Eric McKenzie's home page

Background

My background is in electronics: computer design; digital design and VLSI. I have been around here for more than twenty years. I have always had an interest in graphics and CAD and for the last five years or so I have not worked in hardware. My interests in hardware have not disappeared, simply that I have become much more involved in graphics, visualisation and virtual environments where my research interests now lie.

Teaching Interests

This session, 1999-2000, I am on a sabbatical year and for various reasons I am based at the Edinburgh Virtual Environment Centre (EdVEC) on the Bush Estate and can be contacted on 445 5362. My email account remains active. Normally my teaching is at master's or final-year level where I teach two courses:

• Computer Graphics
• Visualisation

In addition I tutor first years and third years. All of my teaching duties lie within the School of Computer Science, one of the three major teaching groups within the Division of Informatics.

Research Interests

I am a member of the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour (IPAB) within the Division of Informatics. My systems interests are maintained through associate membership of the Institute for Computing Systems Architecture (ICSA) also within the Division of Informatics. My main research interests are as follows:

Computer Graphics:

Current and recent work is in the areas of level of detail (LOD) in graphics display, particularly in virtual environments.

Visualisation:

We have support from British Telecommunications plc to look at visualisation of very large data sets. We are concerned with visualisation and navigation techniques and work with colleagues in Psychology, Centre for Neuroscience and the Human Communications Research Centre.

Virtual Environments:

In addition to the graphics work, I am working on navigation within virtual environments.
I am the research convener of the Edinburgh Virtual Environment Centre (EdVEC) where there are a number of projects in graphics, visualisation, vision and virtual environments.

Personal Information

I'm a local lad. I went to school and university in Edinburgh but I was born in Caithness in the north of Scotland. Joy and I have two kids, Vicki and Robbie, both university graduates and now on their career paths. I am a runner, or used to be, and am more of a jogger nowadays.