Oscar Recognition for Alum


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For a second time, Dr. Doug Roble has heard his name spoken by a representative of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. On Feb. 9th, 2008, Dr. Roble received a Scientific and Engineering Award (Academy Plaque) for his development of the fluid simulation system at Digital Domain. This work, done in collaboration with Nafees Bin Zafar and Ryo Sakaguchi, is an "influential and flexible production-proven system (which) incorporates innovative algorithms and refined adaptations of published methods to achieve large-scale water effects." You can see examples of Doug's work in the "Pirates of Caribbean Series." When the Washington Post asked Dr. Roble what contributed to this honor, he replied, "I'd like to thank the fluid community."

Doug first received recognition from the Academy in 1998 (presented in 1999), when he received a Technical Achievement Award (Academy Certificates) for his contribution to tracking technology and for the design and implementation of the TRACK system for camera position calculation and scene reconstruction. As stated on the Academy's website, "the TRACK system is an integrated software tool that uses computer-vision techniques to extract critical 2D and 3D information about a scene and the camera used to film it." OSU-CSE was particularly proud of this award to Roble; this work was derived from research he had started in his doctoral dissertation.

At Digital Domain, Dr. Roble is the Creative Director of Software. In service to the greater graphics technology community, he is Chief Editor of the Journal of Graphics Tools and is on several panels and committees of SIGRAPH, the most prestigious computer graphics conference, including its Advisory Board. He has given invited lectures and keynote addresses at many major conferences, most recently at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007. In 2002, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from OSU's College of Engineering. Dr. Roble was a student of Dr. Rick Parent and received his Ph.D. in 1992 after receiving his Masters in 1987. Doug resides in California with his wife and fellow alum, Dr. Deborah Shands.