Photo of me on a good day		Kellogg S. Booth Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science a.k.a. the Rev. Prof. Dr. Dr. Kellogg S. Booth BS (mathematics), Caltech (1968) MA (computer science), UC Berkeley (1970) DMph (metaphysics), Universal Life Church (1974) add to your shopping cart PhD (computer science), UC Berkeley (1975) CONTENTS Contact Information Biographical Information Teaching Activities    Read this before contacting me about the CPSC 491 UBC/MDM Capstone course.    Read this before contacting me about the SCIE 113 First Year Seminar in Science course. Research Activities    Read this before contacting me about undergraduate internships    Read this before contacting me about admission to a graduate program    Read this before contacting me about postdoctoral positions Pick Hits Errata for my research publications. FEATURED QUOTE A number of people have gotten mad at me for coining the term "cybercrud," which I define as "putting things over on people using computers." But as long as it goes on we'll need the word. At every corner of our society, people are issuing pronouncements and making other people do things and saying it's because of the computer. The function of cybercrud is thus to confuse, intimidate or pressure. We have all got to get wise to this if it is going to be curtailed. -- Ted Nelson in his must-read book from 1974, Computer Lib (page 8).     more favorite quotes... MAILING ADDRESS Department of Computer Science 201-2366 Main Mall The University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z4 CANADA    UBC OFFICE Room X461, ICICS/CS Building 2366 Main Mall (directions) 604-822-3061 (reception) 604-822-5485 (fax) (former) GRAND OFFICE Centre for Digital Media 577/685 Great Northern Way (directions) 778-370-1001 (reception)    HOME 1145 McLean Drive Vancouver, BC  V5L 3N5 CANADA 604-872-3577 (voice) ELECTRONIC e-mail: ksbooth@cs.ubc.ca Web: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~ksbooth (you are here now) Web: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/people/kellogg-booth ERDÖS NUMBER 2 (the same as my Knuth number). I do not have a Bacon number, so my Erdös-Bacon number is not defined. Contact me with a cash offer to co-author a paper with you if you desire an Erdös number of 3. RÉSUMÉ CV (pdf)  |  Google Scholar  |  ACM DL (free access to my ACM papers) ORCID  |  Pedigree (my oldest known academic ancestor is Nathaniel Bowditch) The cornerstone of UBC's faculty retention plan is its CV format. -- Dinesh Pai	Now   Then   Way Back
Official diploma attesting to my first doctoral degree, from the Universal Life Church
Hitting the spot! -- photo taken Summer of 1948 near Aliso Creek in Laguna Beach, CA
69 years and counting -- photo taken Summer of 2015 at Seton Lake, BC

Biographical Information

Kellogg S. Booth is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at The University of British Columbia, Adjunct Faculty at the Centre for Digital Media, and a Board Member and Secretary for the Computer Science Canada / Informatique Canada. He is the former Director (1990-2002) of MAGIC, the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre at the University of British Columbia, and the former Scientific Director (2009-2015) of GRAND, the Graphics, Animation and New Media NCE, a former Canada-wide network of centres of excellence in digital media. He has worked in the fields of computer graphics and human-computer interaction since 1968. Prior to UBC, he was a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo (1977-1990), and before that a staff member at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1968-1976). Research interests include human-computer interaction, user interface design, collaboration technology, visualization, computer graphics, and analysis of algorithms. He has been involved in a number of interdisciplinary research projects at UBC and elsewhere over the past five decades.

• Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at UBC
• Adjunct Faculty Centre for Digital Media at UBC
• Scientific Director for the Graphics, Animation and New Media (GRAND), a Network of Centres of Excellence from December 2009 through June 2015
• Active participant in HCI@UBC and the Designing for People (DFP) initiative.
• Member of the Multimodal User Experience Lab (MUX) at UBC
• Member of the Imager Laboratory for Graphics, Visualization, & Human-Computer Interaction (Imager) at UBC
• Member of the Institute for Computing, Information & Cognitive Systems (ICICS) at UBC
• Founding Director of the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) at UBC (1990-2002)
• Fellow of the British Columbia Advanced Systems Institute (1992-2004)
• Distinguished member of the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM)

(Alternate biographical information is available here.)

Teaching Activities

I am retired, so I do not have regular undergraduate or graduate teaching duties. I do still engage in the following non-course activities, but at a reduced level. Further information on research supervision is in the next section.

