Dr. Norman Badler

Professor at UPENN

Dr. Norman I. Badler is a Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania and has been on that faculty since 1974. He is also the Director of the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, which hosts about 40 PhD candidates. Active in computer graphics since 1968 with more than 180 technical papers, his research focuses on human figure modeling, manipulation, and animation. He is the originator of the Jack software system, now distributed worldwide by Engineering Animation, Inc., (new home of the former Transom Technologies, Inc) which is used worldwide for ergonomic human figure animation and human factors analysis.  His expertise includes real-time 3-D graphics, intuitive user interfaces, animation techniques, and the connections between natural language instructions and human action animation. Badler received the BA in Creative Studies Mathematics from the UCLA, Santa Barbara, MSc in Mathematics and the Ph.D. in Computer Science, both from the University of Toronto. He is Co-Editor of the Journal Graphical Models and Image Processing and co-author of the book Simulating Humans published by Oxford University Press.

He holds a Ph.D. Research at University of Toronto in computer understanding of three-dimensional moving object motions from movie images; this work was the first to build general 3-D motion models from perspective image sequences. His early research at University of Pennsylvania was centered around effective methods for graphical representation of complex objects using solid and surface models. He then specialized in human figure modeling and animation, especially with respect to the problems of motion specification and control and human factors evaluations in designed environments. Badler’s recent research is on Virtual Humans, including fast motion generators, natural language interfaces and Department of Defense projects.