Makoto Sadahiro

Master of Science in Geological Sciences, Geophysics
The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences

Bachelor of Sciences in Computer Sciences, Computer Sciences

The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Science

Bachelor of Arts, Computer Sciences
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Science

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photo/Electronic Imaging
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, College of Visual and Performing Arts

Specialty/Skills:


Scientific data visualization
immersive environment
ETL
Large-scale scientific data processing
GPGPU geophysical modeling
Geosciences, geophysical/seismic processing and imaging


Visualization / data analysis, and software development with languages/APIs/Tools, such as: Java, C/C++, CUDA, Fortran, Python, PIG, shell script, STL, Boost, CAVElib, OpenGL, Open Inventor, VRML, FFmpeg, GD, Motif, VRPN, HTML, Tcl/Tk, Kivy, LISP, Pascal, BASIC, Hadoop, Kafka, Flume.


Japanese (native), English (fluent 20+ years)


Interests:


Auralization, Human Computer Interaction (reduction of user latency), cluster based collaborative remote visualization methods, computer vision, feature detection, GPU cluser computing, Reverse Time Migration, Full Waveform Inversiion

Resume and Thesis:


standard resume (backend / data engineering) (.pdf)



full resume (including internship / research assistantship) (.pdf)



Analysis of GPU-based convolution for acoustic wave propagation modeling with finite differences (.pdf):

       In seismic processing and imaging, wave propagation modeling is often used to execute Reverse Time Migration, a way to transform data between time domain and depth domain in order to correctly localize subsurface structures. The process is usually very expensive with traditional CPU-based systems. By taking advantage of GPU's massive parallelism and fast internal memory structure, I achieved nearly 9x performance gain over Fortran-based code. As many engineers know (strangely, this is often forgotten fact by computer scientists), Fortran is quite faster than C/C++. GPU's memory size is still limited. But if we can cascade memory transport between CPU and GPU (or for small enough data), the performance gain is just so amazing.

Professional experience:

     I am a software developer/consultant with background in computer sciences, art, and geophysics. I specialize in scientific visualization, geophysical data processing, and processing large data. I can not disclose details for my work at private corporations, but my work at University is open to public.


Geophysical Software Development:
         Halliburton|Landmark SeisSpace/ProMAX Seismic Processing and Imaging Software Suite
         Halliburton|Landmark DesicionSpace Geoscience Software Suite
     I can not disclose details on proprietary software unfortunately. My task was improvement and stabilization of existing geophysical processing modules besides my main project. Plugin Manager is a on-line processing module management tool I wrote for the newest release of SeisSpace. This GUI tool allows users to find available processing modules on-line, fetch them, install them with security/integrity check, and keep track of the newest version of processing modules installed.


Scientific Visualization and Immersive Environment (Virtual Reality):
         Some of my projects at Texas Advanced Computing Center at Univeristy of Texas at Austin
     Please note this is a local copy of my old web pages at TACC. Not all links or email listed etc will work properly. While I worked as a Scientific Visualization Consultant/Specialist at TEXAS Advanced Computing Center (TACC), I had quite variety of tasks. I have worked on system integration for a virtual reality system to support our facility. I worked as the facility manager for a visualization lab. I also spend a lot of my time for consulting researchers at University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas system, and on TegaGrid for their data analysis and visualization needs. The level of consulting varies from just pointing a finger to software development for them.


Medical Imaging:
         Hitachi Medical Corporation
     Again, I can not disclose details on proprietary software. Besides my main projects, my daily task was improvement and stabilization of GUI-based operation console for Hitachi's MRI scanners. My main projects were to develop modulated medical imaging systemto, and to build DICOM test environment and test data communications with other medical imaging scanner makers.

Personal:

     Before I pursue knowledge in computer science and geophysics, my specialty was in art/design, particularly photo and electronic imaging. I started my training with traditional studio art, such as pencil drawing, 2-D design, 3-D design, and clay. Since my goal was always to work in the field of computer graphics, I soon shifted my focus to electronic imaging for photo manipulation, 3-D rendering and interactive media. As I enter to the field of computer science, I was hocked to the beauty of scientific/information visualization. Even I do not particularly design something along my work, I do believe my background actually helps in the process of visualizing data. Seismic processing and imaging is an extreme extension of scientific visualization. Engineering we have now to process and image seismic data is extremely beautiful.

         A bit of my personal history...

       Past art work:
         Portfolio 1987 - 1996 : Traditional pencil drawing, graphics design and photography, etc.
         3-D / 2-D Graphics 1991 - 1995 : 3-D Computer Graphics, blended in 2-D.
         Interactive Media - 1995 : Screenshots from immersive hyper card prototype
         Video Game Design - 1995 : Images from "Enemy Beyond", HouseWorks Software Inc.