L. VAN WARREN

WDV 1990-present
NASA JPL 10 years

Tools & Skills

Projects

Questions I frequently ask:

• How does it work?
• Can I make it better?
• How can I communicate that idea?

Preferred communication modes:

• Face to Face
• Email
• Phone

Dear Sir/Madam – 

Sincerely, 
L. Van Warren 
http://www.wdv.com

Professional Experience:  GRASS here

Van Warren's professional training began in at the University of Illinois where he earned a BS in Aerospace Engineering. He paid for his education by working as a clinical lab technician. The exposure to medical and scientific computing set the tone for the future. After this he worked for the University of Illinois and CERL in Champaign Urbana in the same building where the world's first supercomputer Illiac was designed and built. In his senior undergraduate year he was asked to create a physically accurate model of spacecraft reentry . The simulation that resulted brought honorable mention to his aerospace team in the national Bendix design competition. A later version was used in the preliminary component sizing for the Mars Pathfinder mission that succeeded in landing on, and exploring, the Red Planet.
After his undergraduate work, Mr. Warren designed the first major geographic information systems that grew to widespread use. During this period he studied tensile structures with Prof. Edward Kuznetsov, the noted engineer and mathematician. An enthusiastic student of numerical analysis Mr. Warren developed visualization techniques for understanding large linear systems of equations and created visual simulations for Alan George's "Nested Dissection of a Regular Finite Element Mesh".
He then went on to receive his first master's degree in Aerospace Engineernig. For this he developing a special purpose language for describing and analyzing the vibrational modes of complex structures. Mr. Warren developed and applied ontological model techniques to common finite element problems. He created one of the first 'C' programming projects that captured the notion of object oriented methodology and complex systems. That thesis is posted on this site in its entireity.
After a chance meeting with the mathematician Elaine Cohen at SIGGRAPH, he traveled to the University of Utah Graphics Lab. His resulting second thesis in computer science defined an new space decomposition technique - "Geometric Hashing" - which enabled the application of ray tracing algorithm to scenes containing thousands of objects.
While in Salt Lake City he performed produced a computer animation entitled, "Sound Into Graphics". This animation of sound driven computer graphics was done in collaboration with Pat Kane and James Bozek of the University of Illinois.
Graduating from the University of Utah he went to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. During this time he worked on the Time Warp Project and became the manager of the visualization for a Strategic Defense initiative project entitled Sim87.
Reacting to the consequences of possible nuclear conflict, Mr. Warren, embarked on a personal investigation on views of the earth as seen from space with Santa Monica muralist and friend of Richard Feynman, Tom Van Sant. Their goal was to depict an earth as seen from space without political boundaries. In the course of his work, sponsored by NASA, The National Geographic Society, and the GeoSphere Project, he was the technical director for the largest mosaic of the earth ever created at that time. Mr. Warren had the privilege of briefing Paul MacReady, Peter Lissaman, Al Hibbs, Phillip and Phyllis Morrison and many others on this work. The final product entitled, "The Earth From Space", was published in the Boston Globe on Earth Day, the National Geographic Sixth Atlas of the World, and numerous film and television venues to this day.
After this Mr. Warren returned to his aerospace roots and was cognizant engineer for the Mars Pathfinder Entry Descent and Landing System. His detailed simulations led to the understanding of the reentry system that is still used today. He invented the "drape abatement bridle" that creates a two pendulum system and protects the lander from being draped by the parachute after landing. This work was applied to the first successful Mars Pathfinder Exploration Mission and is still in use in the Spirit and Opportunity missions to Mars.
After Pathfinder Mr. Warren started his own design firm Warren Design Vision and began working on electric cars to reduce pollution and dependence on foreign oil. He designed a hybrid conversion kit for the General Motors Geo Storm. The public was not yet ready for a car that in his words, "traveled half the distance for twice the cost". After this he turned to the creation of simulation software products and built high technology web sites for commercial, academic and medical clients.
After this Mr. Warren conceived of the CellWorld™ project to illustrate and animate cellular biology and the results of the human genome project. This represented a return to his original interest in medical technology. His first bioinformatic work was a mathematical study of the number of times that idiomatic expressions recur in gene sequences. He then went on to develop an interactive web-based pharmacology system for cancer pain and a bioinformatic system for exploring genes implicated breast cancer. During this time he developed a comprehensive theory of knowledge mapping.
Most recently after trips to Argonne National Labs, Virginia Bioinformatics, and SIGGRAPH, Mr. Warren contributed his talents towards the design of the Virtual Reality Center at the University of Arkansas. This Center featured a merged capability of the Access Grid Internet II, a Silicon Graphics Reality Center and clustered 32 node PC based supercomputer.
To extend his experience in modern networking technology, Mr. Warren then became the founding member of the element management system for Alltel. During this time he successfully participated in the cutover of Verizon telecommunication properties valued at $1.5 billion. The successful cutover saved Alltel $200 million dollars. After helping to build out the EMS group and create graphical displays he received intensive Sun training in Java.Wanting to focus on medical projects, he left Alltel and developed new software. His most recent tool KnowledgeGazer™ shows promise as a data mining tool for illustrating biological pathways and discovering new links in previously published information.

He recently traveled to the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Mr. Warren is currently working on two projects in electric music, the vPick™ and the vPiano™. Footage from the recently completed vPiano™ project is featured on the website.

Asked what his greatest contribution is, he answers:

My greatest contribution to humanity
is the 15 second no-nick shave,
which I perform blind
with no mirror
using both hands.

Van can be reached by electronic mail via:
van - at - wdv - dot - com