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3Congratulations to.FACULTY AND STAFFThe following staff, who celebrated significantanniversaries with UNC this year:25 yrs, Catherine Perry20 yrs, Katrina Coble20 yrs, David Harrison20 yrs, Fred Jordan15 yrs, Graham Gash15 yrs, Brian White10 yrs, Kurtis KellerThis year’s Star Heels Award winners forComputer Science: Donna Boggs, ChesterStephen, Karen Thigpen, John Thomas,Herman Towles.Stephen Aylward, who was promoted to anadjunct associate professor.Delphine Bull who was promoted to anadministrative assistant I, effective November4, 2002. Delphine works with Drs. Pizer andGerig and the MIDAG group of faculty whospan multiple departments on campus.Andrea Bunn, who earned her M.S. inOrganizational Change and Leadership fromPfeiffer University in August 2002. Andrea alsopresented the first of many awards called the“Andrea Smith Bunn Service Award” toselected 8th graders at the Smith MiddleSchool here in Chapel Hill on June 6, 2002.The middle school, which opened in August2001, was named in honor of the combined75 years of teaching her parents served in theChapel Hill-Carrboro City School System.Nick England, who was named 2002Entrepreneur of the Year by the Eastern NorthCarolina IEEE Section.Ming Lin, who won the 2002 PhillipHettleman Prize for Artistic and ScholarlyAchievement. This is one of the University’smost prestigious acknowledgments for facultyexcellence. Ming was also honored with the3rd Best Paper Award in Eurographics 2002for a paper she co-authored titled “EfficientFitting and Rendering of Large Scattered DataSets Using Subdivision Surfaces.”Catherine Perry, who was reclassified froman Accounting Technician III to an AccountingTechnician IV, effective September 9, 2002.Tim Quigg, who has been appointed as amember of the Society of Research Administrators International (SRA) DistinguishedFaculty and president of the Southern Sectionof the SRA. Quoting the letter from the SRApresident, “This appointment acknowledgesyour internationally recognized expertise,your excellence in developing and deliveringprofessional development training, and yourmany significant contributions to theprofession of research administration.”Don Smith and Jim Anderson, recipients ofthe 2001-2002 CSSA Teaching Awards, andSanjoy Baruah and Ketan Mayer-Patel, recipients of 2002-2003 awards.Wei Wang and Montek Singh, who haveeach been awarded 5,000 Junior FacultyDevelopment Awards (awarded through theOffice of the Provost).Stephen Weiss, who was awarded theRobert Byrd Award for Academic Integrity,given annually to a member of the UNCChapel Hill community who has demonstratedhonor and integrity on the campus. Dr. Weisswas honored for his years of service insupport of the Honor System.Brian White who was named editor ofInTouch, the Employee Forum Newsletter.GRADUATE STUDENTSDr. John Glotzer (M.S. 2000) hasgenerously funded an award to be givenannually to an outstanding teaching assistant.The TA of the Year receives a cash award andhas his or her name added to a plaque inSitterson lobby. Theodore Kim and EileenKupstas Soo were the recipients of the2001-2002 Outstanding Teaching Assistant ofthe Year award, and Suzanne Vogel was the2002-2003 recipient.Ruigang Yang, who was awarded a LinkFellowship for 2002-2003.Sang-Uok Kum, who received a LinkFellowship for 2002-2003.Aditi Majumder, who won the ArgonneYoung Scientist Award in October 2002.M.S.: David Borland, James Branigan, TongChao, Uma Devi, Charalampos Fretzagias,Sunyong Kim, Long Le, Mark Lindsey,Spencer Shepard, Michael Strauss, SampathVetsa, Suzanne Vogel, Rong XieB.S.: Michael Brian Albritton, SmritiSantosh Bhotika, Youngwon Byun, PhillipLiang-Hai Chang, Benjamin Lindley Ehrich,Linda Jasmine Gardea, Julia Haven Grace,Ryan Michael Hillman, Steven DanielHopper, Aaron Wood Houghton, ShawnAllyn Hunter, Gregory Ryan Lanier,Benjamin Henry Lee Mappen, ViratVijaykumar Mehta, Amnon Meiri, DominicF. Montazemi, Jared Michael Pace, JeremyStephen Parker, Anthony George Penta,Richard Benjamin Pierce, Daniel ScottPlaisted, Stephen Paul Ridgill II, BrianMichael Rogers, Michael Raymond Roswell,Tatsuhiro Segi, Brian Lee Smith, LeonMichael SujataB.S. MSci.: Anthony Alfonso DeLuca, DrewHyun Hale, Alex T. Jenkins, Stefan J. Kessler,Sarah Khanani, Erik Louis Laurenceau, J.Taylor Rankin, Jonathan Ray Shores,Allyson Blake Silver, Howard Ben Tat,William Matthew Vaughn, Britney SheaWallace, Joseph