Dr. Ahmed Sameh

Dr. Ahmed Sameh Curriculum Vitae
Deformable Modeling of the Spine”. During my sabbatical year, I had several meetings with my US-Egypt Joint
project ($50,000) co-investigator in Iowa City. One graduate student had joined me in one of these visits. As a
collaborative effort between us, a novel software system has been developed with the following distinct
capabilities:
Ability to reconstruct 3D anatomic geometry from CT scans. Various anomalies were demonstrated on the
model.
Ability to represent the model in a virtual reality environment where the spine model can be manipulated,
disassembled, and made transparent in real time.
Ability to closely examine the spine model using a virtual glove (also called the pinch glove), which allows
surgeons to interact with the model and to identify anomalies and various degenerative conditions that would
otherwise be unnoticeable (or less noticeable) using only CT cross-sections.
Capability for obtaining real-time dynamic response as a virtual tool comes in contact with the model. This is
based on a physics modeling approach for implementing the dynamic equations in the loop.
At the Center for Computer Aided Design of the University of Iowa, a virtual reality laboratory was developed
and built. The spine model floats in front of the user whereby the user interacts with the model in real-time,
examining it closely, and identifying any anomalies. The group has secured a new $5 Million DRAPA funding
for a “Digital Human” project. At AUC, three students have finished their M.Sc theses that are related to this
project. We have a complete Spine model at AUC. And a number of research papers have been published out of
this effort.
Along with the Iowa group, we have given a number of invited lecture presentations at various forums
(University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics, University of Missouri, and Hon Industries). I have extended
the funding for this project for another calendar year.
-The Florida Atlantic University Group: I came to know this research group during our participation in the IEEE
CSIDC 2002, IEEE Computer Society International Design Competition 2002. We have received three free
Bluetooth kits to be used in implementing our project. Two graduation projects made use of the kits. The IEEE
Computer Society International Design Competition- CSIDC 2002 was held in Washington DC. During my
sabbatical I visited the Florida Atlantic laboratory. We are currently collaborating in resolving several 3G
wireless multimedia challenges including: (1) adaptive and scalable coding that will optimize digital media for
mobile devices with limited processing power, (2) error resilience when delivering rich digital media over
wireless networks at low and varying transmission speeds, (3) network access including rate control, and (4)
multimedia and video security. The synergy between the 3G wireless Internet and multimedia promises to bring a
tremendous explosion in application possibilities. At AUC, I had one graduate student finished his thesis work on
wireless Ad-Hoc network related subject. Also a number of publications have been produced out of this
collaboration.
-The University of Connecticut Group: I have been working with this research group since 1998. We teamed
together to build several clusters at AUC and UCONN. At AUC, we built a recycling cluster- an 8-nodes old
486‟s, followed by a more advanced P4 8-nodes cluster, then an 8 SUN workstations Cluster. We also have built
a Grid enabled Cluster and participated in the Grid Super Computing 2002 demonstration. Our Grid enabled
Cluster was able to collaborate with the UCONN Cluster and share resources with it. Then in the Global Grid
Forum testbed experiment, our Grid enable Cluster was the only one representing the Middle East and Africa.
We are currently developing a very promising research direction that merges components, Grid, and Web
Services. Two groups of AUC students have attended Cluster conferences and presented research results. I have
been working very closely with the UCONN team to develop new programming model for Grid Services. During
my sabbatical I have attended the Super Computing 2002 Grid experiment, and have visited UCONN at Storrs
several times.
-Got conference grants for a number of my students to attend and present papers at international
workshops/conferences. Got an undergraduate student a grant to attend the Grid GGF5 and the HPDC11- July
22-27, 2002 in Edinburgh. A Grid research group has been working with a similar group at The University of
Connecticut for the fourth year now. A recent publication was a result of this collaborative effort. Also supported
another graduate student to attend the MANET/NIST workshop about AODV workshop- June 8, 2002 in
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