I joined the Computer Science Department at WPI as an Assistant Professor in the summer of 2002 after a one-semester visiting position at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where I received a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2001. My dissertation advisor was Professor Sandy Hill. I also received a Masters degree from the same department in 1996 and a Bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1994 from the University of Benin in my home country, Nigeria. My research interests are in the areas of mobile graphics, photorealistic computer graphics and most areas of mobile computing, wireless and sensor networks.

Mobile Graphics: In mobile graphics, we have created and prototyped a programmable mobile graphics API called the Mobile Adaptive Distributed Graphics Framework (MADGRAF) in which a powerful server can assist a mobile device in rendering relatively complex 3D scenes by applying techniques such as polygon simplification, image-based techniques, rendering using various Level-of-Detail (LOD) techniques and remote execution. As part of our efforts, we are developing performance monitoring tools including PowerSpy, a Windows tool for fine-grained power profiling.

Photorealistic Graphics: In photorealistic computer graphics, I work in the emerging area of computer graphics known as appearance modeling in which research tries to create realistic surface reflectance models (BRDFs) and reproduce effects like weathering of stones and aging of paint pigments to make computer graphics images even more realistic while reducing the almost plastic look of previous models. Examples of work that I have done in appearance models include modeling interesting natural wavelength-dependent phenomena like diffraction which produces the color streaks we observe when we look at a CD-ROM and interference which produces color in oil slicks and soap bubbles.

Mobile Computing and Wireless Networks: In mobile computing and wireless networks, I am particularly interested in the design and performance evaluation of wireless data link and transport protocols. Wireless protocols have to be energy efficient and robust in the face of errors. In evaluating protocols, I like to use simulation with tools like the NS2 network simulator to observe how protocols behave in different scenarios. My previous wireless protocol work pertained to the Media Access (MAC) and Application layers. We have also produced a tool called Locus for location sensing techniques in 802.11b WLANs.

I teach the undergraduate and graduate computer graphics, undergraduate computer networks class as well as a graduate seminars in computer graphics and mobile computing.

Classes (Current/Last offering)

• Computer Graphics CS 4731, Undergraduate graphics [ A term 2004 ]
• Computer Networks CS 4514, Undergraduate networks [ C term 2002 ]
• Advanced Topics in Computer Graphics CS 563 [ Spring 2003 ] [Repository of CS 563 Presentations ] [ Spring 2005 ] Preview!!
• Mobile Computing [ Informal Seminar Summer 2003 ]
• computer Graphics, CS 543, Graduate graphics [ Fall Semester 2003 ]
• Graduate seminar in mobile and ubiquitous computing CS 525M [ Spring Semester 2004 ]

Note that the above links are to the current or last offering of the above courses. For older offerings of courses, please click [here] .

MQPs (Currently Supervising)

• Mobile MPEG Streaming by Zhuo Chen and Aram Dulyan
• My MQP interests for 2004-2005 NEW!!

For more information on what sorts of MQPs I like to advise and information on older MQPs, please click [here] .

Independent Study Projects (ISPs)/Directed Research

• Photorealistic Rendering by Zhonghai Zuo
• Microsoft .NET Framework by Ben Sandorfsky
• MAC Layer Attacks in 802.11 Wireless LANs by David Dunlop
• Rendering Participating Media Using Photon Mapping (Global Illumination, Volume Rendering, Image-based lighting) by Zack Waters
• Real Time Rendering Using Spherical Harmonics by Cliff Lindsay
• Pipeline-Splitting in MADGRAF by Kutty Banerjee
• Mobile Distributed Graphics by Oleg Rekutin

My Research pages

• Mobile Graphics Research Group (MGRG)
• Wireless Multimedia Streaming Lab (WMSL)
• Mobile Adaptive Distributed Graphics Pipeline (MADGRAF)
• Bi-Directional Reflectance Viewer Development (BRAVADO)

Selected Publications

• Nathan Sheldon, Eric Girard, Seth Borg, Mark Claypool, and Emmanuel Agu. The Effect of Latency on User Performance in Warcraft III, Technical Report WPI-CS-TR-03-07, Computer Science Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, March 2003. PDF file in Proc. of ACM netGames Conference 2003     Best Paper Award !!
• Agu E. and Hill F.S. "A Simple Method for Ray Tracing Diffraction", in Proc. 2nd International Workshop on Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling", CGGM 2003, Montreal Canada.
• Agu E. and Hill F. S., ``Diffraction Shading Models for Iridescent Surfaces'', in Proc. IASTED VIIP 2002.
• Awduche D. and Agu E., ``Mobile Extensions to RSVP'', in Proc. Intl Conf. On Computer Communications and Networks (IC3N), Las Vegas, Sept 22-27, 1997
• Agu E. and Ganz A., ``A Resource Reservation MAC Protocol for Wireless Local Area Networks'', in Proc. Massachusetts Telecommunications Conference (MTC) 1996

For a more complete list of my publications, please click [here] .

Links

• Graphics Links and Research Page
• Wireless/Mobile Computing Links and Research Page
• My Fun Links
• Advising aids by Dave Brown
• Collected advise on research and writing
• Writing Systems and Networking Articles by Henning Schulzerinne
• Most cited authors in Computer Science at NEC citeseer

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