Ivan Sutherland
by Rawesak Tanawongsuwan
Quote
"As far as I know, no one seriously proposes computer displays of smell or taste."
Ivan Sutherland in 1965 paper, "The Ultimate Display"
About Ivan Sutherland
Born: 1938, Hastings, Nebraska
Profession: Engineer, Entrepreneur,
Capitalist, Professor
Position: V.P. and Fellow, Sun
Microsystems, Inc.
Education: Ph.D. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
M.S. EE California Institute of
Technology
B.S. EE Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University)
Dr. Sutherland is widely known for his pioneering contributions. His 1963 MIT PhD thesis, Sketchpad, opened the field of computer graphics. His 1966 work, with Bob Sproull, on a head-mounted display, anticipated today's virtual reality by 25 years. He is co-founder of Evans and Sutherland, which manufactures the most advanced computer image generators now in use. As head of the Computer Science Department at Caltech he helped make integrated circuit design an acceptable field of academic study. Dr. Sutherland is on the Boards of several small companies and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, the ACM and IEEE. He was Co-chair, along with Fred Brooks, of the NRC's High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative. He received the Turing Award in 1988 and the Systems Software award in 1993.
Ivan Sutherland's Ten Unsolved Problems (Datamation, 1966, interpreted by Frank Crow)
1.Hardware characteristics and cost
2.Problems of technique (e.g. rubber banding)
3.Coupling problems (display-to-simulation)
4.Describing motion
5.Digital halftoning
6.Structure of drawings (making the structure explicit)
7.Hidden line removal
8.Program instrumentation (and visualization)
9.Logical arrangement (e.g. hierarchical modeling)
10.Working with abstractions (e.g. scientific visualization)
Interesting essay from Ivan Sutherland
Techology and Courage
Reference links
http://www.vrs.org.uk/VR/reference/history.html
http://www.sunlabs.com/people/#ivan
http://www.sun.com/960710/feature3/ivan-profile.html
http://aperture.stanford.edu/courses/cs348b-96/open_problems.html
Rawesak Tanawongsuwan tee@cc.gatech.edu
Last modified: Mon Oct 20 13:13:31 PDT 1997