Manocha Named to 2019 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy

Dinesh Manocha, the Paul Chrisman Iribe Professor of computer science has recently been named to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGGRAPH Academy. He and Hanan Samet, a Distinguished University Professor of computer science, were part of a select group of eight researchers chosen for membership in 2019.

Manocha holds joint appointments in electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. He is a faculty member of the Maryland Robotics Center and an affiliate of the Institute for Systems Research.

SIGGRAPH (special interest group in graphics) established the academy in 2018 to recognize individuals who have made substantial contributions to computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Criteria for membership includes cumulative contributions to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques; impact on the field through development of new research directions and/or innovations; and influence on the work of others.

Manocha was recognized for his contributions to geometric modeling, GPU computing, interactive rendering of large complex scenes, and interactive sound simulation.

Samet was recognized for founding, developing, and authoring the definitive texts in the field of storing, processing, analyzing, and retrieving spatial data.

They were named along with Fred Brooks, Marie-Paule Cani, Donna Cox, Markus Gross, Ravi Ramamoorthi, and Dennis Zorin.

Reviewing the full membership roster of the Academy finds the University of Maryland tied for the most members (2) with Cornell, Stanford, Caltech, the University of North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and NYU, thereby placing the University of Maryland's activities in computer graphics and interactive techniques at the top levels in the world.

Both will be formally inducted into the academy at SIGGRAPH2019, to be held July 28–August 1 in Los Angeles, California.

Published May 31, 2019