- Phil Wade (1983 - 1986) EPSRC CASE Studentship, with Market
Analysis Division of CACI as collaborators; jointly supervised by Dr G H Kirby
Project title: The algorithmic foundations of Geographical Information Systems
Phil pioneering project contributed concepts and software for processing link-and-node
data into the Dissaciative Area Model, a hierarchic topological model which makes explicit
the presence of holes within regions. He used these to validate the first Digital Maps to
be released by the Ordnance Survey (GB), namely the 1:625 000 digital data. He also,
provided a robust implementation of the Douglas-Peucker algorithm. His contributions
provided the foundations on which several subsequent research theses were based.
Phil is now (as of October 1999) Computer Systems Manager in the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol.
- Duncan Whyatt (1987-1990) EPSRC Quota Studentship.
PhD thesis title : Visualisation and Re-evaluation of Line
Simplification Algorithms
Duncan provided a rigorous evaluation of a number of line generalisation algorithms. His
work provided definitive evidence that the widely used Douglas-Peucker algorithm was
unsuitable for caricatural line generalisation. He also found that Visvalingam's algorithm
offered the best scope for automating the art of caricature.
Dr Whyatt is now (as of October 1999) a Lecturer in GIS, Department of Geography,
University of Lancaster.
- Nick Sekouris (1987-1988). Grant from the Ordnance Survey (GB).
MSc thesis topic: The Management of Digital Topographic Data Using
a Relational Database Model
Nick used Phil Wade's software to validate experimental 1:50 000 scale databases and
provided recommendations for improving the relational database models used by Ordnance
Survey.
Nick (as of October 1999) is now employed in the GIS consultancy sector in Greece
- Dominic Varley (1989 - 1992) EPSRC CASE studentship, with
Ordnance Survey (GB) as collaborators
PhD thesis title : Road extraction and Recognition for validation
of Large-scale Topographic Data
Dominic used Phil Wade's software to extract the area toplogy in sets of link-and-node
structured 1:1250 data to validate the this database. Additional parallel processes were
used to stitch the map sheets into a seamless database to detect other types of data
processing errors and label objects across map sheets. This research also innovated
efficient methods based on topology, instead of onerous point-in-polygon checks, to
extract and label road objects. The extraction was then cross-validated by independent
recognition of road objects, from just their geometry, using novel form indicators,
designed by Mahes Visvalingam.
Dr Varley is now (as of October 1999) a Senior Consultant in Logica UK.
- Kurt Dowson (1990 - 1993) EPSRC CASE studentship, with Scott
Wilson Kirkpatrick and Partners (an engineering consultancy) as collaborators.
PhD thesis title :Towards Extracting Artistic Sketches and
Maps from Digital Elevation Models
Kurt evaluated the scope for using line generalisation algorithms for abstracting the
significant curvatures in surfaces. He found that Visvalingam's algorithm was capable of
abstracting the more important breaks of slope from Grid Digital Elevation Models and
tested Visvalingam's algorithm for P-stoke sketching of terrain. This formed the core of
the exhibition on Art in Scientific Visualization of Terrain Data
mounted by Mahes Visvalingam at the Royal Institution on 5 November 1999 on the occasion
of the Friday Evening discourse by Lord Puttnam on Where Art Meets Science.
Dr Dowson is now (as of October 1999) a Senior Software Engineer in Instem Computer
Systems, UK
- Chris Wright (1991-1994) EPSRC Quota Studentship
PhD thesis title: Software Architectures for Visual Concept
Refinement in Digital Mapping
Chris was ahead of the times in demonstrating the scope for using shared memory on unix
systems for achieving focused visualization, through cross-referencing of elements on
multiple views of the same data, as suggested by Mahes Visvalingam since 1984. He cast
Dominic Varley's software into this framework and provided an independent verification of
the CISRG concepts through his validation of an object-based experimental database
developed by Ordnance Survey (GB).
Dr Wright is now (as of October 1999) a Senior Advanced Technical Trainer for MapInfo at
its European Headquarters in Windsor, UK.
