This talk will present a general overview of the technology used in various parts of UG, together with comments about where contributions from the academic community would be useful. In passing, I will also mention some technologies and approaches that would *not* be of interest to us, and explain why.
George Allen, an EDS Fellow, is a chief technologist for EDS PLM Solutions. The title of EDS Fellow is awarded to the corporation’s most innovative thought leaders in recognition of their exceptional achievements. As an EDS Fellow, Allen is involved in the strategic planning, development, and marketing of EDS’ solutions for product lifecycle management, especially its Computer-Aided Design (CAD)/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) products.
Allen has worked on the Unigraphics’ CAD/CAM system since 1977 with previous owners of the system, United Computing and McDonnell Douglas. (In 1989 he was elected to the position of fellow within the McDonnell Douglas Corporation.) Allen joined EDS (for the second time) in 2001, when Unigraphics Solutions became part of the corporation.
His main area of expertise is the digital representation of physical objects and processes together with computer systems that make use of these representations. This includes a variety of technologies in geometric modeling, computer graphics, user interface design, and CAD/CAM software. His 25 years experience in these areas has contributed to the continuing market success of EDS PLM Solutions’ products, and their application in the development of manufactured products by numerous clients, particularly in the automotive industry.
He is the author of numerous technical presentations, articles, and papers on CAD/CAM technology and its application in product development, and is a regular reviewer of papers submitted to several industry leading technical journals.
Allen is a member of the Institute of Electronical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He taught graduate courses on computational geometry for CAD/CAM at the University of California from 1985 to 1988, organized and taught ACM SIGGRAPH (specialist interest group in graphics) courses on solid modeling from 1984 to 1988, and co-chaired the ACM/IEEE Symposia on solid modeling from 1993 to 1997.
He earned a bachelor of science in mathematics from Sheffield University, and a master’s in mathematics from the University of California in 1974.
George Allen lives in Laguna Beach, California, with his wife Susan. In his spare time, he enjoys the outdoors around his home, including hiking, running, cycling and swimming.