Milan Ikits


milan ikits[]ieee org

Objective
Develop state-of-the-art technology for computer graphics, scientific visualization, and interactive simulation applications.

Education
Ph.D. Computer Science (2006)
School of Computing, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Dissertation: Interactive Exploration of Volumetric Data Sets with a Combined Visual and Haptic Interface
Advisor: Dr. Charles D. Hansen

Diploma Technical Informatics (1997)
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

Thesis: Kinematic Calibration and Inverse Kinematics of Robots
Advisor: Dr. Béla Lantos

Experience
Senior Scientist / Simulation Software Engineer (Sep 2004 - present)
Immersion Medical Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland
  • Developed software components for the AccuTouch Endovascular Simulator product line
  • Developed a real-time physics-based catheter navigation component
  • Implemented a rendering method for generating real-time fluoroscopic views from anatomical models using GPU shading techniques
  • Developed efficient algorithms for pressure and contrast agent propagation in vascular networks
  • Designed and implemented a scene graph for general rendering support in future simulator products
Research Assistant (June 2004 - Aug 2004)
NIH NCCR Center, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Developed a volume rendering engine for the SCIRun problem solving environment
Research Assistant (June 1999 - June 2004)
Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Participated in the design and construction of a multimodal virtual reality system, the Visual Haptic Workbench
  • Developed novel techniques for visual and haptic exploration of volumetric data sets (CT, MRI, Cryosection data)
  • Improved the registration of the visual and haptic workspaces of the system
Consultant (June 2003 - January 2004)
Visual Influence Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Developed software components for breast cancer MRI visualization and diagnosis using GPU algorithms
Research Assistant (September 1997 - May 1999)
Biorobotics Laboratory, School of Computing, University of Utah
  • Participated in the creation of a virtual prototyping application for mechanical assemblies
  • Augmented the system with a rigid body dynamics simulator
Teaching Assistant (Fall Semester, 1997 - 1999)
Introduction to Robotics, School of Computing, University of Utah
  • Responsible for class projects and lab experiments, held substitute lectures

Expertise
Areas of Specialization
Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Haptic Rendering, User Interface Design
Scientific Modeling, Simulation and Visualization

Programming and Scripting Languages
C/C++, Java, Matlab, Perl, Python, HTML, SQL, ML, Prolog, BASIC, Pascal, Assembly

Graphics, Haptics, Visualization, User Interface Development
OpenGL, GPU programming, GHOST, BasicIO, VTK, SCIRun, Tcl/Tk, Qt, FLTK

Research Interests
Scientific Visualization
Volume visualization and processing with programmable graphics hardware
Visualization of vector, tensor, and multi-field data sets

Haptic Rendering
Data exploration techniques
Haptic display of deformable materials
6DOF interaction with polygonal and volumetric models

Selected Publications
Hardware-Assisted Visibility Sorting for Unstructured Volume Rendering
Steven Callahan, Milan Ikits, Claudio Silva, and Joao Comba
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2005

The Visual Haptic Workbench
Milan Ikits and J. Dean Brederson
Visualization Handbook, Elsevier, 2005

Volume Rendering Techniques
Milan Ikits, Joe Kniss, Aaron Lefohn, and Charles Hansen
GPU Gems, Addison-Wesley, 2004

A Constraint-Based Technique for Haptic Volume Exploration
Milan Ikits, J. Dean Brederson, Charles Hansen, and Christopher Johnson
IEEE Visualization 2003

References
Available upon request