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Luke Olsen

Dept. of Computer Science, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4

ljolsen@ucalgary.ca

Education

Ph.D. program, Computer Science (09/2006 - 01/2011)
University of Calgary

  • Supervisor: F.F. Samavati
  • Thesis title: Image-Assisted Modeling from Unconstrained Sketches
  • Developed a method for creating textured subdivision surfaces from complex input sketches, including a hierarchical line classification and a feature-based mesh construction algorithm.
  • Supported game-friendly extensions such as texture atlas generation and automatic animation rigging.
  • Produced 3 peer-reviewed research papers, a poster, and a survey paper on sketch-based modeling (all as first author).
  • Breadth coursework: viruses and malicious software, machine learning, computational geometry.

M.Sc., Computer Science (09/2004 - 08/2006)
University of Calgary

  • Supervisors: F.F. Samavati & M. Costa Sousa
  • Thesis title: Constraining Wavelets for Multiresolution (departmental nominee for best thesis award)
  • Created a general framework for creating multiresolution settings for a wide range of subdivision schemes.
  • Applied the framework to several subdivision schemes, including cubic B-splines, Loop and Catmull-Clark surfaces, and implemented these in a mesh-editing software application (C# and DirectX).
  • Produced 1 short paper, 2 conference papers, and 1 journal paper (all as first author).

B.Sc. (First Class Honors), Computer Science (09/2001 - 04/2004)
University of Calgary (years 3-5), University of Alberta (year 2), Red Deer College (year 1)

  • Overall GPA: 4.0, Silver Medallion winner for highest academic achievement
  • Honors Thesis title: Trajectories: Retrieval of Coordinated Motion
  • Relevant non-major coursework: classical and modern physics, calculus, linear algebra, statistics, introductory chemistry, game theory.

Skills & Abilities

Professional

  • Excellent organization skills and strong work ethic.
  • Strong analytic, design, and coding skills.
  • Self-motivated and work well under pressure.
  • Excellent research skills and ability to develop novel solutions.
  • Good instincts for layouts and interface design.

Programming Languages & Concepts

  • Knowledge of breadth of computer science fundamentals, including algorithmic complexity, data structure design and analysis, computer architecture, and software engineering principles.
  • Extensive experience with C, C++, C#, and Python, including writing a 30k-line sketch-based modeling application in .NET for my doctoral research.
  • Experience with Java, Matlab, SQL, and web technologies such as JavaScript, PHP, HTML, and CSS.
  • In spare time, have developed and released mobile apps (for Palm webOS).
  • Familiar with Visual Studio, .NET, and Qt for creating interfaces.

Computer Graphics

  • Extensive graphics programming experience in OpenGL, DirectX, and shaders (GLSL).
  • Ample experience with polygon meshes, including: creating, rendering and manipulating half-edge data structures; importing, exporting and converting among various formats; subdivision and multiresolution editing.
  • Familiarity with many curve and surface representations, such as B-splines, NURBS, implicit, CSG, and parametric surfaces.
  • Knowledge of rendering concepts such as ray-tracing, radiosity, space partitioning, and non-photorealism.
  • Some experience writing Maya plug-ins, using both scripting and the SDK.

Communication

  • Excellent communication skills, as indicated by 13 peer-reviewed articles (nine of which I was the first author).
  • Comfortable with public speaking and giving presentations, having presented at several conferences, taught numerous course labs, and given many presentations to colleagues and classmates.

