Michael J. Gourlay

814 Seminole Ave, Orlando, Florida 32804 • mijagourlay@yahoo.com

 

SKILLS

Computer Programming: Networking, multi-threading, AI, 2D/3D graphics, physical modeling and analysis, …

Languages,APIs: C/C++, Perl, Java, JavaScript, TCL/Tk, Mathematica, D3D, OpenGL, VRML, HTML, CSS, L^AT_EX, SQL.

Software Development: MS Visual Studio, PerForce, SourceSafe, CVS, SN Systems ProDG, DevTrack, lex/yacc, …

Platforms: XBox & 360, PlayStation 2 & 3, GameCube, MS Windows, Unix (inc. X Window System)

Graphics: Real-time interactive, visual effects, scientific analysis and visualization, network visualization, morphing

Scientific Research: networking, computational fluid dynamics, turbulence, radar, AMO physics, supercomputer design

Communication: writing articles and tutorials, teaching, publishing, world wide web, documenting software, video

 

EXPERIENCE

Electronic Arts – EA Sports, Tiburon Studio, Maitland, Florida                                                       2002-present

Senior Software Engineer                                                                                                                2005-2009

• Lead software engineer for Madden NFL 2011, 2006, developed for XBox 360 & PS3.
• Designed and implemented visual effects framework (Lynx) adopted by EA Sports worldwide.
• Implemented visual effects for Madden 07, NASCAR 08 for Xbox 360 & PS3.
• Participated in cross-franchise game steering committee.
• Lead development team for NASCAR NG, developed for NextGen consoles.
• Innovated software development strategy for transition to NextGen.
• Augmented procedural animation system (ANT) for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Software Engineer III                                                                                                                        2003-2004

• Lead and mentored development team for NASCAR 06: Total Team Control, developed for PS2 and XBox.
• Augmented artificial intelligence system to support teammates and archrivals.
• Participated in effort to share technologies across studios for next generation console development.
• Provided consulting to NASCAR PC team and to an external partner software development company.
• Lead online team for NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, developed for PS2, XBox and GameCube.
• Invented and patented (pending) dynamic network bandwidth detection and response system for online games.
• Wrote code reviews and performance evaluations, and refereed code reviews written by other engineers.
• Enhanced physics engine, improving gameplay, vehicle damage effects, multiple vehicle types.
• Profiled and optimized CPU and memory.
• Wrote tools and process documents for finding and removing memory fragmentation.
• Wrote technical article for EA Knowledge Journal, on my dead reckoning convergence algorithm.
• Gave technical presentation to studio about network architecture.
• Participated in steering committee for design of studio-wide online front end, adopted worldwide.

Software Engineer II                                                                                                                        2002-2003

• Lead online team for NASCAR Thunder 2004, developed for PS2, XBox and GameCube.
• Authored process documents for code introduction, architecture, network protocols, etc.
• Invented novel dead reckoning convergence scheme to smooth trajectories of remote vehicles to hide latency.
• Presented NASCAR software architecture, FlowManager, which studio subsequently adopted.
• Designed and developed multiplayer networking architecture, subsequently adopted by entire studio.
• Designed triangular patch interpolation system for smoothing existing terrain models.
• Wrote technical design documents for new game features.
• Introduced new task dependency resolution and scheduling practice which studio adopted.

 

University of Central Florida – Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, Orlando, Florida           2005-present

Research Associate

• Developed graduate curriculum for interactive media design courses
• Taught graduate programming classes
• Implemented pedagogic framework for interactive simulation and visualization (a game engine)
• Designed and implemented novel real-time interactive 3D fluid simulation.
• Provided consulting to Intel and Lockheed-Martin for game and simulation development.

 

Northwest Research Associates Inc. / Colorado Research Associates div., Boulder, CO                  1996-2002

Research Scientist, Principle Investigator                                                                                          2000-2002

• Wrote proposals and budgets, obtained funding and executed research projects supporting multiple scientists.
• Led turbulent wakes investigations using massively parallel high performance supercomputer simulations.
• Participated in laboratory experiments for submerged wake flows.
• Held security clearance.

Research Scientist, Co-Investigator                                                                                                  1999-2000

• Researched vortex dynamics of turbulent submerged wake fluid flows.
• Co-developed Practical Supercomputing Toolkit (PST) for DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Office.
• Participated in HPCMO Metacomputing Working Group, Grid security and encryption infrastructure.
• Member of High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) User Advisory Panel (UAP).
• Pioneer user of Department of Defense Grid.
• Augmented spectral Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code.
• Developed multithreaded, cross-platform software for analyzing and visualizing enormous 3D data sets.
• Developed OGLE large-scale scientific and medical visualization volume renderer.
• Member of thesis committee at Naropa Institute.

Research Assistant                                                                                                                          1996-1999

• Researched dynamics of vortices in turbulent shear fluid flows.
• Co-developed Viz, visualization system, in cooperation with Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI).

