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Wikipedia

Michael Kass

December 20, 2023

Michael Kass is an American computer scientist best known for his work in computer graphics and computer vision.[1] He has won an Academy Award[2] and the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award[3] and is an ACM Fellow.

Michael Kass
Michael Kass receiving his Academy Award in 2006
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Awards
Known forActive contour model
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Kass, David Baraff and Andrew Witkin shared an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement in 2005 for clothing animation, including his pioneering work on the clothing simulator[4] used by Pixar in the short Geri's Game,[5][6] Best Animated Short Film, Academy Awards 1997. He contributed a variety of technologies to Pixar animated films, from A Bug's Life through Monsters University.[7]

In 2009, Kass was honored by ACM SIGGRAPH for "his extensive and significant contributions to computer graphics, ranging from image processing to animation to modeling, and in particular for his introduction of optimization techniques as a fundamental tool in graphics."[3] The award citation notes: "Michael is a graphics renaissance man: he's worked on animation, modeling, textures, image processing and even on graphics systems. In each area, he's made groundbreaking contributions."[8]

Google Scholar counts over 30K citations to his work,[9] including one of the top 20 most cited papers in computer science,[10] “Snakes: Active Contour Models," authored with Andrew Witkin and Demetri Terzopoulos. The "Snakes" paper launched the Active contour model, a framework for delineating an object outline from a possibly noisy 2D image for applications like object tracking, shape recognition, segmentation, edge detection and stereo matching.

Kass developed the Hierarchical Z-Buffer with collaborators Ned Greene and Gavin Miller, a rendering technique that enables great increases in practical scene complexity compared to traditional Z-buffering. The algorithm can be found in all modern graphics processing units (GPU).[1]

Currently a distinguished engineer at NVIDIA, Kass is involved in a variety of projects related to augmented reality, virtual reality, and various types of content creation.  Prior to NVIDIA, he was a senior principal engineer at Intel, a distinguished fellow at Magic Leap, a senior research scientist at Pixar, and a principal engineer at Apple Computers. His early days in advanced technologies began at Schlumberger Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory after earning his Ph.D. from Stanford.[1]

Kass has 28 issued U.S. patents[11] and was honored in 2018 by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association as Inventor of the Year.

Kass is also a champion juggler,[12] Argentine tango dancer,[13] and an accomplished ice dancer.[14]

Education edit

Kass received a B.A. summa cum laude in artificial intelligence (independent concentration) from Princeton University, an M.S. in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.[7]

Career edit

Michael Kass has been a distinguished engineer at NVIDIA since 2017.  Prior to NVIDIA, he was a senior principal engineer in the New Technology Group at Intel,[15] distinguished fellow at Magic Leap,[16] a senior research scientist at Pixar Animation Studios, and a principal engineer with the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computers.[7] He began working on computer graphics and computer vision at Schlumberger's Palo Alto Research Center following his Ph.D.[1]

Honors, awards and achievements edit

Computer science edit

  • Academy Award for Technical Achievement (2005), for "pioneering work in physically-based computer-generated techniques used to simulate realistic cloth in motion pictures," with David Baraff and Andrew Witkin[17][18][19]
  • SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award (2009), "for his extensive and significant contributions to computer graphics, ranging from image processing to animation to modeling, and in particular for his use of optimization for physical simulation and image segmentation"[3]
  • ACM Fellow (2017), "for contributions to computer vision and computer graphics, particularly optimization and simulation"[1][20][21]
  • New York Intellectual Property Law Association Inventor of the Year (2018), "for contributions to the field of computer graphics"[22]
  • Most Cited Paper in Computer Science - Citeseer (19th), for "Snakes: Active contour models," International Journal of Computer Vision (1988), with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin[23]
  • Helmholtz Award, International Conference on Computer Vision (2013), for "Snakes: Active Contour Models," ICCV 1987, with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin[24]
  • List of Important Publications in Computer Science, in Computer Vision, for "Snakes: Active contour models," with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin.
  • Golden Nica, Prix Ars Electronica (1992), with Andrew Witkin, for the image "Reaction Diffusion Texture Buttons," Linz, Austria
  • Grand Prix, Pixel INA, Imagina (1991), for the animation Splash Dance, with G. Miller[25][26]
  • Marr Prize Honorable Mention, 1st International Conference on Computer Vision, London (1987), for "Snakes: Active contour models," with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin[27]
  • Best Paper in Perception-Vision, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (1987), for "Energy constraints on deformable models: Recovering shape and non-rigid Motion," with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin[28]
  • Honorable Mention, Prix Ars Electronica (1987), for the animation Knot Reel, with Andrew Witkin and K. Fleischer.[29]
  • Nomination, Best Paper prize, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (1986), for "Linear image features in stereopsis"[30]
  • Grand Prix, Parigraph (1986), for the animation Knot Reel, with Andrew Witkin and K. Fleischer[31][32]

