University of California Riverside
Computer Science Department

Riverside Graphics Lab

Ulises Amaya
uamaya{at}cs.ucr.edu
amaya1{at}hotmail.com

I graduated from the University of California Riverside (UCR) in the Computer Science and Engineering department (2005). I was doing research at the Riverside Graphics Lab (RGL) under the guidance of Dr. Victor Zordan, headmaster of RGL.

I currently work in Mexico as a Sr. Programmer in the systems area of the Instituto de Ciencias Fisicas (Physics Science Research Center) of the Natinal University (UNAM). If you are interested please see my CV at the end of the page.

RESEARCH AND WORK INTEREST:

• My masters project was on the study and creation of virtual human Eyes. This was done in C++ and OpenGL using ray tracing technique and mathematical modeling to create the human eye in a virtual environment. The project allows for a lot of flexibility including different types of irises, colours and physical properties. These images show different properties in the eyes, such as dilated, contracted, different colour and the iris alone. Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger image. The pdf file of the proyect report is also available in the link below.
   

•                     Virtual_Eyes.pdf
   

• I created an animation of the dilation of the iris. This was done using a skeleton made of springs and simulating the physical movement of them. This was focused on the movement and not on the looks. The visualization was done using Maya® and the simulation in C.  Animation 1   Animation 2
   

• My previous project was the animation of solid deformable objects in 3-D using spring mesh particle systems. I am also interested in all real time animations from movies to games. You may have the technical report of the real time spring-mesh here (PDF).
   

• ACM (Association for Computer Machinery) member.

    PROJECTS & PRESENTATIONS:

• Presented "Ray Tracing a Human Eye, a biophysical approach" in the Universities of California Riverside (UCR), USA, and Autonoma del Estado de Morelos in Mexico (UAEM). On 08/06/2005 at UCR and 10/10/2005 in UAEM.
   

• Created an animation of an iris skeleton using the spring-mesh modified code. The report is available here (.PDF)
   

• Presented "3D Face Expression Estimation and Generation from 2D Image Based on a Physically Constraint Model", T. Ishikawa et al. on 05/04 at UC Riverside, cs231 class "Computer Animation"
   

• Presented "“In Vivo” Spam Filtering: A Challenge Problem for Data Mining", Tom Fawcett et al. on 05/04 at UCRiverside, cs260 class "Topics in Data Mining"
   

• An analysis of  "Saving Energy with Architectural Adaptations for Multimedia Applications" by C.J. Hughes, et al. “ZR: A 3D API Transparent Technology for Chunk Rendering” E. Hsieh, et al. “Enhancing loop buffering of media and telecommunications applications using low-overhead predication” J.W. Sias, et al.. The analysis was done by Anna Majkowska, Paul Dilorenzo and myself and includes a summary of the new technologies that are being used by the leading computer graphics video card manufacturers NVidia and ATI in the end of 2003. The document is available here (.PDF)
   

• A proposal of  a variable length address use in ad hoc wireless networks. The project was done by Wojciech Jawor, Suvidhean Dhirakaosal and me. A copy may be downloaded here (PS file)
   

• Presented "Stable Real-time Deformations", Muller et al. 2002 on 10/29/2002 at UCRiverside, cs260 class "Current Topics in Computer Animation"

EDUCATION:

• I started my Bachelors in Sciences at the Universidad Autonoma de Morelos in Mexico. When undergraduate I was the first student in the joint program between Mexico and UCR for Computer Science undergraduate students which allowed me to do the second half of my Bachelors at UCRiverside.
   

• Now I recently graduated from the Masters in Computer Science program at UCRiverside under the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) scholarship in agreement with The Institute for Mexico and the US (UC-MexUS).
   

• Curriculum Vitae English CV_pdf   Spanish CV_pdf

Other interests include playing tennis, piano, learning French and mastering Jedi skills, you may see few unrestricted Jedi videos, however, not much can be revealed.

PICTURES: Trips in Mexico, Europe and the U.S. Also pictures of SIGGRAPH 05 featuring George Lucas!