Symposium on Mathematics and Science in Digital Media, Technology and Entertainment
1 Jul 2007

Jointly organized with Department of Mathematics, NUS,
and supported by Media Development Authority

• Tony Chan (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Louis Chen (Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore)
• Chong Chi Tat (National University of Singapore) (Chair)
• Leung Ka Hin (Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore)
• Shen Zuowei (National University of Singapore)

• Emmanuel Candes
  Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics
  California Institute of Technology
  Title of Talk: Compressive Sensing
  Biography Personal Website

  Emmanuel Candes received his BSc from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, in 1993, and his PhD in statistics from Stanford University in 1998. He is the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Caltech, he was an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Stanford University from 1998 to 2000. His research interests are in computational harmonic analysis, multiscale analysis, approximation theory, statistical estimation and detection, with applications to the imaging science, signal processing, scientific computing, and inverse problems. His other research interests include theoretical computer science, mathematical optimization, and information theory.
  
  Dr. Candes received the Third Popov Prize in Approximation Theory in 2001, and the DOE Young Investigator Award in 2002. He was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in 2001. He co-authored a paper that won the Best Paper Award of the European Association for Signal, Speech and Image Processing (EURASIP) in 2003. He was selected as the main lecturer at the NSF-sponsored 29th Annual Spring Lecture Series in the Mathematical Sciences in 2004 and as the Aziz Lecturer in 2007. He has also given plenary addresses at major international conferences. In 2005, he was awarded the James H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Finally, he is the recipient of the 2006 Alan T. Waterman Medal awarded by the US National Science Foundation.

• Stéphane Mallat
  Professor of Applied Mathematics
  Ecole Polytechnique, Paris
  and
  Co-founder & CEO
  Let it Wave
  Title of Talk: A Start-Up from Mathematics for Television
  Biography Personal Website

  Stéphane Mallat received his Diploma in Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, in 1984, and his PhD in electrical engineering from the University Pennsylvania in 1988. He is a Professor in the Applied Mathematics Department of Ecole Polytechnique and a co-founder and CEO of the company Let it Wave. Prior to joining Ecole Polytechnique, he was a Research Professor of Computer Science in the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. His research interests are in computational harmonic analysis, wavelets, image and signal processing, and high resolution television.
  
  Dr. Mallat received the 1990 IEEE Signal Processing Society's paper award, the 1993 Alfred Sloan fellowship in Mathematics, the 1997 Outstanding Achievement Award from the SPIE Optical Engineering Society, the 1997 Blaise Pascal Prize in Applied Mathematics from the French Academy of Sciences, the 2002 First National Prize for Creation of Innovative Companies (awarded by the French Ministry of Research and Technology), the 2004 French Citation Prize (for being the most cited French researcher in computer science and engineering over the last 20 years), the 2004 Information Society Technology Prize for the most innovative European product (awarded by the European Commission). He was an invited plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians, Berlin, 1998 and was elected as an IEEE Fellow in signal processing in 2005.

• Douglas Roble
  Creative Director of Software
  Digital Domain
  Title of Talk: Mathematics of Entertainment
  Biography

  Douglas Roble is Creative Director of Software at Digital Domain, an Academy Award-winning computer graphics company located in Venice, California. He is a specialist in computer graphics and is well known for his work in applying mathematics in computer graphics and computer vision. For his 3D tracking software TRACK, Dr Roble was recognized with a Technical Achievement Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1998. He is the Chief Editor of the Journal of Graphics Tools and is on several panels and committees of SIGRAPH, the most prestigious computer graphics conference, including its Advisory Board. He has given invited lectures and keynote addresses at many major conferences, most recently at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Ohio State University in 2002.

• Peter Schröder
  Professor of Computer Science and Applied and Computational Mathematics
  California Institute of Technology
  Title of Talk: Meshes for Geometric Modeling and Animation
  Biography Personal Website

Peter Schröder is Professor of Computer Science and Applied & Computational Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology where he has been on the faculty since 1995. He is best known for his work on hierarchical methods for computer graphics applications and is one of the founders of the field of Digital Geometry Processing. More recently his research has focused on the emerging field of Discrete Differential Geometry which aims to translate tools from classical differential geometry to the computational realm while maintaining much of the structure of the continuous setting. His work has been recognized through a number of awards including a Packard Foundation Fellowship, the ACM/SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement award and, most recently, a Humboldt Foundation Forschungspreis.

