Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On Tuesday, 9 September, the SIGGRAPH Pioneers presented another in our series of online panels, called a “Pioneer’s Perspective on Computer Graphics in Aerospace - The Sequel.”
The first panel took place on 12 February, 2025, and tonight the same panelists returned for this Sequel event, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM / SIGGRAPH. The panel was moderated by Dave Kasik, Senior Boeing Technical Fellow Emeritus, and former President of the Pioneers group. Panelists were:
•Pete Doenges (Evans and Sutherland) who discussed the key pioneers and basic technology used in multiple generations of real-time flight simulation visuals.
•Roger Malina (University of Texas-Dallas) who discussed how graphics has assisted and continues to assist astronomers with real-time analysis of enormous amounts of data
•Julian Gomez (JPL and NASA Ames) who provided examples of early scientific and visualization software capabilities for NASA scientists. •Vladimir Karakusevic (Boeing) who examined some of the improvements and evolution of graphics for CAD/CAM/CAE in a large aerospace company.
This is another in our series of panels to be found on YouTube highlighting both the history of computer graphics and current issues in the field.
Our next panel will be on 7 January, 2026, called "The Pioneers of Computer Graphics for Medical Applications."
Bios:
Dave Kasik retired as Boeing's Senior Technical Fellow in visualization and interactive techniques. His work with CAD and geometry visualization have been part of Boeing’s production systems since the mid-1980’s. He pioneered the use of visual analytics to help extract more information from complex non-geometric data. Dave earned an MS in Computer Science from University of Colorado in 1972 and a Bachelor’s in Quantitative Studies from Johns Hopkins in 1970. He’s an ACM Fellow. ACM SIGGRAPH involvement includes papers, panels, courses, the Pioneers, exhibits, and history. Dave has attended all North American SIGGRAPH conferences since 1974.
During 1969-2002, Pete Doenges (BS, MS EE) joined 3D computer graphics pioneers at GE and Evans and Sutherland to develop technologies and products for real-time scene generation and display in aerospace applications. The goal was suspension of disbelief good enough for operator trainees to gain logbook time in simulators of real vehicles under normal and stressful situations. Objectives included transfer of training for vehicle operators and engineering test of vehicle models. Imperatives included low display lag, fixed frame rates, high image quality, and real-world geo-specific scenery. This preceded break-out in mid-1990s of gaming graphics with 3D accelerators and content APIs for PCs.
Dr. Julian E. Gomez received his doctorate from The Ohio State University and authored a publicly available computer animation system, twixt. twixt was used for a number of animations shown at SIGGRAPH and was the primary computer animation tool used by the OSU Computer Graphics Research Group, Cranston/Csuri Productions, and other studios worldwide. He founded MacroMind Three-D, was Principal Engineer for Apple Computer QuickDraw 3-D, Chief Scientist at LEGO, a Senior Scientist at NASA, and helped with many startups. Julian recently co-founded Nuon Play to develop XR play technology based on cognitive science, and the Center for Computer Graphics History, a comprehensive knowledgebase of CG history managed and accessed with XR.
Vladimir Karakusevic is a Boeing Technical Fellow for Visualization and Visual Analytics in Engineering. He leads and implements new visualization approaches that help in Boeing’s Digital Transformation. He also leads efforts related to new aerospace engineering data standards across aerospace and defense to enhance interoperability. Vladimir is responsible for multiple international technical efforts in multiple countries. He holds an MS in Aerospace Engineering from University of Belgrade (Serbia), an MS in Mechanical Engineering emphasizing robotics from McGill University (Montreal).
Roger Frank Malina is a hybrid researcher, educator, former editor, former astrophysicist. Co-founded the ArtSciLab. And Co-Director of the Off Center Center for Emergence Studies at UTDallas. We develop data performance, transdisciplinary, transcultural and transgenerational convergence research. ASL also carries out research in experimental publishing and curating in collaboration with MIT Press and OLATS in France; our current publishing platform is called Creative Disturbance. Former President of the Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences. Former NASA PI University of California Berkeley Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite. Former CNRS Director Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence, Marseille. Former Executive Editor Leonardo Journal and Book Series, MIT Press. BS Physics MIT 1972, PhD Astronomy UC, Berkeley.1979. Honorary Doctorate from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
On Tuesday, 9 September, the SIGGRAPH Pioneers presented another in our series of online panels, called a “Pioneer’s Perspective on Computer Graphics in Aerospace - The Sequel.”
