• 5th year Ph.D. Graduate Student in Computer Science
• Advisor: Dr. Dinesh Manocha and Dr. Ming Lin

Related Courses: Principle of Digital Image Synthesis (Gary Bishop), Intro Computer Graphics (Fred P. Brooks), Advanced Raster Graphics Techniques (Turner Whitted), Exploring Virtual Worlds (Henry Fuchs and Greg Welch), Scientific and Geometric Computation (Dinesh Manocha), Immersive Computing Environments (Gary Bishop), Physically-based modeling (Dinesh Manocha, Ming Lin, and Gentaro Hirota), Computational Geometry (Ming Lin).

• B.S. in Computer Science, Math minor
• Graduated May 1995, Magna Cum Laude
• GPA Overall/In Major: 3.8/3.8 out of 4.0
• University Marshal and Dean's List (all four years)

Mathematics Honor Society (Phi Mu Epsilon) 
• Nominated by Professors for Student Excellence Award

• Geometric algorithms (primarily proximity queries) using multi-pass rendering and graphics hardware
• Towards general computing using graphics hardware (multi-pass techniques)
• Collision detection and dynamics of deformable objects using graphics hardware acceleration
• Computation of generalized Voronoi diagrams using graphics hardware and its applications
• Real-time rendering techniques for interactive viewing of complex geometric models
• Adaptive hierarchical approaches for building optimal hierarchies and for handling dynamic models
• Real-time realistic rendering with global, "glossy" illumination

• Multi-pass techniques: geometric algorithms and general computing
• Real-time rendering techniques: visibility culling, simplification, and 3D games
• Realistic rendering: radiosity, ray-tracing, multi-pass hybrid techniques using graphics hardware, shadow algorithms
• Collision Detection
• Real-time Curved Surface Rendering
• Hierarchical graphics acceleration techniques: bounding-volume hierarchies and spatial partitioning

Dr. Dinesh Manocha and Dr. Ming Lin
Continuing dissertation work on fast computation of generalized Voronoi diagrams using graphics hardware. Focus has been primarily on developing additional acceleration techniques and on the application of GVDs to proximity queries between deformable objects using graphics hardware acceleration.

Dr. Dinesh Manocha
Created and graded various projects and technical reports. Gave lectures. Developed main class project: nearly-complete implementation of OpenGL in software that can be interactively compared against hardware implementations for pixel accuracy. 

Dr. Dinesh Manocha and Dr. Ming Lin
Pursuing dissertation topic: fast computation of generalized Voronoi diagrams using graphics hardware and its applications. This includes collision detection, motion-planning, physical simulation, and iso-surface evaluation and extraction.

John Airey, Marc Peercy, Marc Olano, Jeff Ungar
Worked on high-level simulation of next-generation high-end graphics systems. Explored the use of OpenGL multi-pass rendering in accelerating more general computation problems (such as the RenderMan shading language). Simulated and evaluated use of extended range precision in the graphics pipeline and helped determine a minimal set of OpenGL hardware and software extensions that supports and benefits from the extra precision.

Dr. Fred P. Brooks and Dr. Dinesh Manocha
Built a hierarchical View-Frustum Culling system. Evaluated the performance of many different bounding-volume hierarchies and developed a new hybrid, adaptive bounding-volume tree library. Worked on various papers related to occlusion culling. Extensively studied real-time rendering strategies for visualization of complex geometric models. Developed various image-based techniques to accelerate rendering of massive models and glossy reflections.

Gary Daines (Director), Mark Mine, Mike Goslin
Designed and developed an OpenGL-based real-time lighting effects library that includes shadows, reflections, and spotlight effects. In addition, developed a viewing framework for designing and testing the library and for building the next generation rendering system.

Lee Westover, Steve Molnar, and Durward Rogers
Worked on the PixelFlow project for the presentation at SIGGRAPH '97. Primarily worked on the SIGGRAPH demos which included the development and tuning of a low-level sphere rasterizer. Responsibilities included finding performance bottlenecks and reducing their impact.

Dr. Dinesh Manocha
Evaluated and compared bounding volume hierarchies with respect to oriented bounding box hierarchies (OBB). Worked on a real-time trimmed NURBS rendering system.

Responsible for implementing various 2D and 3D computer graphic techniques into a graphic arts design program used for screen-printing applications. Contributions include: bezier curve tool, spline-based text tool, a wide range of transformation effects on these tools, a general framework for tool interaction.

