Leadership
From REMAP
Contents |
Fabian Wagmister
Associate Professor, Film, Television and Digital Media
Co-Director, REMAP
fabian(at)hypermedia.ucla.edu
FABIAN WAGMISTER is a filmmaker and digital media artist. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, and the creator of the Hypermedia Studio and the Lab for New Media.
Professor Wagmister’s works and writings combine a strong ideological voice with explorations into the protean media structures emerging from digital technologies. Recent international exhibitions include Behind the Bars, a confrontational interactive environment about Latin America's “desaparecidos”; Time&Time Again..., with Lynn Hershman, a distributed interactive media environment exploring technological dependency and cultural identity; and two, three, many Guevaras, which utilizes an interpretative search engine to formulate an open environment for the examination of Ernesto Che Guevara’s legacy. This fluid multimedia documentary has shown in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, San Jose (Costa Rica), Santiago and Havana.
Born and raised in Argentina, Professor Wagmister maintains active collaboration with artists and theorists in Latin America and frequently lectures and presents his work throughout the continent. He contributes to regional efforts such as the Institute of Cultural Identity, Art, and Technology (ICAT) in Costa Rica and recently received funding from private foundations to create an experimental laboratory in Buenos Aires, Taller Performático Tecnológico (TaPeTe), to explore the intersection of performance and technology. In Argentina, he also founded and directs the Centro Hipermediatico Experimental Latinoamericano (cheLA), housed in a 54,000 sq. ft. industrial facility in Buenos Aires, which fosters arts and technology research and production through events, residencies, co-production, and sustained technological development. cheLA has formal partnerships with engineering programs at the University of Buenos Aires, the University of Cordoba, ICAT in Costa Rica, and the Centro Multimedia of Mexico.
William J. Kaiser
Professor, Electrical Engineering
Co-Director, REMAP
kaiser(at)ee.ucla.edu
WILLIAM KAISER (Center Co-Director, HSSEAS) received a PhD in Solid State Physics from Wayne State University in 1984. From 1977 through 1986, as a member of Ford Motor Co. Research Staff, his development of automotive sensor and embedded system technology resulted in large volume commercial sensor production. At Ford, he also developed the first spectroscopies based on scanning tunneling microscopy. From 1986 through 1994, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he developed the Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy (BEEM) technique for subsurface characterization of semiconductor devices. Dr. Kaiser also developed and demonstrated the first electron tunnel sensors for acceleration and infrared detection and initiated the NASA/JPL Microinstrument program.
In 1994, Professor Kaiser joined the faculty of the UCLA Electrical Engineering Department. At UCLA, he initiated the wireless networked sensor field with a vision of linking the Internet to the physical world through distributed monitoring. This included research on self-organized networked embedded systems and low power integrated subsystems for sensing, signal processing, and RF communication. This research engaged many large collaborative programs across several departments. These combined UCLA research activities have contributed to the creation of many new programs within government and commercial organizations. Professor Kaiser’s research on distributed sensors now includes the development of self-aware networked embedded systems that may adjust their physical configuration to optimize sensing performance. This new program area, Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS), supported by the National Science Foundation, is part of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) . NIMS mobile sensor network technology has been demonstrated and deployed for environmental monitoring.
Professor Kaiser's research has concentrated on the development of distributed networked, embedded computing for linking the Internet to the physical world. The applications for this technology that his group has pursued include distributed systems for factory automation, biomedical research, healthcare, space science, security, and defense. His background includes networked embedded computing, distributed low-power system development, low-power analog and digital electronics, low-power wireless communication systems, and microsensor technology. Professor Kaiser’s teaching efforts include the development of new courses for both undergraduate and graduate programs emphasizing a combination of fundamental concepts and applications to design.
Jeff Burke
Executive Director, REMAP
jburke(at)ucla.edu
JEFF BURKE is Executive Director of REMAP, the Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a joint program of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Through its Remapping LA project, REMAP is developing a new focus on design methodologies for the use of embedded computing in civic, cultural and social contexts. Burke also helped to create the participatory and urban sensing area at the NSF Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) at UCLA. He has designed, managed and produced performances, new genre art installations and new facility construction in nine countries from 1999-2007. In each project, he integrates emerging technologies into systems that support creative and expressive goals, with involvement ranging from coding to conceptual design and producing. Most recently, he designed the media element of Mel Shapiro's live theatrical work The Blogger Project at UCLA, in which the production team extended the Unreal game engine to serve as a real-time video and image compositing system for the performance. He was also the technical owner's representative for the Japanese American National Museum's construction of the National Center for Preservation of Democracy and the Alexandra Nechita Center for the Arts in Orange County.
Bruce Vaughn
Vice President, R&D, Walt Disney Imagineering
Chair, REMAP Advisory Council
BRUCE VAUGHN is the Vice President of Research & Development, Inc. for The Walt Disney Company. His responsibilities include managing a diverse group of technical and creative individuals who dream up new opportunities for the TWDC, including theme park attractions and special effects, innovative theater experiences, as well as new business opportunities that leverage invented and emerging technologies. Bruce joined Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in 1993 as a senior technical specialist. In order to gain experience in various aspects of the WDI process, Bruce spent time working as a writer for Theme Park Productions (TPP). While at TPP, Bruce co-wrote a 70mm environmental film, “The Circle of Life,” currently showing in The Land Pavilion at the Walt Disney World Resort. He was also associate media producer on the Spaceship Earth renovation project at Epcot. Since then, Bruce has been involved in many efforts that cross over the various divisions of The Walt Disney Company, including Feature Animation, Television, Theatrical, Music, Internet, Consumer Products and Location Based Entertainment. Prior to joining WDI, Bruce worked on the technical staff of Bran Ferren’s company, Associates & Ferren, in East Hampton, New York for five years where he contributed to the development and execution of special effects for various media projects. On “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” he worked as a cameraman on various on-screen effects and received an assistant photographer credit. He also helped design and photograph special effects for the film, “Second Sight.” During his tenure with Associates & Ferren, he worked with WDI on mocking up elements for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ at the Disney-MGM Studios and consulted on other WDI projects. Bruce is a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA's Theater, Film and Television School where he teaches, "Imagineering: The Art and Process of Entertainment Design." Bruce graduated Cum Laude from Colgate University in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a minor in Art History.
