Anand Agarawala

anand@honeybrown.ca
Portfolio and Demo Reel: http://honeybrown.ca

Technical Skills

·         Extensive experience with C, C++ and STL, C#, VisualBasic, .NET, Win32, Java, Python, OpenGL, GDI+, VisualStudio, NovodeX Physics SDK, TabletPC SDK, WinTab, OpenCV, Maya, MEL, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, XML, PHP, Dreamweaver, Flash.

·         Experience with MATLAB, SQL, Qt, JavaScript, CSS, RSS.

·         Skilled in rapid prototyping interactive graphics and 2D/3D user interfaces.

·         Extensive training in fundamentals of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability.

·         Proficient videographer, productions include 3D Animation, Music Videos, Short Film Fiction, Documentary, Interactive Flash, TV segment and opening sequences, Advertisements, Visual Effects and Bluescreening.

 

Relevant Project Experience

Masters Thesis - Enriching the Desktop Metaphor with Physics, Piles and the Pen            Sept 2004 – Jan 2006

·         Pioneered novel physically based desktop interface leveraging expressive power and casual nature of real desks.

·         Patent pending.  Commercialization in progress.  Generated industrial interest from top research executives at Microsoft Research, Pixar, XeroxPARC, Alias and SMART Technologies. 

·         Received highest peer review scores out of 12 University of Toronto submissions to ACM CHI conference, the largest and most prestigious HCI conference in computer science.

·         Designed and implemented a large scale pen driven interactive system incorporating state-of-the-art physics and visualization packages.

 

Undergraduate Thesis - SuperSkewer 3D Graph Interaction                                              Sept 2003 – May 2004

·         Developed inexpensive webcam system for 3D tracking of an infrared wand using OpenCV vision package.

·         Prototyped suite of interaction techniques for 3D graph interaction, visualization.

 

Publications

Primary Author and Presenter:

·         Keepin’ It Real: Pushing the Desktop Metaphor with Physics, Piles and the Pen.  Full paper to appear in ACM CHI 2006.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

·         The Context-Aware Pill Bottle and Medication Monitor. (primary author/presenter).  Presented at Ubicomp 2004 – Conference on Ubiquitous Computing.

 

Secondary Author and Presenter:

·         PhylloTrees: Harnessing Nature's Phyllotactic Patterns for Tree Layout.  Presented at InfoVis 2004 – IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization;  EuroGraphics - IEEE Symposium on Visualization

 

Professional Experience

University of Toronto                                                                                                              May 2005 – Nov 2005

Department of Computer Science – Teaching Assistant (Human Computer Interaction)

·         Led tutorials for 15 graduate and Ph.D. students in course webcast nationwide across many universities.

·         Instructed C# and groupware toolkits for rapid prototyping of collaborative software.

 

InnoVis Research Lab                                                                                                              May 2004 – July 2004

University of Calgary – Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council - Research Assistant

·         Investigated visualizing hierarchical information as naturally occurring fractals. 

·         Published in premier information visualization conference IEEE InfoVis 2004.

·         Developed flexible C# and OpenGL-based interactive software for exploring diverse visualizations.

·         Novel approach resulted in optimal packing, intuitive control and aesthetically appealing graphs.

 

Interactions Research Lab                                                                                           May 2003 – Sept 2003

University of Calgary – Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council - Research Assistant

·         Prototyped RFID based system for reminding the elderly about medication through SMS, XML and the web.

·         Produced first commercially viable product from lab’s Phidgets hardware prototyping toolkit.

·         Developed .NET wrapper, components and skins for COM-based Physical Widgets API.

 

IASTED - International Association of Science and Technology for Development Summer 2001, 2002

Graphic Designer, Production Engineer, Assistant Publisher

·         Designed brochures, conference proceeding covers and promotional material for worldwide distribution.

·         Assessed and optimized existing workflow with Python scripts reducing several 2 hour processes into minutes.

 

Calais Printing                                                                                                                        May 1997 – May 2001

Graphic Designer

·         Designed brochures, business cards and signage for small and medium sized businesses.

·         Experience in print shop processes and preparing files for output bureaus.

 

Awards and Media Coverage

·         Awarded $88,000 in graduate scholarships – 2006 NSERC PGS D National Scholarship ($63,000), 2005 Ontario Graduate Scholarship ($15,000), 2004 Wolfond Fellowship ($10,000).

·         Awarded $18,000 in undergraduate competitive academic scholarships and national research assistantships.

·         Interactive Flash Anand’s Dancing Machine featured on frontpage of CBC ZeD site viewed over 10,000 times.

·         Produced over 20 short film pieces aired on CBC, NUTV, and at the University of Toronto Film Festival.

 

Education

Masters of Computer Science                                                                                                Sept 2004 – Jan 2006

University of Toronto, GPA: 3.9/4.0

·         Focused studies in HCI, User Interfaces, Interactive Graphics and Computer Animation.

·         Thesis   Enriching the Desktop Metaphor with Physics, Piles and the Pen.

                                                                                            

BSc. Honours in Computer Science, Minor in Art                                                    Sept 1999 – April 2004

University of Calgary, GPA: 3.7/4.0

·         Focused studies in HCI, Graphics, Computer Animation, Games Programming, Art and Video production.

·         Thesis   Super Skewer - 3D Graph Interaction for Large Displays.

 

Volunteer Experience

NUTV – New University Television                                                                             Dec 2003 – May 2004

Movie Critic, Production Assistant

·         Hosted, filmed and edited weekly movie review show.  Coordinated directly with studio representatives. 

·         Produced over 13 short pieces that aired on the NUTV cable channel and campus closed circuit TV.

  InfoVis                                   October 2004

 

Activities and Interests

·         Competitive team sports such as hockey and basketball.

·         Travel - enjoyed trips to India (Term Abroad Programme), across Europe and North America.

·         Film and video production, hip-hop music creation. Photography prominently featured on wallpaper websites.

 

Portfolio and Demo Reel at http://honeybrown.ca or on request