• I am a liaison for CPSC 491, the UBC/SFU Digital Media Practicum course.
  This is a 6-credit directed studies course in which undergraduate students are embedded in project teams with master's student in the Master of Digital Media program at the Centre for Digital Media. Details are available via the link above.
• From time to time, I might consider supervising Undergraduate internships, but only for specific projects the match my research interests. There are currently No internships available.
• I have very limited engagement in Undergraduate honours thesis supervision, graduate thesis and dissertation supervision, and postdoctoral supervision by arrangement. There are currently No openings for new students. You can see a list of the graduate students I have supervised in the past and their thesis and dissertation titles.
• You can more read about my research interests, but please do not contact me about internships or supervision. (I am retired!)

UBC students interested in computer graphics, visualization, or human-computer interaction may wish to consider one or more of the following courses that are offered various terms. I am not teaching any of these courses. Contact individual instructors for additional information concerning the courses, including course syllabi, days and times, and course prerequistes. Course descriptions are in the UBC Calendar, but apparently there are not entries for individual courses so you will need to look on the departmental website or do a search to find more detailed information. Here are links to CPEN, CPSC, EECE, and EPSE

Computer Graphics Courses


-- Undergraduate courses
• CPSC 314 (3) Computer Graphics
  Human vision and colour; geometric transformations; algorithms for 2-D and 3-D graphics; hardware and system architectures; shading and lighting; animation. [3-2-0]
  Prerequisite: CPSC 221 and one of MATH 200, MATH 217, MATH 226, MATH 253 and one of MATH 152, MATH 221, MATH 223.
• CPSC 424 (3) Geometric Modeling
  Digital representation of curves and surfaces, including splines, subdivision surfaces and meshes. Principles, algorithms and mathematical foundations for geometry representation in computer graphics, computer vision, fabrication, CAD/CAM, and medical imaging. Algorithms for acquisition, creation, representation, and processing of 3D shapes. [3-0-1]
  Prerequisite: CPSC 320 and one of MATH 152, MATH 221, MATH 223 and one of MATH 200, MATH 217, MATH 226, MATH 253.
• CPSC 426 (3) Computer Animation
  Motion in computer graphics for characters and their environments. Keyframing, inverse kinematics, particle systems, rigid body dynamics, contact and collision, controller-based active motion, motion capture. [3-0-0]
  Prerequisite: CPSC 314.
• CPSC 427 (3) Video Game Programming
  Video game programming techniques and technologies, including rendering, animation, interaction, game AI, real-time software development for games; start-to-finish simple video-game design and implementation. [3-0-1]
  Prerequisite: CPSC 221 and one of MATH 200, MATH 217, MATH 226, MATH 253 and one of MATH 152, MATH 221, MATH 223.
• EECE 478 (3) Computer Graphics
  Physical and virtual graphics I/O devices. The GKS standard Interactive graphics. Transformations, modelling, rendering algorithms for 2-D and 3-D graphics. Curves and surfaces. [3-0-0]
  Prerequisite: CPSC 260.


-- Graduate courses
• CPSC 514 (3) Computer Graphics: Rendering
• CPSC 524 (3) Computer Graphics: Modeling
• CPSC 526 (3) Computer Animation
• CPSC 533d (2-6) Topics in Computer Graphics
• EECE 541 (3) Multimedia Systems
  Theoretical and practical issues in designing multimedia systems. Interactive multimedia, digital video broadcasting and streaming, media asset management, video indexing and retrieval, content protection, and design of multimedia middleware.
• EECE 570 (3) Fundamentals of Visual Computing
  Computational and mathematical methods for data driven processing and model-based analysis of digital images and other visual data: perception, capture; representation, modelling; enhancement, restoration; registration, fusion; feature extraction, segmentation; recognition; practical applications.