Matthew Walters, Ze HengXiao, Jessica Lee Young.August 2003 CandidatesPh.D.: Alexandra Bokinsky, AditiMajumder, Vassil Roussev, Michele Weigle,Ruigang YangM.S.: Dean HeringtonB.S. MSci.: Mirza M. Nagji Monica Kum, who was awarded the PaulHardin Dissertation Fellowship for the 20032004 academic year.Mark Harris, who was awarded the NVIDIAFellowship for 2002-2003 for the second yearin a row.AND TO OUR GRADUATES.May 2002Ph.D.: Peter Brown, Robert Katz,Benjamin LokM.S.: Scott Cooper, Thomas Lassanske,Paul McLaurin, Nathan Moon, StephanSherman, Hans WeberAugust 2002Ph.D.: David McAllister, Nicholas VallidisM.S.: Ibrahim Salama, James Van Verth,Zhi ChenDecember 2002Ph.D.: Goopeel Chung, Gentaro Hirota,Ramesh Raskar, Andrew WilsonM.S.: Angus Antley, Adrian Ilie, PeterLorenzen, Kok-Lim Low, Dorian Miller,Thorsten Scheuermann, Woo Jin Seok,Christopher WeigleB.S.: Carlos Flor, Yuan-Chen Ho, JohnRoam, Bennett RogersB.S. MSci.: Emeka Asika, Ryan Barrier,Aaron Bednar, Christopher Collazo, DavidCooper, Catherine Kassens, Charles McGaw,Benjamin Rogers, Jeremy Watson.May 2003Ph.D.: Christopher Dwyer, PaulRademacher, Paul YushkevichALUMNI FELLOWSHIPRECIPIENTMichele Weigle (M.S. 1998) is therecipient of the 2002-2003 ComputerScience Alumni Fellowship. Thefellowship is awarded annually to a Ph.D.candidate in his or her final year ofstudy, allowing the student to work fulltime on dissertation research. Generouscontributions by alumni and friends helpto make this fellowship possible.Michele is working on a dissertationinvestigating the use of synchronizedclocks to improve TCP congestioncontrol under the direction of KevinJeffay. Her research uses synchronizedclocks at end systems to determine theexact one-way transit time (OTT)between the two hosts. Michele’s goal isto use the OTTs obtained during a filetransfer to detect and react to congestionbefore packet loss occurs. Her variant ofTCP, called Sync-TCP, makes moreefficient use of network resources andimproves the overall performance of theInternet.

Research highlightsINTERACTIVE GEOMETRICCOMPUTATIONS USING GRAPHICSHARDWAREFast graphics hardware, includingdedicated vertex processing, 3Drasterization, texturing, and pixelprocessing, is becoming as ubiquitous asfloating-point hardware. The developmenttime between new generations of graphicsprocessor units (GPUs) is currently muchless than the development cycle for CPUs.Moreover, the rasterization performance ofthe GPUs appears to be progressing at arate faster than Moore’s law. Along withmulti-pass capabilities, programmabilityand fast readback bandwidth, the GPUs arebecoming useful co-processors for diverseapplications that are beyond theconventional domain of image synthesis.The recent research of Ming Lin andDinesh Manocha has focused on usingGPUs for solving geometric and scientificcomputation. It includes developing realtime algorithms for different geometricproblems including intersection queries,Voronoi diagrams and distance fields,penetration depth computation, robotmotion planning, visibility determination andmodel simplification. They are alsoinvestigating fast algorithms for somescientific computing problems, includingsolving linear and non-linear algebraicequations and a class of partial differentialequations that can effectively utilize theSIMD capabilities and treat GPUs as anefficient processor of images. The mainchallenges, as compared to CPU-basedimplementations, include lack of generalpurpose programming tools for the GPUs,limited precision and storage. Our currentalgorithms have been used for thesealgorithms to fast physically-based simulation, real-time navigation of dynamicenvironments, and interactive display ofcomplex 3D environments. Their long-termgoal is to provide real-time solutions formany computationally challenging problemsand also develop a new computing paradigmfor different geometric and scientificapplications.More information about their projects canbe found at gamma.cs.unc.edu. Recent publicationsBaxter B., A. Sud, N. Govindraju and D.Manocha. “GigaWalk: Interactive Walkthrough ofComplex 3D Environments,” Proc. ofEurographics Workshop on Rendering, 2002.Fletcher, P.T., S.M. Pizer, G. Gash, and S. Joshi.