Assistant Professor of Computer Sciences (1991)
Ph.D., computer science, University of Maryland, 1989.
Dr. Vanecek attended the Department of Computer Science at University of Maryland where he received his Ph.D. in 1989 for his work on algorithms for efficient boolean set operations on polyhedra. During his studies, Dr. Vanecek worked in a process planning group that had close ties to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Since then, he has worked at NIST on a number of occasions on projects involving geometric modeling and engineering knowledge sharing. Next, Dr. Vanecek spent two years working with Christoph Hoffmann as a research associate with the Computing About Physical Objects (CAPO) group at Purdue University. In the CAPO group he extended the Newton dynamics simulation system with his solid modeler, ProtoSolid, to provide complex geometric objects and collision detection ability.
In 1991, Dr. Vanecek joined the academic faculty of the Department of Computer Sciences at Purdue University, where he now holds the rank of Assistant Professor. At Purdue, he has taught courses in artificial intelligence, data structures, programming languages and object-oriented programming, and seminars on virtual reality, cyberspace and the World Wide Web. In 1992, he was given the outstanding teacher award in the School of Science.
At Purdue, he has conducted research in geometric modeling, computer graphics, animation and physical-based simulation. In 1992, trying to solve the collision problem, he formulated a representation of polyhedra that unified a spatial representation and a boundary representation, called the Brep-Index. The work later led to a model of contact in his work on contact-analysis of objects. He has also written a virtual environment animation system, which he used to create several promotional videos for the department. Currently, he is working on Locally-Resolvable Breps, and true collision detection problems.
Projects: Project Isaac: Building Simulations for Virtual Environments, Proxima: Contact and Collision Support for Virtual Environments