Responsible for analyzing and evaluating various instrumentation database systems. Created a final document giving a complete evaluation and recommendation for the most adequate system for their job requirements based on cost, compatibility, ease of use, portability, and efficiency.

• Fast and Simple 2D Geometric Proximity Queries Using Graphics Hardware

Kenneth E. Hoff III, Andrew Zaferakis, Ming Lin, and Dinesh Manocha
Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics (I3D), March, 2001
• Randomized Path Planning for a Rigid Body Based on Hardware Accelerated Voronoi Sampling

Charles Pisula, Kenneth E. Hoff III, Ming Lin, and Dinesh Manocha
Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics, 2000
• Interactive Motion Planning Using Hardware-Accelerated Computation of Generalized Voronoi Diagrams

Kenneth E. Hoff III, Tim Culver, John Keyser, Ming Lin, and Dinesh Manocha
International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2000
• Fast Computation of Generalized Voronoi Diagrams Using Graphics Hardware

Kenneth E. Hoff III, Tim Culver, John Keyser, Ming Lin, and Dinesh Manocha
SIGGRAPH '99
• Increased Photorealism in Interactive Walkthroughs

Rui Bastos, Kenneth E. Hoff III, Chris Wynn, and Anselmo Lastra
1999 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
• MMR: A Massive Model Rendering System Using Geometric and Image-based Acceleration

D. Aliaga, J. Cohen, A. Wilson, E. Baker, H. Zhang, C. Erikson, K. Hoff, T. Hudson, W. Stuerzlinger, R. Bastos, M. Whitton, F. Brooks, D. Manocha
1999 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
• A Framework for the Real-time Walkthrough of Massive Models

D. Aliaga, J. Cohen, A. Wilson, H. Zhang, C. Erikson, K. Hoff, T. Hudson, W. Stuerzlinger, E. Baker, R. Bastos, M. Whitton, F. Brooks, D. Manocha, UNC TR# 98-013, March, 1998.
• Faster 3D Game Graphics by Not Drawing What Is Not Seen

Kenneth E. Hoff III 
ACM Crossroads, 1997 
• Visibility Culling using Hierarchical Occlusion Maps

Hansong Zhangh, Dinesh Manocha, Kenneth E. Hoff III, and Tom Hudson 
1997 Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH 
• Fast Backface Culling Using Normal Masks

Hansong Zhang and Kenneth E. Hoff III 
1997 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics 
• Accelerated Walkthrough of Large Spline Models

Subodh Kumar, Dinesh Manocha, Kenneth E. Hoff III, and Hansong Zhang 
1997 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics 
• Occlusion Culling using Shadow Volumes

Tom Hudson, Dinesh Manocha, Jon Cohen, Ming Lin, Kenneth E. Hoff III, and Hansong Zhang 
Proceedings of 13th Symposium on Computational Geometry. Nice, France. June 4-6, 1997

• PIVOT: 2D and 3D libraries for performing proximity queries between dynamic objects (based on the HAVOC library).
• HAVOC: 2D and 3D libraries for computing generalized Voronoi diagrams using graphics hardware acceleration.
• SoftGL: software implementation of OpenGL
• Fast computation of 2D and 3D generalized Voronoi diagrams using graphics hardware
• Robot motion-planning system based on fast Voronoi computation
• GLVU: OpenGL-based viewer library
• Real-time OpenGL lighting effects library
• Cloth simulation
• N-body simulation, particle system
• Study of 3D Interaction Techniques Using 2D Mouse Input
• Interactive and Immersive Free-Form Surface Modeler (uses both 2D mouse input and standard display, and tracked HMD with two-handed tracked input)
• Comparison of form factor calculation techniques for use in a radiosity solver
• Two radiosity solvers: standard progressive refinement and hierarchical radiosity
• Exploration into parametric curves and surfaces
• Two ray-tracing systems
• Two real-time 3D game engines: raycast approach, scanline Z-buffered approach

• Stunt kites
• Inline skating
• Japanese
• Hiking / Camping / Mountain climbing
• Acoustics and loudspeaker design (primarily the design of subwoofers)

• http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hoff/
• http://www.cs.unc.edu/~geom/voronoi/
• http://www.cs.unc.edu/~geom/PIVOT/
• http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hoff/projects/comp236_ta/index.html