technology

Francisco Farias and Paula Lorente, Ph.D. students at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, are completing the final phases of their scholarly research-oriented work as inaugural Office of Graduate Studies dissertation fellows.

Shape Modeling International 2012, an annual forum featuring the latest computational techniques and mathematical theories in shape modeling — the creation of digital representations of shapes — will be hosted May 22-25, 2012 by Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

Carol LaFayette, associate professor of visualization at Texas A&M, is heading a 3-year, $190,000 National Science Foundation-funded effort to form a pilot national network intended to become a focal point for innovation by bridging the gap between scientists, artists and engineers.

Texas A&M College of Architecture Outstanding Alumnus Adrian Smith, of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago, announced today that his firm is designing yet another “World’s Tallest Building, the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.

Residents of Brownwood, Texas had a chance last fall to shape their city’s future by participating in a survey developed by Master of Urban Planning students at Texas A&M, part of a collaboration with the city’s officials to update its master plan.

Staff at the Texas A&M College of Architecture Digital Fabrication Facility, aka Architecture Ranch, helped engineering students build a hybrid race car that won first place in a contest at a NASCAR track in New Hampshire. The car's carbon fiber body panels were fabricated on the CNC mill.

Brandon Vento, a third-year environmental design student at Texas A&M and his brother Coulton, a Kingwood High School student, have developed FlashPics, a free iPhone photo application that’s drawn raves from reviewers and an article in The Tribune, their hometown newspaper.

Governor Rick Perry, EA Games President Frank Gibeau and COO Daryl Holt offered praise for the significant talent pool offered by programs such as the undergraduate and graduate degrees in visualization at Texas A&M during a press conference announcing EA's expansion into Austin.

Visitors to the 2011 Luleå Art Biennial in Sweden are taking a virtual trip in an underground ant colony in “atta,” an immersive installation by Carol LaFayette and Fred Parke, professors of visualization. At left, patrons wear Stereovision glasses to view the colony on four screens arranged in a semicircle.

Former students helped take “Cars 2” all the way from Radiator Springs to Japan and Europe for a visual adventure that Lightning McQueen and Mater will never forget. The sequel was produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Studios.

Researchers from the Center for Heritage Conservation visited Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay June 6-11, 2011 where they used sophisticated surveying equipment to collect data to create detailed 2- and 3-D models of the island and its historic structures for documentation purposes.

As a “student evangelist” for Autodesk, designer of 3-D architecture, building construction and engineering software, Ph.D. architecture student Francisco Farias will be networking with Autodesk’s top clients, receive intensive training and certification, and supervise Autodesk’s top student "experts."

Graduate visualization students won scholarships for their makers funded by major animation studios and former student animators. Former students at Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Industrial Light and Magic made lists of the videos they deemed the best.

Texas A&M Vizzers worked their digital mastery in the animated martial arts flick “Kung Fu Panda 2”. Po, Master Shifu, and the Furious Five return to defend the Valley of Peace and Kung Fu itself against a new and formidable enemy in DreamWorks Animation’s 3-D sequel.

An idea to rent folding bicycles from a kiosk earned first prize and $3000 for Patrick Daniels, a Master of Science in Land Development student, and Martin Griggs, a Master of Urban Planning student, in the 2011 Ideas Challenge, sponsored by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.