Brief Biography

Dr. Martin de Lasa is a Senior Software Developer at Autodesk and part of the Media and Entertainment Division's Animation Solutions Team. Prior to joining Autodesk, he completed doctoral studies in Computer Science at the University of Toronto (2010). He also holds a M.E.Sc in Electrical Engineering from McGill University (2000), a B.E.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) (1998), and a B.Sc. in Computer Science (1998) from UWO. Prior to his doctoral work he was Technical Lead, Architect, and Manager, at Boston Dynamics, where he played a leading role in human simulation and robotics projects, including: Digital Biomechanics, BigDog and LittleDog. His research interests span the areas of computer graphics and robotics, focusing on leveraging optimal control, optimization, and machine learning methods to build physically-based models of motion to ease animation/control of simulated characters and robotic systems. He is the recipient of the CAIAC doctoral dissertation award for the top Canadian dissertation in artifical intelligence in 2011.