Dinesh Manocha

Dinesh Manocha is a Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, with joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). He is also affiliated with the Maryland Robotics Center and the Institute for Systems Research.

His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley (1992) and a B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India (1987).

Professor Manocha's research spans multiple domains with significant emphasis on:

• Computer Graphics and Visualization
• Robotics and Motion Planning
• Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems
• Geometric Computing Algorithms
• AI Applications for Autonomous Systems
• High Performance Computing

His extensive publication record shows consistent innovation in multi-agent navigation, collision avoidance algorithms, and applications in virtual environments. Recent work focuses on trajectory prediction for autonomous vehicles and physics-based simulation for immersive experiences, with algorithms integrated into industry-standard systems like ROS (Robot Operating System).

Among his numerous honors, Professor Manocha is recognized as:

• ACM, IEEE, AAAS, and AAAI Fellow
• Member of the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Academy
• Recipient of the Pierre Bézier Award from the Solid Modeling Association
• University of Maryland Distinguished University Professor
• Multiple best paper awards across premier conferences

He has supervised 54 PhD students throughout his career and currently advises numerous graduate researchers. His research has attracted significant funding from NSF, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and industry partners. Notably, he co-founded Impulsonic, a company developing physics-based audio simulation technologies acquired by Valve Corporation in 2016. Professor Manocha leads the GAMMA research group, which continues to advance geometric algorithms with applications across multiple disciplines.