- Marina Robertson (1995 - 1996) Malaysian Government Bursary
MSc thesis title : CBL system for signed chi-square mapping
Marina investigated the scope for taking advantage of developments in Information
Technology for constructing a Computer-Based Learning System for teaching the signed
chi-square measure, designed by Mahes Visvalingam in 1976. This measure formed the basis
of many of the maps in People in Britain - a cesus atlas, HMSO, 1980 and
was used by the UK Department of Environment as the primary social indicator for its 1991
Index of Local Conditions. Although Java provides a better software platform
for such a CBL, Marina's research undertook a thorough requirements analysis and
prototyped some of the major tasks involved in constructing a CBL of this kind.
Marina was (as of October 1999) Quality Assurance Team Leader, Bell and Howell PS Ltd,
UK. She is now having time off with the birth of their son.
- Guillaume Macaire (1996 - 1997) exchange student from Eleve-Ingenieur a' l' Institut d'
Informatique (Paris), jointly supervised by Mr K D F Dyer
MSc thesis title: Beyond perspective with the deformation of 3D
objects
Guillaume pursued the mathematical topic of deformations to investigate the scope for
departing from the popular linear perspective projection in 3D Computer Graphics, which
has some intrinsic limitations for communicating information. He demonstrated the scope
for deriving a variety of linear and curvilinear projections through deformation of the
input model prior to parallel projection.
Guillaume was (as of October 1999) a Consultant in Computer Science for Axiem, which is
part of the Altran group, in France. He is now doing a degree
course in nursing.
- Chris Brown (1994 - 1997) EPSRC Quota Studentship
Project title : Extraction of Surface Specific Features
Given the success of Kurt Dowson's project in locating the significant curvatures in
terrain data, Chris demonstrated that Visvalingam's line generalisation algorithm provides
ample clues for segmenting terrain surfaces into landform units.
Chris is now (as of October 1999) a developer with Lynx
Financial Systems Ltd, UK.
- Pierre-Loup Lesage, (1998-1999) exchange student from Eleve-Ingenieur a' l'
Institut d' Informatique (Paris)
MSc project title : Towards real-time sketch-based exploration of terrain data :
an investigation of image processing operators.
Pierre-Loup showed that it is possible to extract minimalist representations of
terrain using image operators. Animation of these sketches convey the solid mass of
the terrain and resolve the ambiguities present in static images, let alone sketches.
- Ms Jenny Herbert,
(1998-1999) EPSRC Quota Studentship
MSc project title : Algorithms for segmentating lines into their constituent
geometric elements
Jenny showed that it is possible to segment lines into meaningful parts by
post-processing the output of Visvalingam's algorithm into the Herbert-bend (H-bend)
tree. Her approach worked quite well with 1:1250 road outlines but was not as
successful with a 1:50000 coastline.
Jenny (as of February 2001) is a Research Scientist at Philips Research Laboratories,
Redhill, UK.
- Dr John Whelan,
(1997-2000) University of Hull Graduate Teaching Assistantship
PhD project title : From Factual to Formulated
Silhouettes
John demonstrated that the conventional definition of silhouettes as occluding
contours is insufficient for sketching surfaces such as terrain. A simple formula,
relating column and row slopes, was used for filtering cells, which were then chained into
continuous silhouette lines.
John is now a Lecturer in the
Centre for Internet Computing, Scarborough Campus, University of Hull.
- Ruzi Che Mat (2000-2001) Northern
University of Malaysia Scholarship, Kedah, Malaysia
4 month Dissertation project in part fulfillment of MSc in Computer Graphics & Virtual
Environments, Department of Computer Science, University of Hull
on Evaluation of Silhouette Rendering Algorithms in Terrain Visualisation (Ruzi's Dissertation page)
Ruzi evaluated a couple of hardware-based silhouette rendering algorithms.
Ruzi is now a Lecturer in the Northern University of Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia. ruzinoor@uum.edu.my
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