Herbert Edelsbrunner, Company Co-Founder
What makes Geomagic products so exceptional? We build them on a strong foundation -- the revolutionary work of Dr. Herbert Edelsbrunner. This accomplished mathematician and scientist has gained international acclaim for his research in algorithms, geometry, and topology. His concepts of multidimensional modeling are changing the 3D industry forever.
The only computer scientist ever to be awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award, Professor Edelsbrunner has pioneered exploration of the world in which we live through an understanding of the geometric shapes that compose it. Admired for his scholarly research and teaching pursuits, he also has achieved an unusual reputation for his openness to sharing his findings, theories, and publication activities with others. Much of his research emerged from a desire to export accumulated personal knowledge to external storage in order to free up creative memory for new scientific explorations.
Almost uniquely cross-disciplinary, Dr. Edelsbrunner moves comfortably between the fields of computer science, mathematics, molecular biology, and other disciplines with ease. As a result, elegance and simplicity are key to the design of Geomagic's landmark products. The basis for the company's technology are significant algorithms developed by Dr. Edelsbrunner and published as Alpha Shapes while he was a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His mathematical theory for restructuring any shape or surface from an unorganized set of 3D data points forms the unique theoretical underpinnings of the company's products. It's no wonder that as director and co-founder of Geomagic, his work is intriguing academically and increasingly of great commercial interest.
Background Profile
Today, in addition to his role as chief technical consultant for Geomagic, Dr. Edelsbrunner is Arts & Science Professor of Computer Science at Duke University. It was a love of mathematics and a desire not to end up in the family farming business that propelled him to prominence in computational geometry. His current work is an extension of a career he began as a student at the Technical University of Graz, Austria. He pursued computational geometry because the discipline offered a career mix that has allowed him to explore his interests in both mathematics and computer science.
He received his doctorate at age 24 and authored "Algorithms in Combinatorial Geometry" before he was 30. The book is considered by many to be the best textbook and reference in the field and is used widely at universities in the United States and abroad. Always challenged by open problems, he has a true passion for philosophy and the desire to understand the unknown.
"The reason for the book's success is that it promotes the notion of 'arrangements' as fundamental to computational geometry, and this view must have been widely accepted," suggests Dr. Edelsbrunner. "My interest shifted toward the area of triangulations for several reasons: their relevance to science in general, their richness of deep and yet unsolved problems, and the multitude of faces they have in geometric worlds, even if restricted to two and three dimensions."
Industrial Implications
The industrial implications of Dr. Edelsbrunner's 3D modeling technology are staggering. Because of his advanced research and theories, Geomagic is the only software company that offers automated solutions for creating production-quality 3D digital models of any shape -- no matter how complex or organic -- from physical objects or existing digital information.
The software applications based on his research that are being developed by Geomagic are targeted at manufacturing companies that are looking for IT solutions to increase the efficiency of their product design and manufacturing process. The applications include reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, and manufacturing. Using Geomagic's software products, companies can design products that accurately reflect their design intent in a fraction of the time that the current processes require. The technology also enables companies to manufacture more products from digital files, thereby complementing and increasing the value of the investment that these companies have made in their existing CAD/CAM systems. The competitive advantages of implementing the technology based on Dr. Edelsbrunner's theories and research are drastic time-to-market reductions, significant cost savings, and better quality products.
As more companies drive manufacturing from digital models, Geomagic also envisions that Dr. Edelsbrunner's technology will fundamentally change the way products are designed and developed. The company refers to this change as mass customization. Mass customization will be enabled by his research because the technology based on his work makes it possible to create accurate 3D models of any shape quickly and easily. Imagine being able to scan your foot and quickly create a pair of shoes specifically designed for you. As mass production revolutionized manufacturing at the turn of the 20th century, Geomagic believes that mass customization will revolutionize manufacturing in the 21st century.
In the longer term, the graphic user interface and underpinning algorithms created by Dr. Edelsbrunner will drive the development of 3D printers, fax machines, and scanners. 3D input and output technology is expected to proliferate rapidly and become as accessible and commonplace as these kinds of 2D machines are today. Geomagic's software is certain to speed the evolution and widespread use of such devices. Eventually, the company expects to become the de facto standard software linking 3D input and output devices together, thus creating a complete solution for 3D object transport and delivery.
Medical Applications
Many exciting uses for Dr. Edelsbrunner's technology also are being explored in dentistry, medicine, medical imaging, and drug design.
In general dentistry, X rays will be passé. Prosthodontists will no longer need to take impressions because chairside crown carving machines will be common. Patients will be able to get at least single unit restorations in one dental visit. In the dental laboratory, accurate 3D printed models will replace plaster. Orthodontists will be able to produce accurate, full-mouth representations automatically and demonstrate progress and end results over the treatment period. Dental anthropologists will be able to project lifetime changes in skulls and tooth structure individually or over global populations.
On a fundamental life and physical science scale, Dr. Edelsbrunner has worked extensively with biologists, biophysicists, and physicists to define the complexities of proteins, molecules, and atoms and he sees special potential for the pharmaceutical industry. As his research progresses, and with extensive multidimensional modeling capabilities, researchers will be able to create whole new classes of medications. In toxicology and infectious disease disciplines, for instance, it will be possible to isolate and model the shape and size of toxins, and then create safe, combative, and orally administered antitoxin antidotes to chase them through potassium channels. They will be so small, molecular in fact, that they will be absorbed across membranes, eliminating the need for dangerous and often ineffective injections.
Elsewhere in medicine, Dr. Edelsbrunner predicts that with multidimensional imaging capabilities, computers will be able to perform complex operations, genetic-engineer at the cellular level, make exact replicas of molecular DNA, offer advanced detailed images such as brain maps, and produce intricate joint replacements.
As for the future, Dr. Edelsbrunner is intent on maintaining his enthusiasm for both basic and applied research. "Of course the more answers you find, the more new questions appear," he says. Combining theory and practice with the idea of a more global understanding of science and engineering shall remain hallmarks of his work.
NOTE: The models on this page were generated using Dr. Edelsbrunner's equations.