“Deformable M-rep segmentation of objectcomplexes,” Proc. IEEE InternationalSymposium on Biomedical Imaging, 2002.Foskey M., D. Manocha, T. Culver, J. Keyser, andS. Krishnan. “Reliable Geometric Computationswith Algebraic Primitives and Predicates,”Uncertainty in Geometric Computations,Sheffield, Kluwer Publishers, 2002, 12 pages.Garber M., and M. Lin. “Constrained-BasedMotion Planning for Virtual Prototyping,” Proc.ACM Symposium on Solid Modeling andApplications, June 2002, 257-264.Gerig, G., and M. Styner. “Statistical ShapeModels for Segmentation and StructuralAnalysis,” Proc. IEEE International Symposiumon Biomedical Imaging, July 2002.Gotz D., K. Mayer-Patel and D. Manocha. “IRW:Incremental Representation for Image-BasedWalkthroughs,” Proc. of ACM Multimedia,2002.Ho, S., E. Bullitt, and G. Gerig. “Level SetEvolution with Region Competition: Automatic 3D Segmentation of Brain Tumors,” Proc. 16thInt Conf on Pattern Recognition ICPR 2002,IEEE Computer Society, Eds. R. Kasturi, D.Laurendeau, and C. Suen, August 2002, 532535.Isenburg M., and J. Snoeyink. “Coding withASCII: compact, yet text-based 3D content,”Proc. 1st IEEE International Symposium on3D Data Processing, Visualization andTransmission, June 2002, 609-616.Joshi S., P. Lorenzen, G. Gerig, and E. Bullitt.“Structural and radiometric asymmetry in brainimages,” Medical Image Analysis, Vol. 7 (2),June 2003, 155-170.Keyser J., T. Culver, M. Foskey, S. Krishnan, andD. Manocha. “ESOLID- A System for ExactBoundary Evaluation,” Proceedings of the ACMConference on Solid Modeling, 2002.Kim Y., M. Otaduy, M. Lin and D. Manocha. “SixDegree-of Freedom Haptic Display usingLocalized Contact Computations,” Proc. TenthSymposium on Haptic Interfaces For VirtualEnvironment and Teleoperator Systems, 2002.Lin M., and D. Manocha. “Collision andProximity Queries,” Handbook of Computational Geometry, Eds. J. O’Rourke and T.N.T.Goodman, CRC Press, 2003, 20 pages.Majumder A. “Computer Graphics Optique:Optical Superposition of Projected ComputerGraphics,” Energy, Simulation Training andOcean Engineering: Research Papers of theLink Foundation Fellows, Vol. 2, Ed. B.J.Thompson, University of Rochester Press.Manocha D., Ed. “Interactive GeometricComputations with Graphics Hardware,” ACMSIGGRAPH, 2002.Mascarenhas A., S. Ehmann, A. Gregory, M. Linand D. Manocha. “Six Degrees-of-FreedomHaptic Visualization,” Touch in VirtualEnvironments: Haptics and the Design ofInteractive Systems, Prentice-Hall, 2002, 95118.Moon, N., E. Bullitt, van Leemput, K., and G.Gerig. “Model-Based Brain and TumorSegmentation,” Proc. 16th Int Conf on PatternRecognition 2002, Eds. R. Kasturi, D.Laurendeau, and C. Suen, IEEE ComputerSociety, August 2002, 528-531.Pizer S.M., P.T. Fletcher, A. Thall, M. Styner, G.Gerig, and S. Joshi. “Object Models in MultiscaleIntrinsic Coordinates via M-reps,” FirstInternational Workshop on Generative-ModelBased Vision, 2002, AEC Pece, ed. TechnicalReport DIKU-TR-2002/01: 1-9. Also, to appearin IVC Special Issue on Generative Model-basedVision.Plaisted D., A. Biere, and Y. Zhu. “A satisfiabilityprocedure for quantified Boolean formulae,”Discrete Applied Mathematics, in press,available online April 2003.Plaisted, D., and A. Yahya. “A RelevanceRestriction Strategy for Automated Deduction,”Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 144 (1-2), March2003, 59-93.Scheib V., J. Haber, M. Lin, and H.P. Seidel.“Efficient Fitting and Rendering of LargeScattered Data Sets Using Subdivision Surfaces,”Computer Graphics Forum (Proc. ofEurographics), Vol. 21(3), 10 pages, 2002.Shenton, M.E., G. Gerig, R.W. McCarley, G.Szekely, and R. Kikinis. “Amygdala-HippocampusShape Differences in Schizophrenia: Theapplication of 3D shape models to volumetricMR data,” Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging,2002, 115:15-35.Singh, M., J. A. Tierno, A. Rylyakov, S. Rylov, andS. M. Nowick. “An Adaptively-Pipelined MixedSynchronous-Asynchronous Digital FIR FilterChip Operating at 1.3 GigaHertz,” Proc. IEEE 8thInternational Symposium on AdvancedResearch in Asynchronous Circuits andSystems, April 2002.Styner M., G. Gerig, J. Lieberman, D. Jones andD. Weinberger. “Statistical shape analysis ofneuroanatomical structures based on medialmodels,” Medical Image Analysis, in press,available online March 2003.Varadhan G., and D. Manocha. “Out-of-CoreRendering of Massive Models,” Proc. of IEEEVisualization, 2002.Yushkevich, P., P.T. Fletcher, S. Joshi, A. Thall,and S. Pizer. “Continuous Medial Representations for Geometric Object Modeling in 2D and3D,” First International Workshop onGenerative-Model-Based Vision, 2002, AECPece, ed. Technical Report DIKU-TR-2002/01:11-19.