The first panel took place on 12 February, 2025, and tonight the same panelists returned for this Sequel event, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM / SIGGRAPH. The panel was moderated by Dave Kasik, Senior Boeing Technical Fellow Emeritus, and former President of the Pioneers group. Panelists were:
•Pete Doenges (Evans and Sutherland) who discussed the key pioneers and basic technology used in multiple generations of real-time flight simulation visuals.
•Roger Malina (University of Texas-Dallas) who discussed how graphics has assisted and continues to assist astronomers with real-time analysis of enormous amounts of data
•Julian Gomez (JPL and NASA Ames) who provided examples of early scientific and visualization software capabilities for NASA scientists. •Vladimir Karakusevic (Boeing) who examined some of the improvements and evolution of graphics for CAD/CAM/CAE in a large aerospace company.
This is another in our series of panels to be found on YouTube highlighting both the history of computer graphics and current issues in the field.
Our next panel will be on 7 January, 2026, called "The Pioneers of Computer Graphics for Medical Applications."
Bios:
Dave Kasik retired as Boeing's Senior Technical Fellow in visualization and interactive techniques. His work with CAD and geometry visualization have been part of Boeing’s production systems since the mid-1980’s. He pioneered the use of visual analytics to help extract more information from complex non-geometric data. Dave earned an MS in Computer Science from University of Colorado in 1972 and a Bachelor’s in Quantitative Studies from Johns Hopkins in 1970. He’s an ACM Fellow. ACM SIGGRAPH involvement includes papers, panels, courses, the Pioneers, exhibits, and history. Dave has attended all North American SIGGRAPH conferences since 1974.
During 1969-2002, Pete Doenges (BS, MS EE) joined 3D computer graphics pioneers at GE and Evans and Sutherland to develop technologies and products for real-time scene generation and display in aerospace applications. The goal was suspension of disbelief good enough for operator trainees to gain logbook time in simulators of real vehicles under normal and stressful situations. Objectives included transfer of training for vehicle operators and engineering test of vehicle models. Imperatives included low display lag, fixed frame rates, high image quality, and real-world geo-specific scenery. This preceded break-out in mid-1990s of gaming graphics with 3D accelerators and content APIs for PCs.
Dr. Julian E. Gomez received his doctorate from The Ohio State University and authored a publicly available computer animation system, twixt. twixt was used for a number of animations shown at SIGGRAPH and was the primary computer animation tool used by the OSU Computer Graphics Research Group, Cranston/Csuri Productions, and other studios worldwide. He founded MacroMind Three-D, was Principal Engineer for Apple Computer QuickDraw 3-D, Chief Scientist at LEGO, a Senior Scientist at NASA, and helped with many startups. Julian recently co-founded Nuon Play to develop XR play technology based on cognitive science, and the Center for Computer Graphics History, a comprehensive knowledgebase of CG history managed and accessed with XR.
Vladimir Karakusevic is a Boeing Technical Fellow for Visualization and Visual Analytics in Engineering. He leads and implements new visualization approaches that help in Boeing’s Digital Transformation. He also leads efforts related to new aerospace engineering data standards across aerospace and defense to enhance interoperability. Vladimir is responsible for multiple international technical efforts in multiple countries. He holds an MS in Aerospace Engineering from University of Belgrade (Serbia), an MS in Mechanical Engineering emphasizing robotics from McGill University (Montreal).
Roger Frank Malina is a hybrid researcher, educator, former editor, former astrophysicist. Co-founded the ArtSciLab. And Co-Director of the Off Center Center for Emergence Studies at UTDallas. We develop data performance, transdisciplinary, transcultural and transgenerational convergence research. ASL also carries out research in experimental publishing and curating in collaboration with MIT Press and OLATS in France; our current publishing platform is called Creative Disturbance. Former President of the Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences. Former NASA PI University of California Berkeley Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite. Former CNRS Director Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence, Marseille. Former Executive Editor Leonardo Journal and Book Series, MIT Press. BS Physics MIT 1972, PhD Astronomy UC, Berkeley.1979. Honorary Doctorate from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