·         Upgraded PAOS ATRAD atmospheric MF radar at Rothera base, Antarctica.

• Administered Unix computer systems.

 

University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado                                                                     1994-1999

Research Assistant - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics,                                               1995-1999

·         Investigated 3D turbulent shear flow instability using supercomputer simulations.

·         Research lead to Ph.D. in physics, specializing in computational fluid dynamics, vortex dynamics, turbulence.

·         Tutored and assisted in teaching physics classes and laboratories for Physics Department.

• Developed speech and singing analysis and synthesis toolkit.

 

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia                                                                           1988-1994

Systems Analyst - GTRI Signature Technology Laboratory,                                                                1989-1994

·         Assisted in modeling, building and testing of radar systems.  Held security clearance.

Software Developer - Graphics, Visualization and Usability Lab,                                                        1993-1994

·         Developed NetVis Analyzer network visualization application, funded by National Science Foundation.

·         Developed Xmorph digital image warping and morphing applications for X Window System.

·         Participating in creation of “PSA” computer animation for SIGgraph 1994, Orlando, Florida.

Research Tech. / Software Developer - Computer Engineering Research Lab,                         1989

·         Developed test suite to exercise novel massively parallel supercomputer hardware architecture.

Software Developer / Teaching Assistant - Georgia Tech School of Physics,                                     1988-1990

·         Studied chaotic dynamics of high-energy atoms in electro-magnetic fields involving analysis in Mathematica.

·         Created rocket launching and navigation interactive simulations and taught physics students.

 

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Physics	University of Colorado at Boulder	1999
M.S., Physics	University of Colorado at Boulder	1996
B.S., Physics	Georgia Institute of Technology: Cooperative Plan, Highest Honor	1993
Computer Science	Georgia Tech, CU Boulder, University of Florida	1986-1998
Philosophy of Science and Tech.	Georgia Institute of Technology	1993

 

PUBLICATIONS

Gourlay, M.J. (2009): “Fluid Simulation for Video Games”, Gamasutra.

Gourlay, M.J. (2009): “Vehicle Wakes.” Electronic Arts Knowledge.

Gourlay, M.J. and Glumac, R. (2008): “Lynx: Sharing VFX Worldwide” Electronic Arts Knowledge, September.

Gourlay, M.J. (2004): “Dynamic bandwidth detection and response for online racing games”, Electronic Arts Knowledge.

Gourlay, M.J. (2003): “Dead Reckoning with Targeting: smooth, efficient, natural extrapolation convergence for online racing games”, Electronic Arts Knowledge, November.

Fritts, D., Gourlay, M., Orlando, W., Meyer, C., Werne, J., Lund, T. (2003): “Numerical simulation of late wakes in stratified and sheared flows”, User Group Conference Proceedings, June 9-13, pp. 206-210.

Johansson, P.B.V., William, K.G. and Gourlay, M.J., “Equilibrium similarity, effects of initial conditions and local Reynolds number on the axisymmetric wake.” Physics of Fluids, vol. 15, n. 3, March 2003.

Gourlay, M.J., S.C. Arendt, D.C. Fritts, J. Werne (2001): “Numerical modeling of initially turbulent wakes with net momentum.”  Physics of Fluids, December.

Gourlay, M.J., Werne, J. & Fritts, D.C. (2001): “Numerical late-time wake hydrodynamics of a sub-surbace bluff body in stratification”, ONR report.

Gourlay, M.J., Werne, J. & Fritts, D.C. (2001): “Direct numerical simulations of initially turbulent wakes”, DoD HPC UGC, Biloxi, Mississippi, June 18-21.

Gourlay, M.J. (2001): “Numerical Modeling of Turbulent Wakes”, Abstracts of XXVI General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, Nice, France, March 25-30.

Gourlay, M.J., S.C. Arendt, D.C. Fritts, J. Werne (2000): “Numerical modeling of turbulent non-zero momentum late wakes in density stratified fluids.”  Fifth International Symposium on Stratified Flows, July 10-13, 2000, Vancouver, Canada.

Gourlay, M.J., S.C. Arendt, D.C. Fritts, J. Werne (2000): “Numerical modeling of turbulent zero momentum late wakes in density stratified fluids.”  Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program Users' Group Conference Proceedings, June 5-9, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Gourlay, M.J. (2000): “The OGLE Tutorial: Creative Data Visualization Gone Wild”. Creative Linux Journal, June.

Gourlay, M.J. (2000): “OGLE-ing the Visible Human: An OGLE Demonstration”. Creative Linux Journal, July.

Gourlay, M.J. (1999): “Shapeshifter: An Xmorph Tutorial”. Creative Linux Journal, December.

Gourlay, M.J. (1999): Stability and Dynamics of Stretched Fluid Shear Layers. Ph.D. thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder, July.