Visualization Courses


-- Undergraduate courses
• CPSC 436v (3) Topics in Computer Science


-- Graduate courses
• CPSC 547 (3) Information Visualization

HCI Courses


-- Undergraduate courses
• CPEN 441 (4) Human Computer Interfaces in Engineering Design
  Practical issues for interfaces for modern software. Task analysis, user modelling, usability engineering, representations, metaphors, prototyping tools. Applications: interactive multimedia systems, engineering, scientific visualization, engineering design. [3-1-2]
  Prerequisite: One of CPSC 260, CPSC 221 and one of EECE 210, CPEN 221, EECE 309, CPSC 210, EECE 314, CPEN 333.
• CPSC 344 (3) Introduction to Human Computer Interaction Methods
  Basic tools and techniques, teaching a systematic approach to interface design, task analysis, analytic and empirical evaluation methods. [2-2-2]
  Prerequisite: One of CPSC 210, EECE 210, EECE 309, CPEN 221.
• CPSC 444 (3) Advanced Methods for Human Computer Interaction
  Design and evaluation methodologies and theories; formal models of the user including visual, motor, and information processing; advanced evaluation methods including laboratory experiments and field studies; HCI research frontiers. [2-2-2]
  Prerequisite: All of CPSC 310, CPSC 344 and one of STAT 200, STAT 241.
• CPSC 491 (6) Interactive Digital Media Practicum
  Design and implementation of interactive digital media systems using modern processes and tools. Projects provided by external clients or vetted entrepreneurial pitches are developed by interdisciplinary teams composed of one CPSC 491 student and multiple Master of Digital Media students.
  Prerequisite: All of CPSC 221, CPSC 310, CPSC 344 and Third-year standing.
• EECE 418 (3) Human-Computer Interfaces in Engineering Design
  Design and implementation of interactive digital media systems using modern processes and tools. Projects provided by external clients or vetted entrepreneurial pitches are developed by interdisciplinary teams composed of one CPSC 491 student and multiple Master of Digital Media students.
  Prerequisite: All of CPSC 221, CPSC 310, CPSC 344 and Third-year standing.


-- Graduate courses
• CPEN 541 (3) Human Interface Technologies
• CPSC 543 (3) Physical User Interface Design and Evaluation
• CPSC 544 (3) Human Computer Interaction
• CPSC 554d (2-6) Topics in Human Computer Interaction
• EPSE 592 (3) Experimental Designs and Analysis in Educational Research

Students interested in a master's degree with a focus on human-computer interaction should consider the DFP CREATE cross-disciplinary graduate training and research initiative in interactive computer technology.

Research Activities

Almost all of my recent research has been in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Areas of research include the following:

• Collaboration technology
• Educational technology
• Structured annotation techniques for co-authored documents
• Selected areas of interactive computer graphics and virtual and augmented reality

A list of previous topics that I have supervised in the past will give a snapshot of the range of my interests. I am not currently starting any new reseaerch initiatives or projects. My research is limited to finishing existing projects for which I have funding. (I am retired!)

Selected research initiatives in which I have been involved are the following:

• Much of my recent research has been related to GRAND (2010-2015), the former Graphics, Animation and New Media network of centres of excellence. GRAND promoted highly cross-disciplinary digital media reserach and knowledge mobilization across Canada.
• The IDEASS (2011-2015), is part of a multi-year collaboration looking at various aspects of the built environment that focuses on how digital media technology can enhance our ability to plan, construct, and manage the urban landscape.
• NECTAR (2004-2009) was a research network funded by NSERC that focused on collaborative technology. Much of my research over the past five years was centred on NECTAR projects and most of the graduate students I supervised were affiliated with NECTAR. I am still actively working on a number of projects related to collaboration technology, especially tools for supporting collaboration on large, wall-sized displays and tabletop displays. Students interested in research opportunities in this area should contact me.
• The EVHL Enhanced Virtual Hand Laboratory (1995-2003) was a multi-year interdisciplinary research project at Simon Fraser University that examined a number of aspects of augments and virtual reality, as well as hand-based interaction techniques. I still have on-going interest in applying the results of that research, and more recent work in the field, to analyze and extend current interaction techniques, especially for table top and wall-mounted displays for collaborative systems where augmented reality techniques are employed to integrate physical objects with virtual objects.

A fairly complete list of my publications and summary of research activity is contained in my CV. There is also a list of some of my publications that are available (for free) in the ACM DL. This list is updated periodically. For a more complete list, you can look at my ACM DL home page.

Pick Hits

These are some links that I have found interesting or fun, but some (such as the first three) have serious content. Disclaimer: Links go stale over time, so there is no guarantee that all of the links below still work. If you see any that are broken, please let me know and I will try to fix them.

Stuff I think every computer scientist should read
• I. D. Hill (1972). Wouldn't it be nice if we could write computer programs in English -- or would it? Honeywell Computer Journal 6(2):76-83. This is a marvelous paper, but it doesn't seem to be available on-line anywhwere (contact me if you want to find a copy). It was originally published in the Computer Bulletin 16(6):306-312 in June, 1972. It was re-printed by Honeywell.
• Richard A. De Millo, Richard J. Lipton, and Alan J. Perlis (1979). Social processes and proofs of theorems and programs. Commun. ACM, 22(5):271-280 (May).
• Roy Levin and David D. Redell (1983). How to write a systems paper. ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, 17(3):35-40 (July).
• Software bloat is real, and coming to a neighborhood near you.
• Normally I am not a big fan of claims made by the AI community, but this new anti-theft system looks like it might really work! (Link currently broken, perhaps because of embarrassment.)