Other edit

  • 2nd place, U.S. Argentine Tango Stage Championships, 2012[13]
  • U.S. Adult National Silver Medalist in ice dance, 2003[33]
  • U.S. Juggling Champion, 1980[12]

Notable publications edit

  • M. Kass, A. Witkin and D. Terzopoulos, "Snakes: Active contour models," International Journal of Computer Vision, 1(4): 321–331, January 1988
  • A. Witkin and M. Kass, "Spacetime constraints," Siggraph 1988: 159-168[34]
  • D. Terzopoulos, A. Witkin and M. Kass, "Constraints on deformable models: Recovering 3d shape and nonrigid motion," Artificial Intelligence, 35, 1988.
  • M. Kass and A. Witkin, "Analyzing oriented patterns," Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing, 37(3): 362–385, 1987
  • T. DeRose, M. Kass and T. Truong, "Subdivision surfaces in character animation,' Siggraph 1998: 85–94.
  • N. Greene, M. Kass and G. Miller, "Hierarchical Z-buffer visibility," Siggraph 1993: 231-238
  • M. Halstead, M. Kass and T. DeRose, "Efficient, fair interpolation using Catmull-Clark surfaces," Siggraph 1993: 35-44
  • M. Kass and G. Miller, "Rapid, stable fluid dynamics for computer graphics," Siggraph 1990: 49–57.
  • D. Terzopoulos, A. Witkin and M. Kass, "Symmetry-seeking models and 3D object reconstruction," International Journal of Computer Vision, 1(3): 211–221, 1987.
  • A. Witkin and M. Kass, "Reaction-diffusion textures," Siggraph 1991: 299-308
  • A. Witkin, D. Terzopoulos and M. Kass, "Signal matching through scale space," International Journal of Computer Vision, 1(2): 133–144, 1987.
  • D. Baraff, A. Witkin and M. Kass, "Untangling cloth," ACM Trans. Graph. 22(3): 862-870 (2003).