5GrantsNEW FIVE-YEAR MIDAG GRANTThe Medical Image Display and Analysis Group(MIDAG) has been awarded a five-year grant ofapproximately 8 million by the National CancerInstitute. Stephen M. Pizer, Kenan professor, isthe principal investigator on the grant, “StructuralImage Analysis and Medical Uses,” which extendsongoing Medical Image Presentation (MIP)research, now in its 12th year. Research will takeplace in several departments: Computer Science,Radiation Oncology, Psychiatry, Biostatistics, andStatistics. In addition to Pizer, researchers leadingindividual projects and groups as part of the grantinclude Edward Chaney, professor in RadiationOncology, Guido Gerig, Taylor Grandy professorin Computer Science and Psychiatry, KeithMuller, associate professor in Biostatistics, andGraham Gash, MIP lab manager in ComputerScience. Efforts will focus on developing methodsfor extracting 3D anatomic objects from CT andMR images for radiation treatment planning andpsychiatric diagnosis, and the statistical characterization of object shapes to support research in thedevelopment and diagnosis of schizophrenia.Researchers will continue to develop methodologies for 3D image-based object extraction andshape characterization that will be widelyapplicable and that will be based on m-reps; thenovel means of representing deformable objectsinvented by Pizer and his colleagues.(www.cs.unc.edu/Research/MIDAG/) GRANTS“CAREER: Visual 3D Acquisition, Modeling andRendering of the Real World,” NSF, MarcPollefeys.“Collaborative Research: Rate-based ResourceAllocation Methods Real Time EmbeddedSystem,” NSF, Kevin Jeffay and Don Smith.“Handling Massive Models: Representation,Real-Time Display and Interaction,” ArmyResearch Office, Dinesh Manocha and Ming C.Lin.“Protocol Coordination for MultistreamApplications,” NSF, Ketan Mayer-Patel.“Flexible Fair Scheduling on Multiprocessors,”NSF, PIs: Jim Anderson and Sanjoy Baruah.“Time Complexity Limits for Shared-memorySynchronization,” NSF, Jim Anderson.“Log-based Middleware for PervasiveApplication Sharing,” NSF, Prasun Dewan.Junior Faculty Development Award, MontekSingh.“3D Force Microscopy for Microrheology andActive Transport/Computer Science,” NationalInstitute for Biomedical Engineering, RichSuperfine.Junior Faculty Development Award, Wei Wang. Computer Services NewsSITTERSON NETWORK UPGRADECOMPLETEDBil Hays, network manager, managed theupgrade of the Sitterson network, which wascompleted last summer. We ran all new wirewaysin the ceilings and new conduits to the offices.Small offices now have at least six data and twovoice connections, plus four fibers and videocable; larger offices have more. The process ofupgrading involved first installing and testing anew wiring infrastructure throughout thebuilding. Once the new network was verified, Bilmoved all the building network connections overto the new wiring, with only very brief disruptionsin service as individual systems were moved fromone wire to another. We now have switched 100megabit connections to every desktop, and thewire is capable of handling gigabit speeds whenthe switches and network interfaces are upgraded.This was a tremendous project, with workmenvisiting every room in the building multiple times,walls being moved to accommodate new orexpanded communications gear, and a wide varietyof potentially intrusive activities going onthroughout the year. Bil planned and implementedthe upgrade masterfully and worked with users tokeep the disruptions to an absolute minimum.OS UPGRADESMurray Anderegg (M.S. 1991), Linux and emailsystems administrator, upgraded our Linux systemsto Red Hat version 7.3. Charlie Bauserman, PCsystems administrator, upgraded the majority ofour PC systems to Microsoft Windows 2000 andOffice 2000, and we are now starting on upgradingdesktop systems to Windows XP. (story continued on page 8)Prospective students viewexamples of our research atCandidates’ Day 2003. (photoKelli Gaskill)VIRTUAL MONTICELLO ONDISPLAY AT NEW ORLEANSMUSEUM OF ARTAssociate professors Anselmo Lastraand Lars Nyland, in collaboration withthe University of Virginia, are bringingJefferson’s Monticello to life throughvirtual reality this summer at the NewOrleans Museum of Art (NOMA). Theexhibit, part of the museum’s Jefferson’sAmerica & Napoleon’s Franceexhibition, will be on display throughAug. 