Publications

  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, and J.A. Jorge.
    NaturaSketch: Modeling from Images and Natural Sketches.
    IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 31, Iss. 6.
  • L. Olsen and F.F. Samavati.
    Stroke Extraction and Classification for Mesh Inflation.
    Proc. of EG Symposium on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling (SBIM'10), Annecy, France.
  • L. Olsen and F.F. Samavati.
    Image-Assisted Modeling from Sketches.
    Proc. of Graphics Interface 2010 (GI'10), Ottawa, Ontario.
  • L. Olsen and F.F.Samavati.
    A Discrete Approach to Multiresolution Curves and Surfaces.
    Trans. on Computational Science VI
    Lecture Notes in Computer Sciences Vol. 5730/2009, pp. 342-361.
  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, M. Costa Sousa, and J. Jorge.
    Sketch-Based Modeling: A Survey.
    Computers & Graphics, Vol. 33, Issue 1, pp. 85-103, 2009.
  • L. Olsen and F.F.Samavati.
    A Discrete Approach to Multiresolution Curves and Surfaces.
    Proc. of ICCSA'08, June 30-July 3, Perugia, Italy, 2008.
  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, M. Costa Sousa, and J. Jorge.
    A Taxonomy of Modeling Techniques using Sketch-Based Interfaces.
    Eurographics 2008 State-of-the-Art Report, April 14-18, Crete, Greece, 2008.
  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, and M. Costa Sousa.
    Fast Stroke Matching by Angle Quantization.
    In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Immersive Telecommunications (ImmersCom 2007), Oct. 10-12, Verona, Italy, 2007.
  • F.F. Samavati, R.H. Bartels, L. Olsen.
    Local B-spline Multiresolution with Examples in Iris Synthesis and Volumetric Rendering.
    Chapter in Image Pattern Recognition: Synthesis and Analysis in Biometrics, Series in Machine Perception and Artificial Intelligence Vol. 67, World Scientific Publishing, 2007.
  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, R.H. Bartels.
    Multiresolution for curves and surfaces based on constraining wavelets.
    Computers & Graphics, Vol. 31, Iss. 3, pp. 449-462, 2007.
  • L. Olsen.
    Constraining Wavelets for Multiresolution.
    Master's Thesis, University of Calgary, 2006.
  • M. Zhang, L. Olsen, J. Boyd.
    Subjective Trajectory Characterization: Acquisition, Matching and Retrieval.
    In IS&T/SPIE Symposium on Electronic Imaging, 15-19 January 2006, San Jose, California, 2006.
  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, M.C. Sousa, J. Jorge.
    Sketch-Based Mesh Augmentation.
    In Proceedings of the 2nd Eurographics Workshop on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling (SBIM 2005), 28-29 August 2005, Dublin, Ireland, 2005.
  • L. Olsen, F.F. Samavati, R.H. Bartels.
    Multiresolution B-Splines Based On Wavelet Constraints.
    In Proceedings of the 2005 Symposium on Geometry Processing (SGP 2005), 4-6 July 2005, Vienna, Austria, 2005.
  • J. Boyd, M. Sayles, L. Olsen, P. Tarjan.
    Content Description Servers for Networked Video Surveillance.
    In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Information and Technology: Coding and Computing (ITCC 2004), 5-7 April, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2004.
  • J. Boyd, M. Sayles, L. Olsen, and P. Tarjan.
    Internet Broadcast of Hockey: A Scale Prototype.
    In Proceedings of SPIE Internet Imaging V, San Jose, CA, p193-201, 2004.

Teaching & Work Experience

Teaching Assistant (09/2005-04/2009)
University of Calgary

  • Taught high-level courses, including Intro to Computer Graphics (3rd year), Modeling for Computer Graphics (4th year), Computer Vision (4th year), and Research Methodology (graduate).
  • Duties included preparation and delivery of tutorials, grading assignments, and counseling students.
  • Achieved consistently high evaluations from students.

Course Development (01/2006-04/2006)
University of Calgary

  • Assisted in the preparation of course material (including course notes, assignments, and exam questions) for Introductory Computer Graphics course.

Continuous tutorial (09/2005-12/2005, 09/2006-12/2006)
University of Calgary

  • My duties were to provide general help with assignments and fundamental concepts to undergraduate students in computer science.

Research Assistant (Summers 2003, 2004)
University of Calgary

  • Supervisor: Dr. Jeff Boyd
  • Created client software for networked camera systems, including applications for traffic monitoring and hockey game visualization.
  • Implemented a system for trajectory description and matching based on Voronoi-cell partitioning.

Major Awards & Honors

Scholarships

  • iCore ICT Graduate Scholarship (Provincial). (2008-2010)
  • NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship (PGS-D) (National). (2006-present)
  • iCore Graduate Student Scholarship (Provincial). (2004-2008)
  • Dean's Entrance Scholarship (University of Calgary). (2006)
  • Dean's Research Award (University of Calgary). (2006, 2007)
  • NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship (CGS-M) (National). (2004-06)
  • Dean's Research Excellence Award (University of Calgary). (2004)
  • NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award (National). (2003, 2004)

Honors

  • Featured on cover of conference proceedings at two conferences: Graphics Interface 2010, held in Ottawa, and EG Symposium on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling, held in Annecy, France.
  • Silver Medallion. Departmental award for highest academic distinction in graduating class. (University of Calgary)
  • Computing Research Association Outstanding Researcher Award - Honorable mention (International). (2003)

Leadership Activities

Lab Meeting Coordinator (09/2007 - 08/2009)
Graphics Lab, University of Calgary

  • Responsible for recruiting speakers from inside and outside of the research group, maintaining the lab website, and keeping group members informed of relevant news.

Computer Science Graduate Society (CSGS) (09/2004 - 08/2009)
University of Calgary

  • This student body is responsible for representing graduate student interests at the department and faculty levels. My duties were to participate in monthly meetings, make lab members aware of events and issues, and relay the opinions of lab members back to the society.

Graduate Student Society (GSA) (09/2005 - 06/2006)
University of Calgary

  • I was one of three CSGS representatives at GSA meetings, which determine the stance of the student body on important issues such as tuition policy and the teaching assistant collective bargaining agreement. My duty was to attend the GSA meetings and relay the information to CSGS.

Chief Returning Officer, CSGS elections (2005, 2006, 2007)
University of Calgary

  • Responsible for processing nominations and tallying votes during the election process.