Stuff about digital media (graphics, visualization, HCI, etc.)
• If you don't think this teapot demo is funny, you are not old enough to appreciate the history of computer graphics.
• If you are not sure whether you want to buy a new [sic] Sharp quad pixel display, you may want to just update your current monitor to full color by downloading the Squant plug-in instead.

Less serious stuff
• Do you ever get tired of those meaningless management-speak terms? Here is an Action Item comic strip (circa 2000'ish) that has it all! This has been in my list for years, but only in 2020 did I follow the link at the bottom of the comic to see Neil McAllister's more serious web pages, including writers' tips. There is a more recent ‘unpacking’ of management-speak in the The Atlantic that ‘drills down’ in an ‘impactful’ way.
• On the World Wide Web there are all kinds of situations in which an Error 404 can occur, such as this.
• Pick a card, any card! (Thanks to Ron Rensink for showing me this.)
• This is the best T-shirt I've seen so far.
• Here's the real truth behind all of that bizarre spam e-mail you get with the weird characters inserted into normal words and seemingly meaningless literary text embedded in what appear to be advertisements.
• Although many people thought that Dan Savage's favorite anti-shrimp website was just a joke, recent events in the Gulf of Mexico have proven this to be hardly a laughing matter.
• There are powerful Demotivators (R) you will enjoy, including some new topical T-shirts related to the recent Gulf of Mexico crisis.
• When all else fails, call the Internet Help Desk for a good time.
• Lest we forget how blessed we are to live in Canada, think about how simple our food security problem is compared to the rest of North America.

Really serious stuff
• The Oxford comma and the apostrophe are two things you need to beware of. Check out the Guidelines related to academic writing on my web page for students who are interested in working with me, and more about commas if you aren't convinced they are important..

Favorite Quotes

• This paper is reasonably well written, and you would think the authors would know how to spell "Fitts' law", given that they used this paradigm for evaluating their work. The term is spelt "Fitts's Law" several times in the paper.
  -- comment by R4 (expert) in a review of a paper submitted to UIST 2015 (see previous link about the apostrophe)

• I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.
  -- Bjarne Stroustrup

• Education is what, when, and why to do things. Training is how to do it. In science, if you know what you are doing, you should not be doing it. In engineering, if you do not know what you are doing, you should not be doing it.
  -- Richard Hamming

• If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.
  -- Lord Rutherford

• Any problem in computing can be solved by adding another level of indirection.
  -- David Wheeler, according to Roger Needham, according to Butler Lampson et al.

• There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
  -- Leon Bambrick, according to Tim Bray who credits my former Caltech classmate Phil Karlton for the original two-item list.

• The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
  -- Plutarch

• Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  -- Tom Lehrer (more and more)

• On my income tax 1040 it says 'Check this box if you are blind.' I wanted to put a check mark about three inches away.
  -- Tom Lehrer

• Age and guile beat youth, innocence, and a bad haircut.
  -- P. J. O'Rourke

• The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
  -- P. J. O'Rourke

• Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
  -- P. J. O'Rourke

• Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.
  -- P. J. O'Rourke

• I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
  -- Lawrence Peter Berra

• Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
  -- Lawrence Peter Berra

• In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
  -- Lawrence Peter Berra

• Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house.
  -- Rod Stewart

• Surely if God had meant us to do yoga, he would have put our heads behind our knees.
  -- Rod Stewart

• Do not compute the totality of your poultry population until all the manifestations of incubation have been entirely completed.
  -- William Jennings Bryan

• There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.
  -- Frank Zappa

• Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.
  -- unattributed

• You know in many countries like North Korea or Iran a citizen does not have access to information like this.
  -- Country Joe McDonald commenting on his secret FBI file that he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

• Fifty-five years ago these photographs were part of a study for "The problem we all live with" that appeared in Look magazine, January 14, 1964. -- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978). More about Rockwell and this image appears in a 2020 Vox article that includes a passing reference to “Officer Obie”. A trivia tidbit about how some Border Patrol and Bureau of Prison officers were deputized by RFK to serve as federal marshals protecting civil rights activists during the 1960s appears in a 2020 Politico article.
  
  

Credits

Why the Pepsi logos on this web page, you ask? Good question!

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Last modified: Monday, 29-Jun-2020 23:36:58 PDT
More information: ksbooth@cs.ubc.ca
Disclaimer: No animals were abused or mistreated during the production of this Web page. May contain traces of peanuts. Your mileage will vary. Taxes and shipping not included. Void where prohibited by law. Passports, driver's licenses, and birth certificates not accepted for voting; gun owner permits OK.
Apology: My disclaimer pales in comparison to Doug Dyment's disclaimer.