Poojan Prabhu
poojanprabhu@gmail.com | 617-276-7587 | Dobbs Ferry, New York
Summary:
– 20+ years of experience developing complex software in a team environment:
– Defense Simulations
– Video Games
– Industrial Applications
– Medical Simulations
– In-depth knowledge of 3D Computer Graphics.
Software Expertise:
– C++
– Vulkan, OpenGL, DirectX, shaders (glsl/hlsl)
– GPU Computing (Compute Shaders, CUDA, DirectCompute)
– OpenSceneGraph, Havok Vision Engine, Ogre3D, In-house engines
– Bullet, Havok Physics, PhysX
– Performance analysis and code optimization
– Multithreading, OOAD/Design patterns, Template meta-programming
– Engine architecture, API design
– CI/CD, automated testing, unit and regression testing
– Nvidia Nsight, Tracy, PIX
– Microsoft Visual Studio, Subversion, Git, Jira, CMake
– Basic knowledge: Presagis Creator, QGIS, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Maya
– Python, Boost, Qt, Intel TBB, C, C#, Assembly language, Shell scripting, VS Code, Intel VTune, RenderDoc, PIX, AMD gDEBugger, LISP/Scheme, Prolog, SML, Pascal, Fortran, BASIC, ACIS, D-Cubed 3D-DCM, Open Inventor, StudierStube VR/AR, SQL-Server, AlienBrain, SourceGear, Perforce, CVS, Loki, wxWidgets, MFC, Matlab, Labview
Education:
– M.S. in Computer Science – SUNY at Stony Brook, 2002. GPA: 3.64/4.00
– B.E. in Electronics Engineering – Bombay University, 1999. Grade: First Class
Experience:
Senior Software Engineer, RSi Visual Systems, Sept 2023-Sept 2024
RSi is the largest independent visual systems supplier for flight simulators.
– Worked on all aspects of NXT, a Vulkan-based Level D flight simulator: PBR pipeline, terrain tessellation, architecture/refactoring, auto-testing framework, bug fixes.
Principal Software Engineer, VT MAK, 2013-Sept 2023
VR-Vantage is MAK’s rendering engine for simulation products in the aerospace and defense sector.
– Optimized engine to render twice as fast using modern techniques: indirect rendering, GPU culling/lod, bindless textures.
– Implemented Forward+ lighting to support an unconstrained number of lights.
– Implemented HDR and post processing pipeline using compute shaders.
– Implemented various shader effects (PBR, IBL).
– Integration, debugging, improvements and bug fixes for several third-party libraries.
– Extended SpeedTree to support 64-bit precision (for geocentric) and hardware instancing.
– Optimized video framework for stutter free streaming.
– Various physics-based effects: Ackermann/Skid steering, entity part articulations.
– Supported technical artists for their workflow, tools.
– Collaborated with middleware partners, technical support, documentation.
– Mentored new programmers.
Graphics Programmer, Sundog Software, 2016-Present (contract)
Sundog makes realistic software for rendering clouds, skies and oceans for simulation and video games.
– Vulkan renderer for SilverLining SDK.
– Re-architected SilverLining and Triton SDKs for multithreaded render command list generation.
– Bindless rendering, shader optimizations, etc. to significantly improve performance.
– Developed auto-testing framework, ongoing maintenance, technical support for clients.
Graphics Programmer, Compro, 2015-2016 (contract)
OpenIG is an open-source cross-platform OpenSceneGraph based Image Generator used in commercial and military flight simulators.
– Forward+ lighting engine to support thousands of real time lights per frame.
– Integration with Sundog software’s Triton and SilverLining SDKs.
– An extremely fast sprite engine in addition to the real time lights.
– Advanced glsl shaders (planer reflections, ambient occlusion, etc.).
Graphics Programmer, Pelican Mapping, 2015 (contract)
osgEarth is a full-scale planetary terrain engine used in a variety of GIS applications.
– Implemented GPU tessellation of height maps, seamless LOD transitions/morphing between imagery as well as height data.
– GPU-based procedural vegetation generated on the fly, in a deterministic random way.
Graphics Programmer, VisionScape Interactive, 2012-2013 (contract)
Virtual Property Architect is a 3D landscape design software that enables professionals and consumers to create realistic property designs from a catalog of real products.
– Realistic water rendering: reflections, refractions, fresnel effect, caustics.
– Several key optimizations to improve performance: batching, instancing, etc.
– Wrote the entire SpeedTree wrapper that ties together IDV’s SpeedTree with Ogre 1.7+.
– Lighting and ambient occlusion.
– Reworked the build system with CMake for a one click build.
Game/Graphics Programmer, 3000AD Inc, 2012 (contract)
Line of Defense is a Sci-Fi MMORPG with players battling for military bases spanning expansive worlds.
– Implemented weapons and effects framework.
– Implemented physics and graphics for damage and destruction.
– Fixed key performance issues via both code and iterating assets with technical artists.
– Worked closely with Havok to resolve bugs and usage issues with Vision Engine.
Lead/Graphics Programmer, UniFaction/Project StarBorn, 2010-2012 (contract)
Inspired by Minecraft, Little Big Planet, and mini-games of physics modification, Unicraft features fully modifiable/destructible worlds and unique game play.
– Paging & threading for background loading and world generation.
– Infinite world.
– Procedural world generation (both offline and on the fly).
– Shading and Lighting (Tri-Planar texturing, etc.).
– Caching.
Graphics Programmer, D+H Furnplan, 2009-2012 (contract)
FurnPlan is used for realistically modeling and rendering furniture, architecture and room interiors.
– Switched legacy fixed function engine to Ogre3D.
– Material framework and ‘Uber’ shaders: normal maps, IBL, Fresnel, shadows, reflections, ssao, etc.
