Dinesh Manocha Joins ECE as the Paul Chrisman Iribe Professor of Computer Science

Dinesh Manocha has joined the University of Maryland as the inaugural Paul Chrisman Iribe Endowed E-Nnovate Professor. His tenure home appointment is in the Department of Computer Science with joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).

Manocha’s research focuses on geometric and scientific algorithms with applications to computer graphics, robotics and virtual reality. His research group also developed software packages for physically based modeling, computer-aided design and scientific computing, which have been downloaded by more than 200,000 users worldwide and licensed to more than 55 corporations, including Fortune 500 companies. He is also named as an inventor on nine patents, several of which have been licensed to industry.

“I am truly honored to join the University of Maryland with appointments in two top-ranked departments. With very strong research groups in virtual reality, computer vision and graphics, and robotics, the University of Maryland is regarded as the world leader in these areas,” Manocha says. “I am also looking forward to the new Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation opening later this year. It is going to offer unprecedented opportunities and new world-class laboratories to develop the next generation of technologies.”

Manocha joined UMD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was the Phi Delta Theta/Matthew Mason Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science. As a member of the UNC faculty since 1992, he published more than 480 conference and journal papers and received 16 best paper or test-of-time awards. Manocha’s work is well cited in the computer graphics and robotics literature, with more than 34,000 citations according to Google Scholar.

He also supervised more than 65 master’s and doctoral students. Many of Manocha’s 35 Ph.D. advisees are professors at top universities and group leaders in industry.

“Dinesh Manocha is a world-renowned researcher in geometric computing, interactive computer graphics, physics-based simulation, and robotics,” said Rama Chellappa, Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the ECE Department. “His joint appointment in ECE will contribute to enhanced research and teaching activities in these areas as well as in AR/VR domain.”

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Published May 9, 2018