I earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Computer and Information Science, which is a part of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. My advisor is Dr. Norman I. Badler. I was also Associate Director of the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, where I coordinated and participated in the research projects affiliated with HMS as well as coordinating the operational aspects of the lab facility, the SIG Center for Computer Graphics. HMS is a part of CG@Penn which also includes the Digital Media Design undergraduate program and a masters program, Computer Graphics and Game Technology.
I have Bachelors degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Bloomsburg University and a Masters degree in Computer Science from Penn. I've had the great opportunity to explore many aspects of computer graphics, but am most drawn to research at the crossroads of animation, artificial intelligence, and psychology in the simulation of virtual humans. My current research focuses on the creation and simulation of functional crowds.
In the Spring of 2007, I was also able to participate in the planning and execution of a new computer graphics course here at Penn. Being a Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Computer Graphics Techniques, a sophomore level class aimed at bridging the gap between introductory programming classes and our senior level computer graphics and animation classes, was a wonderful experience. It gave me the opportunity to get to know even more of our undergraduate students and witness the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment they felt when programming frustration gave way to the power to explore ideas.
After leaving Penn, I joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University. http://cs.gmu.edu/~jallbeck