of a song, given the user's physical state. We are currently exploring using Nokia 5500 Sport phones to build context aware music players. These phones have accelerometers and other sensors for determining a users context. We hope to have demonstration devices ready in time for the research review.