Call me Nick.

I am a researcher, an educator, a gamer, and a movie goer – which inevitably leaves me with a lot to ramble about. Albeit I cannot drag on for hundreds of pages like Ishmael, I can go on for quite about about my research, video games, movies, etc.

Let’s start with research. Why start with research you say? When choosing the path of becoming a researcher, you ultimately have to comes to terms with the fact that you have to be passionate about your work. At some point in your studies you may become so immersed in the subject that you’ll surpass either everyone’s understanding or everyone’s care towards that particular subject. These people, your colleagues, friends, co-workers, etc. will sense your enthusiasm towards your work. If you lack excitement and interest in the presentation of your own research, you in turn then hinder the ability of those whom you are presenting to to also become excited, immersed and interested in your work. Albeit it certainly is possible, even if you lack motivation and interest in your own work, for people to still care – however your negative or indifferent attitude does not help. So we start with research because I truly believe the development of what I am proposing will have a significant, relevant, important and positive impact on technology today. I have gone through great lengths to break down what exactly it is that I am researching and why it is significant and relevant at this LINK. But for those of you to afraid to click away, in one shot, I am doing research in the following area: By taking sources of data, which depict a given terrain, I analyze those sources and tactfully fuse them together in an intelligent way such that I am able to, without any user intervention or automatically, represent that terrain with virtual 3D models (the 3D reconstruction problem as it is referred to in the academia). Think of the 3D models in google earth, but instead the models are rendered automatically via an algorithm that takes certain sets of data as inputs.

Following up with research, I am also an educator. I am currently teaching a graduate Digital Signal Processing Applications course at the University of Central Florida. Teaching college is a blast on multiple levels. Albeit preparing for the lesson for that day’s given lecture and other administrative tasks for the course as a whole, is a gargantuan amount of work, the work is well worth the reward. Being able to have such a significant, positive influence to such an intelligent group of students is indeed an awesome experience. Furthermore, having to do such extensive research and preparation on the topics in which you teach ultimately enables you to master the material that much better. Bloom’s taxonomy breaks down the comprehension of material to several levels – the highest of which is the ability to analyze, to create, to evaluate the material.

Having to teach and then answer questions on the material really helps elevate your understanding to these advanced levels of comprehension.

Moving right along – a gamer. I definitely love to play video games. Currently I am trying to finish Final Fantasy XII.

I am also playing (who isn’t at this point) World of Warcraft. My play time is rather limited to the game though. I have a level 70 rogue (only character above 25) on the Argent Dawn server by the name of Yojo.

Movies! I LOVE to watch movies! If you asked me which were my favorite top 10 of all time, I could never tell you as the list is constantly changing! But at least 3 times a month I am out at the movie theater catching yet another flick. For the most part, my favorite genres are action, adventure, martial arts, and suspense. But I often also see movies outside these categories. Some of my favorites, off the top of my head at the moment would be the following:
1. Indiana Jones Trilogy
2. Star Wars Trilogy (i like IV through VI more than I through III, or the three newer ones)
3. Matrix Trilogy
4. Snatch
5. The Last Samurai
6. Gladiator
7. Cowboy Bepop
8. Final Fantasy Advent Children
9. All Four Die Hard Movies
10. Hunt for the Read October
11. Heat
12. Clear and Present Danger
13. Saving Private Ryan
14. Hackers
15. Plunkett and Macleane
and the list goes on and on…I will definitely start using this blog to post reviews of the movies I catch in addition to discussing the other things posted above.

So there’s way too much about me. I will hopefully divulge even more in the future blog posts to come. In the mean time I leave you with words in which I live by, a creed in which to tackle every rising challenge you face on a daily basis:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is will trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than complete Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

- Dwight D Eisenhower, June 6, 1944

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 1:35 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.