Dr Pierre Boulanger
Collaborative Virtual Environments
Dr Boulanger has received an iCORE Industrial Chair Establishment (ICE) grant of $50,000 per year for five years, for a total of $250,000, which will contribute to a $1.7 million research program in Collaborative Virtual Environments. iCORE's investment represents roughly 15 percent of the total budget. TRLabs is contributing $53,000 per year for five years, for a total of $265,000. Industry partners are contributing $478,000 in kind, the University of Alberta is contributing $125,000 in kind. Additional funding for the project comes from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, NSERC and CANARIE.
Research Program Overview
The primary objective of this research program is to research and develop new hardware and software for Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE). The University of Alberta will develop one of the top facilities in the world for creating and improving collaborative virtual environments. These are multimedia facilities linked by high-speed networks that allow multiple participants situated around the world to work together on a single project, such as a computer visualization of a scientific phenomenon, the design of an engineering project, and a training program for industry. These kinds of uses all require detailed and realistic visualizations, and thereby require a range of powerful computing resources, connected by highspeed networks, and linked to large data storage facilities. The advancements made by this research program will improve the detail of virtual environments in which viewers feel immersed.
This ambitious research program is planned for five years and involves the collaboration of more than ten researchers from across Canada, the US and Europe. These researchers will focus on the development of multi-modal interactions and visualization devices for collaborative visualization and training, mobile applications for training, and real-time visualization of complex physical simulations.
Biographical Information
Dr Boulanger graduated from Laval University in Engineering Physics. He also received his Masters in Physics from the same university and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Montreal. He worked for 18 years at the National Research Council of Canada as a senior research officer where his primary research interest were in 3D computer vision, rapid product development, and virtualized reality systems. Since July 1st 2001, he is working as a professor at the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta doing research and teaching on virtualized reality systems. He is also an adjunct scientist and principal investigator for new media at TRLabs and at the Banff Centre. In 2004, Dr Boulanger was awarded an iCORE industrial chair in Collaborative Virtual Environment.
He has published more than 150 scientific papers in various Journals and Conferences. He is on the editorial board of two major academic journals. Dr Boulanger is also on many international committees and frequently gives lectures on rapid product development and virtualized reality. He is the founder of the Canadian Virtualized Reality Systems Working Group. He is also the Director of the Advanced Man Machine Interface Laboratory. On the commercial side, Dr Boulanger is the president of PROTEUS Consulting Inc., an Alberta-based consulting firm specialized in Virtual Reality Applications.
Research Team
The multi-disciplinary nature of the team and approach is considered a strong asset. The team includes experts in user interface design and evaluation (including a psychologist), 3D graphics, entertainment and heritage media, cultural and participatory design theory, collaboration methods, video and audio signal processing, 3D-range image processing, networking, virtual environment application development, and performance evaluation.
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March 15, 2005
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