Pixar film credits edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e "A Talk with Michael Kass, ACM Fellow and Industry Innovator". ACM SIGGRAPH Blog. 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  2. ^ "Pixar draws academy kudos". Variety. February 20, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c "2009 CG Achievement Award: Michael Kass". ACM SIGGRAPH. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  4. ^ "Scientific and Technical Achievements to Be Honored with Academy Awards". TvTechnology. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  5. ^ "'Geri's Game' Turns 20: Director Jan Pinkava Reflects On The Game-Changing Pixar Short". Cartoon Brew. 2017-11-25. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  6. ^ "Subdivision Surfaces in Character Animation" (PDF). Pixar.
  7. ^ a b c Kass, Michael. "Pixar - Michael Kass CV". Pixar.
  8. ^ Unknown (2009-08-03). "Computer Graphics Achievement Award". Computer Graphics Achievement Award: Michael Kass. Siggraph '09. ACM. pp. 2:1. doi:10.1145/1667228.1667230. ISBN 9781450379373. S2CID 23688843.
  9. ^ "Michael Kass - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  10. ^ Kass, Michael; Miller, Gavin (1990). "Rapid, Stable Fluid Dynamics for Computer Graphics". Computer Graphics. 24 (4): 49–57. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.89.1204. doi:10.1145/97880.97884.
  11. ^ "Kass 28 issued U.S. Patents at USPTO.org".
  12. ^ a b "Jugglers - Where Are They Now: Part 1 · IJA". www.juggle.org. 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  13. ^ a b "USA TANGO CHAMPIONS". ARGENTINE TANGO U.S.A. 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  14. ^ "Graphics Research Group: Home Page". graphics.pixar.com. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  15. ^ "Workshop on Augmented and Mixed Reality: Speakers, Moderators and Panelists". scien.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  16. ^ "Magic Leap Draws From the Bay Area to Assemble Its Brain Trust". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  17. ^ "2005 Academy Award Nominations & Winners". atogt.com. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  18. ^ "Scientific and Technical Achievements to Be Honored with Academy Awards". TvTechnology. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  19. ^ "Pixar draws academy kudos". Variety. 2006-02-21. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  20. ^ "About ACM Fellows". awards.acm.org. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  21. ^ "All Award Winners". awards.acm.org. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  22. ^ "Inventor of the Year - NYIPLA". NYIPLA. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  23. ^ "CiteSeerX — Statistics - Most Cited Articles in Computer Science". Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  24. ^ . www.computer.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  25. ^ "1993 Prix Jury: COMPUTER ANIMATION". Prix Ars Electronica. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  26. ^ Thalmann, Nadia Magnenat; Thalmann, Daniel (2012-12-06). Creating and Animating the Virtual World. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9784431681861.
  27. ^ . www.computer.org. Archived from the original on 2018-11-26. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  28. ^ "AAAI-87: Sixth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence". aaai.org. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  29. ^ "ARS Electronica ARCHIVE". 90.146.8.18. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  30. ^ "dblp: 5. AAAI 1986: Philadelphia, PA". dblp1.uni-trier.de. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  31. ^ "Andy Witkin's Gallery". www.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  32. ^ "Andy Witkin: From Computer Vision to Computer Graphics". www.computer.org. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  33. ^ "graphics.pixar.com/aux/kass/vitae.html". graphics.pixar.com. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  34. ^ "Back to School | Computer Graphics World". Retrieved 2018-08-13.

External links edit

  • Pixar People - Michael Kass
  • Disney Research - Michael Kass
  • Michael Kass at IMDb  

