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Reuben

I'm a Research Scientist at the Water-Energy-Food Institute. I analyze scientific data from many sources. As a computer scientist I write code mostly for large complex data processing systems and coding for massaging data into visually appealing 2D and 3D models. In the past years I have also helped many departments set up multimedia labs, video streaming, and video conference systems. Other areas of my research expertise are in point cloud processing (LIDAR, SONAR, seismic, GPR), volume rendering (seismic, X-ray CT, color cross sections), and multidimensional geospatial representation. I love working on and with different computer systems.


Research

My research in the past mainly involved programming on compute clusters for visualization of scientific data. Most of my research has been in academia, although I have done research for industry also. I adapt well to complex problems and work closely with many researchers in a multitude of engineering and science disciplines. My main goal when doing research is to show scientific data in a way that is visually appealing and easier to understand. This often helps one see and comprehend previously hidden information from an original ocean of confusing numbers.

Outreach

Outreach is a key component in the way students and the public learns about higher level research. This must be presented in an exciting and easy way for the target audience to absorb and learn. My contribution to make outreach successful is to present research in an interactive 3D computer environment. I build visualization computer systems and write computer code to take advantage of the 3D aspects of complex data for displaying and understanding them. Lastly the information presented must not only be visually appealing but scientifically accurate and easy to comprehend. It has been said, a picture is worth a thousand words, so with this same idea it is my goal to make scientific visualization worth magnitudes more to those that seek knowledge during outreach presentations.

High Performance Computing

Over the span of 15 years I have maintained and managed many compute clusters. In the recent past I was responsible for two high performance compute clusters. One cluster was a hybrid with three different sets of processing hardware. This used a combination of Dell blades, IBM servers, and Nvida Tesla GPUs. It gave researchers a variety of parallel computing tools to solve complex problems. Another cluster was all Dell and was designed to process and filter large volumetric seismic data. It was also used to process massive point clouds from LIDAR and photogrammetry data originating from terrestrial and aerial remote sensing. I have been building, managing, and programming on high performance computers for over 20 years and enjoy watching systems like this solve complex problems in a day that would normally take a year.