Category: Animation, Graphics & UI

Travis McPhail (B.S. ’04, M.S. ’07, Ph.D. ’11) started as a graphics expert focusing on research (geometric modeling and image/volume deformations) for the movie, biomedical, and air & space industries, then transitioned to applied research/pure software engineering in the oil and gas industry. His experience in 3D maps and modeling caught the attention of Google, where he has built infrastructure and pushed features across Geo’s flagship products (Maps, Earth, Streetview etc.) He has led map rendering across Google’s major platforms and provides core infrastructure for the associated 3rd-party APIs. Currently, he is focused on harnessing the power of Map/Earth/Streetview for other companies and he drives the engineering teams for the Maps SDK (Enterprise) business.

Read his CS Alumni Profile: https://www.cs.rice.edu/mcphail

Sharon Goza (M.C.S. ’89) is the Project Manager for all software development, model building, and animation produced in the Integrated Graphics Operations and Analysis Laboratory (IGOAL) at NASA Johnson Space Center. She is also a published author. Read her short story, “Neural Net” in The Razor’s Edge.

Rob Shillingsburg is an independent computer game developer, focused on browser-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Rob’s interest lies in building large, ambitious projects with small, efficient teams, using technology to reduce the human labor costs normally associated with these games.

Joe Warren is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University. His main area of research interest is computer graphics and geometric modeling, where he has published extensively. He is the author of the book Subdivision Methods for Geometric Design. He also has a love for computer gaming, both playing games and teaching students how to build them. He has taught the Department’s introduction to game creation course as well as its senior-level game design course in collaboration with Houston game professionals for over a decade. Joe was an undergraduate at Rice from 1979-1983 and received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1986. He has been a professor at Rice ever since and served as the Chair of the Department from 2008 to 2013.

He is serving as the moderator for the Animation, Graphics and User Interface panel.

Eric Salituro (B.A. ’86) is a versatile and creative Technical Director & Senior Software Developer with longstanding accomplishments in pipeline development, render farm management, and enterprise technical support.  He is an expert in computer graphics film production, production pipelines, system administration, and high-profile strategic initiatives. Collaborative leader and consummate team player able to bring cross-functional teams together to solve problems, bridge technical and non-technical groups.

His areas of expertise include:

Software Development Lifecycles | Accelerated Turnaround Times | Streamlined Processes | Coaching & Mentoring | 24/7 Reliability & Availability | Product Development | Workflow Creation | Documentation & Training | Scripting | Feature Film Production | Visual Effects Production

CS Alumni Profile: https://www.cs.rice.edu/salituro

Dan Sandler (B.A. ’99, M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’09) is a software engineer on Google’s Android System User Interface (UI) team. He worked on UI frameworks and apps for companies like PalmSource and Be, Inc. before returning to Rice as a graduate student. Working with Dan Wallach Sandler researched distributed and peer-to-peer systems as well as computer systems security with a focus on electronic voting.

Soon after wrapping up his Ph.D. at Rice, Sandler joined Google and began working on their Android smartphone software. In a recent New York Times’ article – The Secret History of ‘Easter Eggs’ – he said he had included a surprise in every Android version since 2011.