Carnegie Mellon Today, the CMU alumni magazine, has run a wonderful profile on UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Adrien Treuille, now a faculty member in CMU’s School of Computer Science.
“Steam evaporating. A shirt creasing. Hair mussed up. Wind blowing. Crowds moving. These are physical minutiae of the human experience that go largely unnoticed in our daily lives. Yet, what if you are trying to recreate those experiences on a computer so the virtual world you construct seems absolutely faithful to our perception of everyday reality? In that case, getting these small, deceivingly complex details right takes on huge importance.
“There’s a whole lot of math, physics, and computer theory inherent in that challenge. For Treuille, there’s poetry, and maybe even some magic involved, too. ‘It’s totally enchanting to look out your window and see all of these things happening—snow falling, plants bending in the wind—and to ask yourself not only how does it work, but how would I build these things?’ says Treuille, who joined the faculty of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon one year ago as an assistant professor in the computer graphics group.”
Read the full article here.