December 20, 2023
michael, kass, american, computer, scientist, best, known, work, computer, graphics, computer, vision, academy, award, siggraph, computer, graphics, achievement, award, fellow, receiving, academy, award, 2006nationalityamericanalma, materprinceton, university,. Michael Kass is an American computer scientist best known for his work in computer graphics and computer vision 1 He has won an Academy Award 2 and the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award 3 and is an ACM Fellow Michael KassMichael Kass receiving his Academy Award in 2006NationalityAmericanAlma materPrinceton University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stanford UniversityAwardsACM Fellow Academy Award for Technical Achievement ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement AwardKnown forActive contour modelScientific careerFieldsComputer graphics Computer visionInstitutionsNvidia Intel Magic Leap Pixar Apple Inc Schlumberger Palo Alto ResearchKass David Baraff and Andrew Witkin shared an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement in 2005 for clothing animation including his pioneering work on the clothing simulator 4 used by Pixar in the short Geri s Game 5 6 Best Animated Short Film Academy Awards 1997 He contributed a variety of technologies to Pixar animated films from A Bug s Life through Monsters University 7 In 2009 Kass was honored by ACM SIGGRAPH for his extensive and significant contributions to computer graphics ranging from image processing to animation to modeling and in particular for his introduction of optimization techniques as a fundamental tool in graphics 3 The award citation notes Michael is a graphics renaissance man he s worked on animation modeling textures image processing and even on graphics systems In each area he s made groundbreaking contributions 8 Google Scholar counts over 30K citations to his work 9 including one of the top 20 most cited papers in computer science 10 Snakes Active Contour Models authored with Andrew Witkin and Demetri Terzopoulos The Snakes paper launched the Active contour model a framework for delineating an object outline from a possibly noisy 2D image for applications like object tracking shape recognition segmentation edge detection and stereo matching Kass developed the Hierarchical Z Buffer with collaborators Ned Greene and Gavin Miller a rendering technique that enables great increases in practical scene complexity compared to traditional Z buffering The algorithm can be found in all modern graphics processing units GPU 1 Currently a distinguished engineer at NVIDIA Kass is involved in a variety of projects related to augmented reality virtual reality and various types of content creation Prior to NVIDIA he was a senior principal engineer at Intel a distinguished fellow at Magic Leap a senior research scientist at Pixar and a principal engineer at Apple Computers His early days in advanced technologies began at Schlumberger Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory after earning his Ph D from Stanford 1 Kass has 28 issued U S patents 11 and was honored in 2018 by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association as Inventor of the Year Kass is also a champion juggler 12 Argentine tango dancer 13 and an accomplished ice dancer 14 Contents 1 Education 2 Career 3 Honors awards and achievements 3 1 Computer science 3 2 Other 4 Notable publications 5 Pixar film credits 6 References 7 External linksEducation editKass received a B A summa cum laude in artificial intelligence independent concentration from Princeton University an M S in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph D in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University 7 Career editMichael Kass has been a distinguished engineer at NVIDIA since 2017 Prior to NVIDIA he was a senior principal engineer in the New Technology Group at Intel 15 distinguished fellow at Magic Leap 16 a senior research scientist at Pixar Animation Studios and a principal engineer with the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computers 7 He began working on computer graphics and computer vision at Schlumberger s Palo Alto Research Center following his Ph D 1 Honors awards and achievements editComputer science edit Academy Award for Technical Achievement 2005 for pioneering work in physically based computer generated techniques used to simulate realistic cloth in motion pictures with David Baraff and Andrew Witkin 17 18 19 SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award 2009 for his extensive and significant contributions to computer graphics ranging from image processing to animation to modeling and in particular for his use of optimization for physical simulation and image segmentation 3 ACM Fellow 2017 for contributions to computer vision and computer graphics particularly optimization and simulation 1 20 21 New York Intellectual Property Law Association Inventor of the Year 2018 for contributions to the field of computer graphics 22 Most Cited Paper in Computer Science Citeseer 19th for Snakes Active contour models International Journal of Computer Vision 1988 with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin 23 Helmholtz Award International Conference on Computer Vision 2013 for Snakes Active Contour Models ICCV 1987 with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin 24 List of Important Publications in Computer Science in Computer Vision for Snakes Active contour models with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica 1992 with Andrew Witkin for the image Reaction Diffusion Texture Buttons Linz Austria Grand Prix Pixel INA Imagina 1991 for the animation Splash Dance with G Miller 25 