ACM SIGGRAPH Frontiers Workshop on Computer Graphics for Autonomous Vehicles and Car Experience

Speaker(s):

Diana Arellano obtained her BSc. and MSc. in Computer Sciences from the University Simon Bolivar (Venezuela), and her PhD from the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain) in 2012. Her main field of research was Affective Computing, which she combined in later years with Machine Learning. During her time as Research Associate at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany), she was one of the coordinators of a German-funded project (SARA) focused on the generation of stylized character animations to study how autistic kids perceive emotions in other people’s faces (2013-2015). In her latest project on High-Performance Computing (2017), she researched on Machine Learning for Motion Synthesis in Animation.Currently, Diana works as Team Leader in the Pipeline Department at Mackevision, Part of Accenture Interactive in Stuttgart, Germany, where she is in charge of the disciplinary aspects in the team organization. The pipeline department belongs to the automotive branch of the company, and it is in charge of developing software solutions to be used internally (and externally) for the creation of car visualization.She also collaborates as scientific committee of several international conferences and journals, co-organizes discussion panels on Women in CG and Visual Arts at FMX and SIGGRAPH. Diana has been volunteering for SIGGRAPH and ACM SIGGRAPH since 2007 where she started as Student Volunteer, served as International Resources Committee (IRC) Chair, and currently holds the External Relations Chair and is member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Elizabeth Baron is Vice President, Immersive Solutions for Silverdraft Supercomputing. She has been the driving force in the development and deployment of global, collaborative immersive paradigms for industrial design and engineering. She focuses on the use of disruptive technology solutions to solve workflow and visualization challenges with enterprise partners to apply creative and elegant immersive solutions that connect knowledge with experience for cross-functional teams. Formerly, Elizabeth was a Technical Specialist in Immersive Realities at Ford Motor Company. She is the principal inventor of the Ford immersive Vehicle Environment (FiVE) process and technology, an immersive environment with high realism in experience, providing contextual data and real time global immersion for multiple disciplines across Ford. She then expanded FiVE to combine the physical and virtual worlds, creating location-based actionable immersive storytelling in Design Studios.

Cory has served Ford Motor Company for 30 years – 25 years in the Melbourne Design Studio. He has an Associate Degree in Technology Management (Deakin). Cory is an Electrician by trade with qualifications and work-life experience in IT ( PC and Unix ), Industrial Design, Advanced Electronics, PLC Programming, Software Programming, 3D Electrical Harness Design, Digital Buck and 3D Data Coordination, Automotive 3D Surfacing, Photoshop and After Effects / Imagery and Animation Development for TV marketing and Design, Python Scripting, Visualisation and Virtual Reality Implementation for Ford Asia Pacific Design Studios

Dr Chelsea Dobbins is Senior Lecturer within the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) at The University of Queensland. She is co-leader of the Empathic Extended Reality & Pervasive Computing Lab, which is part of the Co-Innovation research group within ITEE. Her research focuses on areas including lifelogging, pervasive computing, digital health, human computer interaction, machine learning, mobile computing, mobile/wearable sensors, human digital memories, signal processing, and physiological computing. She received her BSc (Hons) in Software Engineering and PhD in Computer Science, focusing on Human Digital Memories and Lifelogging, from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). She is also an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE and has secured competitive funding from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for work related to developing a mobile lifelogging platform to detect negative emotions during real-life driving.

Ben conducts research across the fields of interaction design, human-computer interaction, participatory design and design studies. He's interested in the human aspects of technology design and use, and methods for studying and involving people in design processes. He has worked in a range of design domains with various industry partners: audiology (Oticon), diabetes care (Novo Nordisk), domestic Internet of Things devices, industrial components (Danfoss), passport processing (DFAT), primary school educational interventions, remote mental health services, toys and play (Lego Group, Kompan), indoor climate (Velux), workplace safety (WorkCover Qld), and emergency first response.

Anita Byrnes is an Australian with more than thirty years of business experience in the ICT industry, a major part of which has included business in and with Japan. Since 2010 she has been director of Forum8 AU Pty Ltd, the representative of Forum8 Co. Ltd, a leading Japanese engineering and visualization software company. Her main role is business development, and support for Australian and New Zealand users. Forum8 software VR-Design Studio (UC-win Road) is used extensively for visualization and virtual reality applications in civil engineering and consultancy, community consultation, and driver training and driver behavior research.

Sourav Garg obtained his Bachelors in Electronics and Communication from Thapar University, India in 2012. He then worked as a researcher at Innovation Labs, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India, where he conducted research at the intersection of robotics and computer vision, solving problems like pedestrian detection and tracking, product counting in a retail shop environment, and developing a tea-serving robot for an office environment. During his PhD at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia (2015-2019), he explored the research problem of visual place recognition and navigation, developing novel methods for image representation and image matching, particularly those based on semantic scene understanding. Sourav is currently a Research Fellow at QUT and working on large-scale localization - potentially involving billions of places - with sub-linear complexity in both space and time. He regularly publishes and reviews robotics research in top-tier conferences and journals like IJRR, RSS, ICRA, and IROS.

Description: [Organizers: Diana Arellano and Elizabeth Baron] This workshop showcases the state-of-the art advances and future trends in the use of Computer Graphics in autonomous vehicles and the driving experience. As the driving experience evolves, new interaction modalities are being studied by academics and practitioners. Working in areas ranging from simulation and data analysis in autonomous vehicles, to storytelling for in-cabin experience, vehicle configurators, and exterior design and engineering, this workshop will present the latest in immersive visualization and show the importance of computer graphics and real-time ray-tracing in automotive. Attendees will learn how to apply these concepts to study vision, engineering visualization, and the use of AI for the design and implementation of successful driving experiences. Together presenters and attendees will have a unique opportunity to be part of discussion panels and breakouts on the future of driver experience.