Calit2Researcher Wins UCSD Distinguished Teaching Award
Michael Bailey, an academic participant in Calit²'s Interfaces and Software Systems layer, is the recipient of the 2002 Barbara J. and Paul D. Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-Senate Members. Selected by the UCSD Committee on Distinguished Teaching, Bailey was cited for his "truly outstanding commitment to teaching and for the inspiration [he has] brought to the education and lives of our students."
Bailey is a leading expert in scientific visualization and high-performance computer graphics. He is a Senior Principal Scientist in Scientific Visualization at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), and an Adjunct Professor at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) departments.
"Professor Bailey gives his students more than knowledge," said Mohan Paturi, CSE chair and Calit² participant. "He gives them enthusiasm, wonder, and a sense of their own tremendous potential." Paturi noted that for four years in a row (for academic years ending in 1998-2001), graduating seniors at UCSD have named Bailey the "Computer Science Teacher of the Year."
"I'm honored and I take it as recognition not only of me but also of the many SDSC professionals who teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels and in the Extension Program," said Bailey. "SDSC is recognized as one of the premier organized research units on this campus, but its contribution to teaching is not as well known. In fact, our research and teaching are inseparable."
"My main interests run across the full spectrum of the theory and application of computer graphics, from scientific visualization at one end to computer-aided design at the other," Bailey explained. "In each of my courses, I try to impress on the students that whatever they are studying is part of a multidisciplinary spectrum of related studies and activities. In the undergraduate MAE course, for example, the students use an interactive curve-sculpting program they wrote early in the course to generate a 2D object, then put it through a CAD system to represent it as a 3D solid object, and then translate that geometry into a solid-object image file which they manufacture on the rapid prototyping machine in my research laboratory at SDSC. To them, it's mind-boggling that they can go from ideas in their heads to physical objects in their hands so quickly-a matter of three or four hours. I hope that this kind of exercise illustrates the exciting, productive, free-flowing multidisciplinary world that the best-prepared students will help us create."
Bailey received his Ph.D. in Computer Aided Design and Computer Graphics from Purdue University in 1979. Until 1981, he was on the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. Then he joined the faculty at Purdue, where he taught and conducted research in the areas of computer graphics and computer-aided mechanical engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1985. Later that year, Bailey came to San Diego as Director of Advanced Development for Megatek, where he managed a group of engineers. He joined SDSC in 1989, first as director of the scientific visualization group and then as a principal scientist and researcher. He has pioneered the use of computer-driven solid modeling in the scientific context.
"This award acknowledges Mike's exceptional contributions as an educator," said Fran Berman, director of SDSC and NPACI. "Teaching is at the core of the University's mission and Mike does an outstanding job of fulfilling that mission. The integration of Mike's technical and professional activities at SDSC and his outstanding communication skills allows him to bring cutting edge science and technology into the classroom in a way that is informative and exciting to the students. We are delighted that his contributions are being acknowledged with this honor."
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Related Links
Interfaces and Software Systems Layer
SDSC, UCSD
MAE, UCSD
CSE, UCSD