PALESTRA

Prof. Nicolas D. Georganas

University of Ottawa

Palestra: Dia 22/02/05 das 10:30 às 12:00 – Sala H - 301

Research in Multimedia Communications and Distributed Virtual Environments

Abstract - Multimedia Communications is the field referring to the formation, storage, retrieval, dissemination and collaborative work with, of digital documents composed of correlated media such as audio, video, text, graphics, images, animation, 3D, haptics and other. The talk will first present the research of the oldest Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory in Canada (MCRLab, founded in 1984) with emphasis on multimedia Tele-medicine and multimedia Tele-learning over various networks. Subsequently, the research of the new (1997) DISCOVER laboratory, involving Distributed Virtual Reality, Virtualized Reality, Augmented Reality, Sensor Networks and Tele-Haptics will be highlighted. Applications in Industrial Training, e-Commerce and Medical Training will be described and demonstrated with some video clips.

Nicolas D. Georganas, OOnt, FRSC, FCAE, FIEEE, FEIC, is Distinguished University Professor and Canada Research Chair in Information Technology at the School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa. He received the Dipl.Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 1966 and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering ( Summa cum Laude ) from the University of Ottawa in 1970. He has published over 110 journal and 220 conference papers and is co-author of the book "Queueing Networks- Exact Computational Algorithms: A Unified Theory by Decomposition and Aggregation", MIT Press, 1989.- He has received research grants and contracts totaling more than $52 million and has supervised more than 185 researchers, among which 104 graduate students (32 PhD, 72 MASc) and 21 PostDocs. In 1990, he was elected Fellow of IEEE. In 1994, he was elected Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. In 1995, he was co-recipient of the IEEE INFOCOM'95 Prize Paper Award. In 1997, he was inducted as Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1998, he was selected as the University of Ottawa Researcher of the Year and also received the University 150^th Anniversary Medal for Research. In 1999, he was awarded the Thomas W. Eadie Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, funded by Bell Canada, for his contributions to Canadian and International telecommunications. In 2000, he received the A.G.L. McNaughton Gold Medal and Award, the highest distinction of IEEE Canada; the Julian C. Smith Medal of the Engineering Institute of Canada; the OCRI President's for the creation

of the National Capital Institute of Telecommunications (NCIT); the Bell Canada Forum Award from the Corporate-Higher Education Forum, the Researcher Achievement Award, from the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence and a Canada Research Chair in Information Technology. In 2001, he was appointed Distinguished University Professor of the University of Ottawa and he was also received the Order of Ontario, the province's highest and most prestigious honour. In 2002, he received the Killam Prize for Engineering, Canada's most distinguished award for outstanding career achievements, and in 2003 the Queen Elisabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. In 2004, he became

editor-in-Chief of the ACM Trans.on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications and received a Honorary Doctorate from the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. http://www.discover.uottawa.ca