• Carl de Boor
  Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science
  University of Wisconsin, Madison
  Biography Personal Homepage

  Carl de Boor was Professor in the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin- Madison from 1972 until his planned retirement in 2003. He remains there as Emeritus Professor and continues to be active in research as member of the Wavelet IDR Center.
  
  Dr de Boor made fundamental contributions to the theory of splines and numerous applications of splines that range from highly efficient and reliable numerical algorithms to complete software packages. Some of these applications are in computer-aided design and manufacturing (of cars and airplanes, in particular), production of typesets in printing, automated cartography, computer graphics (movie animation, for example) and signal and image processing.
  
  He has given numerous invited talks at scientific meetings throughout the world. He has received numerous honors and awards, among them the Humboldt Research Prize and John von Neumann Prize. He is member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Academia Leopoldina (Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher) and the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2003, he received the US National Medal of Science in mathematics.

• Shen Zuowei
  Professor of Mathematics
  National University of Singapore
  Biography Personal Webpage

  Shen Zuowei is Professor of Mathematics at the National University where he has been on the faculty since 1993. He is best known for his fundamental work on wavelet frames and Gabor frames. More recently his research has focused on the emerging field of mathematical imaging which aims to restore images by using wavelet and Gabor frames. He has been invited to speak at over fifty international conferences and workshops. He is an editor of eight journals in his fields. He won the University Research Award in 1997 and the National Science Award in 1998.

• Tan Eng Chye (Chair)
  Professor of Mathematics
  and
  Deputy President (Academic Affairs) & Provost
  National University of Singapore
  Biography Personal Webpage

  Tan Eng Chye received his BSc (Hons) from the National University of Singapore in 1985 and his PhD in mathematics from Yale University in 1989. He is Professor of Mathematics as well as Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost at the National University of Singapore. His research interests are in representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras and in invariant theory and algebraic combinatorics. He has been invited to speak at many international conferences, including talks at the Third Pacific Rim Conference on Mathematics in 2005 in Shanghai, China, and at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematics Society in 2003 in Sydney, Australia, a 40-minute talk at the Third Asian Mathematical Congress in 2000 in Manila, Philippines, and a plenary lecture at the International Symposium on Representation Theory and Homogeneous Spaces in 1997 in Okayama, Japan. He was President of the Singapore Mathematical Society in 2001 – 2005 and President of the South East Asian Mathematical Society in 2004 - 2005.

At the 2007 Oscars, two of the three movies nominated for the special effects Academy Award --- Poseidon and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest --- both made by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), used intensive numerical simulation.

Advances in computer technology have made it possible to apply some of the most sophisticated developments in mathematics and science for the design and implementation of fast algorithms running on a large number of processors for the simulation of complex physical phenomena and biological objects with a level of realism that was not thought possible until recently.

While most people are impressed by the simulations of explosions, water drops and human facial textures, few realize the depth and extent of mathematics, computer graphics and computational physics that went into the design of the algorithms that led to the results seen in movies and computer games.

This Symposium aims to introduce to the general public, especially students contemplating a career related to the exciting new field of interactive digital media, the technical knowledge and training in mathematics, science and computer science that is needed to do state-of-the art research and development in the area. The Symposium gathers some of the leading experts from academia and industry to discuss and share with the audience their knowledge and working experience in digital media, technology and entertainment from the research and application point of view. It will include four keynote lectures plus a public forum. Included in the lectures will be illustrations of computer animations and video demonstrations.

See poster :

Raffles City Convention Centre
Stamford Ballroom, Level 4
2 Stamford Road
Singapore 178882

Register by 25 June on a first come first served basis. Admission is free.

General Enquiries: ims@nus.edu.sg