31, 2003.Visitors to Jefferson’s America &Napoleon’s France, a special exhibitionin celebration of the bicentennialanniversary of the Louisiana Purchase,will view a three-dimensional scan ofJefferson’s library through two four-byfive-foot windows built in a 55-foot-widered Monticello façade.Using special polarized glasses, groupsof viewers will have the experience oflooking directly into a library athousand miles away. One viewer ineach group will wear glasses thatinclude a head-tracking device, and thevirtual window will show that visitor’sview into the room. For example, as thevisitor leans in and looks to the left,more of the left side of the library willbe visible. A stereogram image of thelibrary, designed in collaboration with(art)n, is also available for viewingwithout glasses.Lastra and Nyland, along with collaborator and department alumnus DavidLuebke (Ph.D. 1998) of the Universityof Virginia, were brought in on theNOMA project after scanning the libraryin 2000. Using the 3rdTech DeltaSpherelaser-range scanner, the professors wereable to create a 3D model of the library.The researchers are working to developmethods of real world 3D modeling.The research project and the Jeffersonlibrary exhibit at NOMA are beingfunded by a grant from the NationalScience Foundation. Additional supportwas provided by the Mitsubishi ElectricResearch Laboratories.For more information on the Jefferson’sAmerican and Napoleon’s France exhibitat the New Orleans Museum of Art, visitwww.noma.org.

BLIND AUDIO TACTILEMAPPING SYSTEMA project known as BATS, or Blind AudioTactile Mapping System, seeks to help theblind gain greater independence by allowingthem to ‘read’ maps.In spring 2002, a group of five undergraduatestudents, led by Associate Professor GaryBishop, created a prototype of the system,using a map of ancient England.BATS works by adding accessibility features toa digital map, allowing the blind user to gainthe same kind of spatial awareness as a sighteduser. The user moves a pointer over the mapusing a mouse, trackball, or tablet inputdevice. The numeric keypad on the keyboardenables the user to perform actions such aslistening to environmental sounds or requesting the spelling of a city’s name.Jason Morris, a blind graduate student in theclassics department at UNC, was the inspiration for the project. While a few Braille mapswere available to Jason, he didn’t have accessto the maps he needed, and he had begunworking with the Ancient World MappingCenter to create better maps for the blind.After hearing Jason’s story, Gary took the ideafor BATS back to his undergraduate-levelCOMP 145 class, Software EngineeringLaboratory, where they decided to make ittheir spring project. Teams were assigned todifferent areas of the project, includingbuilding a system to enable audio and tactiledisplay of ancient maps, allowing Jason to doresearch, and building a system to transliterateancient texts in Greek and Latin into anappropriate Braille alphabet.In addition, a graduate-level class, COMP 261,Elements of Hardware Systems, began work onbuilding a device to measure compassdirection, range to an object in front of theuser, tilt, and global positioning systemcoordinates. This would allow Jason toconduct archaeological expeditions for hiscourses and could also be used for localnavigation.When the semester was over, some of thestudents decided to keep working on theproject, and others joined the effort. Sincethen, the group has received an unrestrictedgrant from the Microsoft Corporation, as wellas equipment from companies such asKensington and Intel.Bishop eventually wants to offer

(lu@cs.unc.edu) Leif Matthew Nyland was born in Chapel Hill on November 22, 2002, to Lauren and Lars Nyland, research associate professor. (nyland@cs.unc.edu) Sejal Mayer-Patel was born on May 31, 2002, in Durham, to Christine and Ketan Mayer-Patel, assistant professor. (kmp@cs.unc.edu) Ian Michael Stone was born on April 17, 2002,