User:Robert.vandyk
| Robert Van Dyk | |
|---|---|
 Taken in 2008. |
|
| Born | October 12, 1982 New Jersey |
| Residence | Watertown, Massachusetts |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Education | Master's Science |
| Alma mater | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stevens Institute of Technology |
| Occupation | Software Engineer Novelist |
| Website | |
| http://www.robertvandyk.com | |
Robert Van Dyk (born October 12, 1982) is an engineer and an artist with a wide variety of interests that range from local government to space exploration to fiction writing.
Rob grew up in Midland Park, New Jersey. He earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2005 and his Master's of Science in Computer Science in the field of Quantitative Software Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2007.
In 2006, Rob produced, filmed, edited, and released An American Adventure[1] to document the wonderful American countryside during a road trip stretching from Boston, Massachusetts to Portland, Oregon and back.
In 2010, Rob is releasing his first book entitled 2076: A novel.[2]
In addition to these primary pursuits:
- Rob has delivered a presentation at the 11th Annual Mars Society Conference
- Rob has been appointed to the Watertown, Massachusetts Bicycle & Pedestrian Committee
- Rob has designed and built an automated reality robot which plays table tennis
- Rob has published code for implementing an online image gallery
[edit] Engineering Accomplishments
Rob has made a number of original contributions to the fields of computer science, computer engineering, and embedded systems design.
[edit] 11th Annual Mars Society Conference
In August 2008, Rob presented his proposal for the Autonomous Planetary Agriculture System to the Mars Society Conference in Boulder, CO.[3] The project sought to create enabling technology that would make it possible to close the loop that makes explorers in space dependent on supplies (such as food, power, air, and water) from Earth. The Autonomous Planetary Agriculture System competed against nine other finalist projects for funding from the Mars Society, but ultimately lost to a less costly project called TEMPO^3 [4]
[edit] Robust Image Gallery for ASP.net
In August 2003, Rob published software and documentation which explained how to implement a robust image gallery in the ASP.net programming language.[5] The image gallery has features which include automatic creation of thumbnails, automatic indexing of gallery sub-directories, and settings that make it easy to configure the look-and-feel of an image gallery.
[edit] Augmented Reality Table Tennis Robot
During the spring of 2002, Rob worked on a multi-disciplinary team of undergraduate engineers to design an Augmented Reality Table Tennis Robot.[6] The system featured a ball shooter which fired either serves or volleys through a video screen positioned in front of a ping pong table. The ball shooter was synchronized with a video of a human player that was shown on the screen to create a unique experience for a table tennis player who wanted to improve his skills without having a partner to practice against.
[edit] Artistic Accomplishments
Rob pursues a number of personal projects which includes fiction writing and producing a documentary motion picture.
[edit] Literary Fiction
The final version of the book 2076: A Novel is scheduled to be published in 2010. It will be available through Amazon.com and 2076book.com. Rob has published two draft versions on 2076book.com. The first draft was been described as "an interesting story" [7] with "deep thought-provoking ideas in play".
The drafts are set in a futuristic version of America where entire cities are replaced by enormous Towers where upwards of 10 million people live entire lives without the need to step outside onto the Earth. The premise of the plot is an utopia which provides it's citizens with the freedom of time. Other freedoms, however, are taken away. The description on the official website sums up the motivation of the protagonists. "The heroes aim to unseat the highest level of America's governance (called High Operators) and take control so they can ensure that additional freedoms are available to the public." [2]
[edit] Film
The documentary An American Adventure (2006) was released on Google Video under a Creative Commons Attribution, Share-Alike 2.5 license. Rob completed the entire project by himself, utilizing a musical score obtained from Creative Commons licensed audio files. The film is comprised on 10 chapters and has a total runtime of 127 minutes. The chapters are available from the Google Video website, linked here:
- New Jersey to Chicago
- Midwest
- The Badlands
- Custer State Park, Black Hills, Wind Cave, and Wyoming
- Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful, and Geyser Trail
- Washington
- Pacific Coast & Redwoods
- Nevada & Utah
- Colorado & Kansas
- Missouri to Connecticut
[edit] References
- ^ Google Video Results, Clips from An American Adventure
- ^ a b 2076: A novel (official webpage)
- ^ Mars Project Finalists
- ^ TEMPO^3 Mars Society Project
- ^ A Robust Image Gallery for ASP.net (published August 13, 2003
- ^ Final Report: Augmented Reality Table Tennis Robot
- ^ The Year 2076, a discussion about the book 2076 by Robert Van Dyk