26 Marr Prize Honorable Mention 1st International Conference on Computer Vision London 1987 for Snakes Active contour models with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin 27 Best Paper in Perception Vision Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence 1987 for Energy constraints on deformable models Recovering shape and non rigid Motion with Demetri Terzopoulos and Andrew Witkin 28 Honorable Mention Prix Ars Electronica 1987 for the animation Knot Reel with Andrew Witkin and K Fleischer 29 Nomination Best Paper prize Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence 1986 for Linear image features in stereopsis 30 Grand Prix Parigraph 1986 for the animation Knot Reel with Andrew Witkin and K Fleischer 31 32 Other edit 2nd place U S Argentine Tango Stage Championships 2012 13 U S Adult National Silver Medalist in ice dance 2003 33 U S Juggling Champion 1980 12 Notable publications editM Kass A Witkin and D Terzopoulos Snakes Active contour models International Journal of Computer Vision 1 4 321 331 January 1988 A Witkin and M Kass Spacetime constraints Siggraph 1988 159 168 34 D Terzopoulos A Witkin and M Kass Constraints on deformable models Recovering 3d shape and nonrigid motion Artificial Intelligence 35 1988 M Kass and A Witkin Analyzing oriented patterns Computer Vision Graphics and Image Processing 37 3 362 385 1987 T DeRose M Kass and T Truong Subdivision surfaces in character animation Siggraph 1998 85 94 N Greene M Kass and G Miller Hierarchical Z buffer visibility Siggraph 1993 231 238 M Halstead M Kass and T DeRose Efficient fair interpolation using Catmull Clark surfaces Siggraph 1993 35 44 M Kass and G Miller Rapid stable fluid dynamics for computer graphics Siggraph 1990 49 57 D Terzopoulos A Witkin and M Kass Symmetry seeking models and 3D object reconstruction International Journal of Computer Vision 1 3 211 221 1987 A Witkin and M Kass Reaction diffusion textures Siggraph 1991 299 308 A Witkin D Terzopoulos and M Kass Signal matching through scale space International Journal of Computer Vision 1 2 133 144 1987 D Baraff A Witkin and M Kass Untangling cloth ACM Trans Graph 22 3 862 870 2003 Pixar film credits editGeri s Game short A Bug s Life Toy Story 2 Monsters Inc Finding Nemo The Incredibles Cars Ratatouille WALL E Up Toy Story 3 Monsters UniversityReferences edit a b c d e A Talk with Michael Kass ACM Fellow and Industry Innovator ACM SIGGRAPH Blog 2018 01 04 Retrieved 2018 07 27 Pixar draws academy kudos Variety February 20 2006 a b c 2009 CG Achievement Award Michael Kass ACM SIGGRAPH 2015 01 28 Retrieved 2018 07 27 Scientific and Technical Achievements to Be Honored with Academy Awards TvTechnology Retrieved 2018 07 31 Geri s Game Turns 20 Director Jan Pinkava Reflects On The Game Changing Pixar Short Cartoon Brew 2017 11 25 Retrieved 2018 08 11 Subdivision Surfaces in Character Animation PDF Pixar a b c Kass Michael Pixar Michael Kass CV Pixar Unknown 2009 08 03 Computer Graphics Achievement Award Computer Graphics Achievement Award Michael Kass Siggraph 09 ACM pp 2 1 doi 10 1145 1667228 1667230 ISBN 9781450379373 S2CID 23688843 Michael Kass Google Scholar Citations scholar google com Retrieved 2018 07 28 Kass Michael Miller Gavin 1990 Rapid Stable Fluid Dynamics for Computer Graphics Computer Graphics 24 4 49 57 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 89 1204 doi 10 1145 97880 97884 Kass 28 issued U S Patents at USPTO org a b Jugglers Where Are They Now Part 1 IJA www juggle org 2015 07 12 Retrieved 2018 07 27 a b USA TANGO CHAMPIONS ARGENTINE TANGO U S A 2014 11 21 Retrieved 2018 07 27 Graphics Research Group Home Page graphics pixar com Retrieved 2018 07 28 Workshop on Augmented and Mixed Reality Speakers Moderators and Panelists scien stanford edu Retrieved 2018 08 14 Magic Leap Draws From the Bay Area to Assemble Its Brain Trust IEEE Spectrum Technology Engineering and Science News Retrieved 2018 08 06 2005 Academy Award Nominations amp Winners atogt com Retrieved 2018 08 06 Scientific and Technical Achievements to Be Honored with Academy Awards TvTechnology Retrieved 2018 07 27 Pixar draws academy kudos Variety 2006 02 21 Retrieved 2018 07 27 About ACM Fellows awards acm org Retrieved 2018 07 27 All Award Winners awards acm org Retrieved 2018 07 27 Inventor of the Year NYIPLA NYIPLA Retrieved 2018 07 28 CiteSeerX Statistics Most Cited Articles in Computer Science Retrieved 2018 08 06 Helmholtz Prize IEEE Computer Society www computer org Archived from the original on 2018 06 26 Retrieved 2018 07 28 1993 Prix Jury COMPUTER ANIMATION Prix Ars Electronica Retrieved 2018 07 27 Thalmann Nadia Magnenat Thalmann Daniel 2012 12 06 Creating and Animating the Virtual World Springer Science amp Business Media ISBN 9784431681861 ICCV Best Paper Award Marr Prize IEEE Computer Society www computer org Archived from the original on 2018 11 26 Retrieved 2018 07 27 AAAI 87 Sixth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence aaai org Retrieved 2018 07 27 ARS Electronica ARCHIVE 90 146 8 18 Retrieved 2018 07 27 dblp 5 AAAI 1986 Philadelphia PA dblp1 uni trier de Retrieved 2018 07 27 Andy Witkin s Gallery www cs cmu edu Retrieved 2018 07 27 Andy Witkin From Computer Vision to Computer Graphics www computer org Retrieved 2018 07 27 graphics pixar com aux kass vitae html graphics pixar com Retrieved 8 September 2021 Back to School Computer Graphics World Retrieved 2018 08 13 External links editPixar People Michael Kass Disney Research Michael Kass Michael Kass at IMDb nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Michael Kass amp oldid 1189937076, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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