MIT
Currently, I am a grad student in the computer graphics group at MIT's computer science and artificial intelligence lab. My research focus is getting physically-simulated characters to move in a coordinated way. For example, how does a creature coordinate its muscles to walk? While I am focused on applications in computer animation, my work also has applications to robotics and biomechanics.
Pixar
I worked for Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California for four years. I started out in the studio tools group working on animation software (direct manipulation, inverse kinematics, constraints). This work led to four patents and much animator love. Animator love is worth like a billion patents.
After three years as a (studio) tool, I became a technical director on the movie Cars. I worked on rendering desert vegetation more cheaply. This eventually led to a siggraph paper: Stochastic Simplification of Aggregate Detail. I also worked on car suspension deformers. Mainly, though, I was tasked with creating a crowd animation pipeline. This was a huge task that involved creating procedural animation models, cheaply renderable standins, and special animator tools. I even got to animate some shots!
Brown
I went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island for college. I concentrated in math and computer science. In CS, I really liked graphics because it is an interdisciplinary field. There's physics, math, and even psychology. Beyond taking the graphics courses, I worked as a research assistant for Professor David Laidlaw on scientific visualization problems. We worked on measuring blood pressure from MR images, visualizing brain structures, and evaluating fluid visualizations. This led to some publications and a senior honors thesis.
Pre-Historic Times
I was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1979, the same year that Three Mile Island had a toxic meltdown. Some say this was purely a coincidence.
Around seven, my dad bought me an Atari XE, though I begged him for a Nintendo. The games for the XE mostly sucked so I had to content myself with learning how to program BASIC. The XE came with a booklet that taught you how to program a little monster scurrying across the screen. I've been programming in one form or another ever since.
After my sister was born, my family moved to Seekonk, Massachusetts. I graduated valedictorian from Seekonk High in 1997. I got a cool medal, but I had to give a speech. Public speaking to me is like kryptonite to Superman. I was pretty sure I was going to die, but I survived. My speech did not.