HIGH
IMPACT
 PHOTO
COURTESY OF JAMES O'BRIEN, © 2000. When
most of us view high-tech movies featuring extraordinary forces of nature (think
killer waves in The Perfect Storm) or other Hollywood wizardry (think spectacular
explosions in True Lies), we are mesmerized by the larger-than-life special
effects that keep our eyes riveted to the screen. For FIU alumnus James O'Brien
('92, B.S. Computer Science), it's a little different. Such images cause him to
think about the wonders of computational geometry, image processing, surface modeling,
physical simulation and scientific computing.
O'Brien,
who earned his M.S. ('97) and Ph.D. ('00) in Computer Science from Georgia Institute
of Technology, joined the University of California (UC) at Berkeley faculty as
an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science last September. It was a prestigious appointment for O'Brien, who currently
has two patents pending; UC Berkeley's Computer Science program ranks in the top
five in the country.
O'Brien
teaches a course in computer animation at the introductory graduate/advanced undergraduate
level. But his position entails far more than teaching. His duties include research
roughly 50 percent of the time, teaching roughly 50 percent of the time and administrative
tasks (grant proposals, etc.) roughly 50 percent of the time. "And, yes," he said
laughing. "I'm aware that that adds up to more than 100 percent." While
his talents were sought by more than a dozen universities, O'Brien was attracted
to UC Berkeley because of his research interests. "There's a very strong connection
between my research and what's happening in the movie industry," said O'Brien.
"In the last few years, there's been an explosion in graphics and animation."
The techniques and
processes O'Brien is working to perfect have potential applications beyond the
entertainment industry. He hopes the techniques can one day be used to help train
those in high-risk professions such as fire fighting.
"At
some point in his/her training, a firefighter has to go into a burning building,"
said O'Brien. "Wouldn't it be great if we could offer up a synthetic environment
that simulated the conditions of a burning building but offered none of the danger?"
As far as the entertainment
industry goes, he hopes his research and that of others will progress to the point
that "explosion technology" in computer graphics will become a viable option for
filmmakers. "As it stands today, we can't create a realistic explosion with computer
graphics. Filmmakers have two choices they can blow up an existing object
or they can build a model and blow that up. Either option is expensive and even
the model explosion really needs to be executed properly the first time," said
O'Brien. "If you build an explosion with computer graphics, you can blow up the
object as many times as you want until you get it right." But
visuals are only part of a believable blast.
According to O'Brien, the
element of sound is a critical component to any explosion. "Some
day we hope to extend the techniques to include sound simulation what one
would hear from these events. I'm not involved yet in this type of work, but in
many ways, it's a straightforward extension of work I have already done," said
O'Brien. "It also presents some new and interesting problems that I have not dealt
with before."
O'Brien's
work in ground surface simulation technique (think of bike tracks left on a surface
area) and fracture modeling (breaking objects) has resulted in two pending patents.
"There's a large question of what it means to have a software patent," said O'Brien.
"I'll be interested to see how the issue evolves, but I don't think it will affect
the research I'm doing." This
research has been well received by his peers. O'Brien has already published five
papers in the most respected refereed international journals in his field and
nine papers in refereed international conference proceedings, including the prestigious
annual ACM SIGGRAPH, where he has published five articles over the years. His
awards include the ACM SIGGRAPH '99 Impact Paper Award for "Graphical Modeling
and Animation of Brittle Fracture," the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
from Georgia Tech, a prestigious Intel Fellowship and several "best paper" awards.
While at FIU, he was a member of the ACM Student Programming Team that placed
second in the southeast regionals. "James
is quite a unique individual," said Victor B. Zordan, a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia
Tech. Zordan has worked closely with O'Brien for many years and considers him
an "important work associate" and trusted friend. "He has a tremendous ability
to comprehend abstract concepts and realize these ideas concretely through his
well-honed programming skills. "While
his talents are the best of the best, he's also a go-getter and extremely hard
worker," said Zordan. O'Brien's
earliest memories of computers are inextricably tied to FIU. "He
started around the fourth grade by playing a game called 'Adventure' on FIU's
Univac computer using my vt100 terminal," said O'Brien's father, FIU Associate
Professor of Hospitality Management William O'Brien. William joined the University's
computer support staff and was an instructor in the School of Computer Science
in the early 1980s. In the mid-'80s, he went to the School of Hospitality Management
where he still teaches a course in Hospitality Computer Applications. "The
only other thing that really competed with computers when I was younger was physics,"
said O'Brien. A graduate
of Columbus High School in Miami, O'Brien attended FIU on scholarship as part
of the Faculty Scholars Program, the precursor to the Honors College. O'Brien
gives high marks to his FIU education. "I must say I felt well prepared for what
I encountered at Georgia Tech," said O'Brien. "The FIU professors did a good job
designing a curriculum that left me well prepared for the next step."
"We're
delighted because he's teaching in a computer science program that's in the top
five in the country, and it all started with an FIU education," said Jainendra
Navlakha, director of the School of Computer Science. "As far as we know, he's
the first alumnus of our school to attain such a prestigious appointment."
Navlakha wasn't surprised to
hear of O'Brien's accomplishments, which are considerate for someone who has just
received a doctorate. "He
was always a very good scholar," said Navlakha. "We remember him as a nice, humble,
hard working guy." When
he's not creating explosions and smashing objects, the soft-spoken O'Brien enjoys
hiking and other outdoor activities with his wife Heather, a schoolteacher at
Berkeley High School. "My wife grew up in Wyoming, and I grew up in Miami, so
we both have an appreciation of the outdoors." When
asked where he would like to be 10 years from now, O'Brien said he would aim to
head an active research lab. He'd also like to be a consultant with movie studios
or high-end computer graphics studios. Regardless of what the future holds, O'Brien's
intellectual curiosity is sure to remain constant. "It's a question of finding
an interesting problem and figuring out how best to address it," he concluded.
James
O'Brien with a computer simulation of the "Stanford Bunny" model fracturing as
it is struck by a heavy, fast-moving "weight." The Stanford Bunny (developed at
the California university) was one of the first models to be scanned and made
publicly available. According to O'Brien, researchers often use the model to demonstrate
new animation techniques.
FIU
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"FIU
professors did a good job designing a curriculum
that left me well prepared
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