– Batching geometry to improve render speed.
Graphics Programmer, Lo-Fi Apocalypse, 2011 (contract)
Wrote the core graphics engine (LFA Engine) in OpenGL ES for the games developed by the company. It is used for everything in the games: entities (e.g. planes), particles (clouds, smoke), UI, text, etc.
– 4P Air Battle: Retro-style dog fighting game.
– GunApp: A popular app that turns the iPhone into over 120 weapons with sound effects.
Graphics Programmer, Abbott Vascular, 2008-2012 (contract)
MitraClip Software is a virtual surgery application used for training doctors for the mitraclip procedure.
– Realistic rendering of the heart.
– GPU-based animation, soft body physics.
– Order-independent shader-based slicing/cutting.
– Echo and Fluoroscopy rendering.
Graphics Programmer, VCollab, 2007 (contract)
This is a software for CAD/CAM/CAE visualization and simulation.
– Switch legacy Cosmo3D engine to Ogre3D.
Graphics Programmer, Galactic Melee, Jenkins Software, 2007 (contract)
This was an MMOG game by a small group of Indie Developers.
– Various shaders, weapons effects.
Senior Software Engineer, Nvidia, 2006
– Core developer on the NVSG/Scenix team.
– Implemented various parts of the volume rendering module.
Senior Software Engineer, 3DPLM/Dassault Systems, 2005
– Development/Refinement of the blending component of the ACIS CAD geometric kernel.
Researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, Germany, 2002-2005
Fraunhofer Society is Europe’s premier organization for applied research and development with funding from the industry and the federal government.
– LooksReal: Project aimed at high quality visualization of automobiles. Developed photorealistic rendering techniques, shaders for GPUs: HDR, IBL, microfacet based BRDFs, global Illumination with spherical harmonics, paint model, etc. Presented work at BMW, Daimler Chrysler.
– GPGPU: Developed ray tracer with photon mapping. Tile based work division and load balancing between the GPU and CPU. Published and presented at SIGGRAPH.
– SmartSketches: Virtual engineering project sponsored by the German research foundation (DFG). Developed project framework. Implemented modeling complex assembly parts using ACIS. Implemented the ability to specify constraints, kinematics simulations using D-CUBED. See publications.
Staff Scientist, Graphics Division, NCST, Government of India, 2000-2001
– Terrain visualization using DEMs and orthoimagery
Publications:
• Towards load balanced computations using GPU and CPU – Proceedings of the ACM workshop on General Purpose Computing using Graphics Processors, 2004, sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH.
• Hardware Assisted Multichannel Volume Rendering – Proceedings of Computer Graphics International, July 2003, IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Virtual Concept Design of Mechanisms – International Conference on Computer-Aided Industrial Design & Conceptual Design, 2005.
• Interactive Analysis of Kinematics Mechanisms in Virtual Environments – (In German), ProduktDaten Journal 10 (2003), 2, S. 48-51.
Master’s Theses Supervised:
– Photorealistic Rendering in VR environments using BRDFs and Photon Mapping, on Graphics Hardware – Thomas Gierlinger, Department of Computer Science, TU Clausthal, Germany, 2004.
– Sophisticated appearance modeling of Macroscopic surface structures using BTFs and BRDFs for Photo-Realistic Visualization in Immersive Environments – Ralf Brauchle, Department of Computer Science, Fachhochschule Darmstadt, Germany, 2004.
Master’s Project:
Accelerated flythrough of Voxel based Terrain Datasets using the VolumePro 500/1000 boards – Developed and implemented algorithms for texture mapping and perspective projection of volumetric terrain datasets. Incorporated distributed and parallel volume rendering algorithms. Implemented the GUI for the system. Center for Visual Computing (CVC)-SUNY Stony Brook, 2002. Advisor: Dr. Arie Kaufman.
Graduate Coursework:
Advanced Computer Graphics, Scientific Visualization, Computational Geometry, Geometric Modeling, Physics Based Computing, Algorithms, Parallel Architecture, Theory of Computation
Course Projects:
– Scientific Visualization: Developed volume-rendering software for Phong-shaded rendering of volumetric datasets using X-ray, MIP, Iso-surface and compositing algorithms. Extended this by Implementing the shadow algorithms described in ‘Splatting with Shadows’ (K. Mueller, M. Nulkar Volume Graphics ’01).
– Geometric Modeling: Developed a Geometric Modeling package with: curve editor for Bezier curves and B-Splines, modeler and renderer for NURBS surfaces and subdivision surfaces (Catmull-Clark and Butterfly Subdivision), manipulator and sculptor for physical surfaces approximated by mass points and springs.
– Advanced Graphics: Investigated and implemented the following global illumination methods: recursive yay tracing, progressive refinement radiosity and photon mapping.
– Physics Based Computing: Implemented a Particle System API to model and render natural phenomena like fire, smoke, etc. In addition, implemented a flocking model to simulate the aggregate behavior of real life entities like a school of fish/ flock of birds.
– Operating Systems: File System implementation of NACHOS, an instructional OS developed at Berkeley. (C++, UNIX)
– Databases: Developed ’Facility Management/Resource Scheduler’ with MS-SQL server as back end and Visual Basic 6.0 as front end.
– Networks: Implemented ‘Network Simulator’ to simulate the TCP/IP protocol.
– Object Oriented Programming: Implemented a ‘Chat Service’, with both ‘client’ and ‘server’ applications.
Awards:
– Scholarship from the INI-GraphicsNET foundation, Germany, 2004.
– Research Assistantship, SUNY Stony Brook, May 2001.
– Graduate Assistantship, SUNY Stony Brook, Jan 2001.