Gourlay, M.J. (1997): “American English Diphone Text Corpus.”  University of Colorado at Boulder technical communication, December.

Gourlay, M.J. (1996): “Stretched Fluid Shear Layers”, Abstracts of XXI General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, The Hague, The Netherlands, May 6-10.

Gourlay, M.J., Uzer, T., and Farrelly, D. (1993): ``Asymmetric-top description of Rydberg-electron dynamics in crossed external fields.'' Phys. Rev. A, v.47, n.4, April, pp.3113-3117.

Smith, I. E. and Gourlay, M.J. (1990): “HardCore SIG: Parallelism and the NeXT workstation.”  NeXT User's Journal, July.

 

PRESENTATIONS

Gourlay, M.J. (2009): “Fluid Dynamics for Video Games.”, High Performance Graphics 2009, New Orleans, LA, Aug 1-3.

Gourlay, M.J. (2009): “Turbulent fluid motion for particle systems.” Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, CA, Mar 23-27.

Gourlay, M.J. (2008): “Interactive simulation of fluid motion for particle systems.” International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, ACM SIGGRAPH, Los Angeles, California, August 11-15.

Gourlay, M.J. (2006): “VFX for Next-Gen Games.” Visual Effects Workshop, EAUK, Chertsey, England, December.

Gourlay, M.J. (2005): “Visual Effects.” VFX Summit, EA Tiburon, Orlando, Florida, September.

Gourlay, M.J. (2004): “More Data Now: dynamic bandwidth detection and response”, Electronic Arts Tiburon, October.

Gourlay, M.J. (2003): “Online Pack Racing: NASCAR Thunder for PS2”, Electronic Arts Tiburon, October 16.

Balfour, M., Imbert, S. & Gourlay, M.J. (2002): “FlowManager”, Electronic Arts Tiburon, October.

Gourlay, M.J. & J. Werne (2002): “Practical Supercomputing Toolkit”, Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program Users Group Conference, Austin, Texas, June.

Gourlay, M.J. (2002): “Uniform Command Line Interface”, Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) Metacomputing Grid Workshop, Engineering Research and Development Center Major Shared Resource Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, February 25-28.

Werne, J, D. Fritts, C. Bizon, C. Meyer, M. Gourlay, M. Davis, K. Julien, P. Sullivan, B. Circelli, R. Walters, C. Fuson, P. Adams (2002): “Atmospheric optical turbulence characterization for the Airborne Laser using combined measurement and simulation techniques”, Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program 12^th Users Group Conference, Austin, Texas, June.

Werne, J. & Gourlay, M.J. (2001): “Practical Supercomputing Toolkit”, Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program 11^th Users Group Conference, Biloxi, Mississippi, June.

Circelli, B, P. Adams, J. Werne, M. Gourlay, C. Meyer & C Bizon (2001): “Investigation, visualization and interpretation of large scientific data sets”, Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program 11^th Users Group Conference, Biloxi, Mississippi, June 21.

Gourlay, M.J. (2001): “Numerical Modeling of Turbulent Wakes”, XXVI General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, Nice, France, March 25-30.

Gourlay, M.J., S.C. Arendt, D.C. Fritts, J. Werne (2000): “Numerical modeling of turbulent non-zero momentum late wakes in density stratified fluids.”  Fifth International Symposium on Stratified Flows, July 10-13, 2000, Vancouver, Canada.

Gourlay, M.J. (2000): “Scientific Visualization of Volumetric Data”, ERDC MSRC Scientific Visualization Workshop, Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 25-26.

Gourlay, M.J. (2000): “Numerical stratified wake hydrodynamics”, Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program 10^th Users Group Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, June.

Gourlay, M.J. (1996): “Stretched Fluid Shear Layers”, XXI General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, The Hague, The Netherlands, May 6-10.

 

GRANTS

“Numerical Modeling of Initially Turbulent Wakes”, Office of Naval Research contract N00014-99-C-0148.

“Numerical Modeling of Initially Turbulent Wakes of Submerged Bodies in Background Shear”, Office of Naval Research contract N00014-01-C-0298.

“Numerical Modeling of Wake Turbulence for Naval Applications” Office of Naval Research HPCMP Challenge 1719, Co-I.

“Numerical Modeling of Turbulent Wakes in Ambient Shear and Stratification for Naval Applications” Office of Naval Research HPCMP Challenge 1723, PI.

                       

INTERESTS AND HOBBIES

• Collecting and programming Atari 8-bit computers and games.
• Brewing beer, fermenting fruit from my trees and extracting essential oils from herbs in my garden.
• Large-scale art projects for venues including Burning Man, Geodesika, Freezing Man and major urban centers.
• Design and construction of robust portable shelters
• Visual art: Photography, large-scale print-making, painting, drawing, computer graphics and image processing
• Movies and animation: watching, discussing and making