:: Grid Institute Founding Director : Founding Director and lead architect of the Media Grid : Co-founder of Mantis Development Corporation : International best-selling technology author : Award-winning presenter and industry speaker : Named to Computerworld's list of "40 Innovative IT People to Watch" : Founding Chair of the Web3D Consortium Universal Media Working Group : Founding Chair of the Web3D Consortium Web3D and Moving Picture Experts Group (Web3D-MPEG) Working Group : Co-Chair of the Web3D Consortium Intellectual Property Rights Task Group : Web3D Consortium Liaison to Moving Picture Experts Group : Web3D Consortium Liaison to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) : Award-winning Boston College faculty, College of Advancing Studies : Inventor of patented and patent-pending Internet and World Wide Web technology ::
DETAIL
Aaron E. Walsh is Director of the Grid Institute, a Boston-based research and development company founded in 2005 specifically to standardize, build and maintain the Media Grid. In 2006 Walsh received the Teaching with New Media (TWIN) award for his work on the Media Grid and Immersive Education, and in 2007 he was named one of the forty most innovative people in the Information Technology (IT) industry by Computerworld, the premier source of news and analysis for the IT industry. Walsh received the prestigious national award in recognition for his pioneering work on the Media Grid and Immersive Education, which are recognized as "...innovative, promising technologies which hold the potential to significantly affect society in the near future." Walsh has been featured in a number of leading technology and mainstream publications, including Newsweek International, for his work in international technology standards, the Media Grid and Immersive Education.
An international best-selling technology author, Aaron is active in the International Standards community as founding Chair of the Web3D Consortium (Web3DC) Universal Media Working Group, founding Chair of the Web3D-MPEG Working Group responsible for the convergence of Web3D and Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology, Co-Chair of the Web3D Consortium's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Task Group, and Web3D Liaison to MPEG and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). He teaches at Boston College, conducts related workshops and lectures at industry conferences, holds United States patents for modern graphical user interfaces for local and Internet information reference and retrieval, and has patents pending for network caching techniques and related distributed computing processes.
Aaron teaches Computer Graphics and Internet and Web application development at Boston College, where he was manager of the Advanced Technology Group (ATG) before departing to found Mantis Development Corporation in 1992. As manager of ATG, Aaron was lead software architect and senior software engineer for a number of advanced technology projects developed at Boston College, including robust client/server information systems that pre-date the World Wide Web. During that time Aaron also wrote core software for the award-winning Eagle Eyes, a Boston College research project. Eagle Eyes was selected as a finalist in Discover Magazine's 1994 Awards for Technical Innovation. In 2006 Eagle Eyes received the Technology Award Laureate by the Tech Museum of San Jose, and in 2007 Eagle Eyes received the da Vinci Award for "exceptional design and engineering achievements in accessibility and universal design, that empowers people of all abilities."
Aaron's work on Eagle Eyes was the outgrowth of Virtual Reality (VR) research that he conducted in the early 1990s. In 1997 he donated portions of his VR research to the open standards community by founding the Universal Media group through which he contributed his media cache concepts and technology to the Web3D Consortium and the international 3D community at large.
A frequent advisor to high technology companies, Aaron has designed standalone and networked hardware and software products using a combination of technologies including C/C++, Java, J2EE, XML, HTML, JavaScript, style sheets, streaming media, Web3D, and relational/object databases. He routinely participates in the development of business, marketing and technology plans for his clients and has conducted related workshops and lectures at industry conferences and expositions such as the Internet Commerce Expo (ICE), ACM/SIGGRAPH, and the Web3D/Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) Symposia. His award-winning Web3D Roundup performance astounded Web3D Symposia 2000 as detailed by SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics and About's 3D Graphics/Virtual Reality reporter.
An international best-selling technology author, Aaron has written numerous articles for journals and magazines such as Dr. Dobb's Programming Journal, ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, New Architect (formerly Web Techniques), Mobilized Software, and MacTech Magazine (formerly MacTutor). He has written a number of books for Wiley (formerly IDG Books Worldwide and Hungry Minds) including Destination Multimedia, Java For Dummies, Foundations of Java Programming for the World Wide Web, Java Bible, Java 2 Bible, Visual InterDev for Dummies and J2EE 1.4 Essentials. In addition, Aaron was the first Java columnist for IDG Books Online and was the founding author and series editor for Prentice Hall's series of Web3D books that includes Core Web3D, Java 3D API Jump-Start, MPEG-4 Jump-Start. He was also lead author and editor for a series of Internet and Web standards books published by Prentice Hall, including XHTML Example by Example, ebXML: The Technical Specifications, ebXML: The Technical Reports, UDDI, SOAP, and WSDL: The Web Services Specification Reference Book, and related titles. <<jump to listing of books, articles, papers, specifications and standards>>
AWARDS
2007: The editors of Computerworld name Walsh to "40 Innovative IT People to Watch" for developing "innovative, promising technologies which hold the potential to significantly affect society in the near future." Walsh received the award for his pioneering work on the Media Grid and Immersive Education. News release, article, and profile are online at:
http://mediagrid.org/news/2007-07_Walsh_40_Under_40.html
2006: Walsh receives Teaching with New Media (TWIN) award, receiving highest honors in the competition for pioneering the use of Immersive Education at Boston College (the competition consisted of nearly 300 other nominees). The award was presented to Walsh at a ceremony to honor exemplary uses of technology in teaching. Links to the news release and award ceremony video follow. The video provides a brief and very limited visual overview of the now obsolete second generation Immersive Education platform and is only a small excerpt of the video shown at the award ceremony:
http://mediagrid.org/news/2006-09_twin.pdf and http://mediagrid.org/ImmersiveEducation/TWIN_Award_Video.wmv
2000: Walsh receives the Web3D RoundUp “Golden Lasso Award” for his Universal Media presentation. The award was presented to Walsh during the Web3D Consortium (ISO/IEC standards organization) conference in Monterey, CA
1996: The United States Marine Corps Reserve presents Walsh with an award for outstanding support of the Toys for Tots Foundation. Walsh designed and developed the original Toys for Tots Web site (http://ToysForTots.org) and continues to support the children’s charity by donating Web development services to the Foundation.
COURSES (Boston College)
MT350 Principles of Programming
MC101 Computer Science I
MT36501 Java and Object Oriented Programming
MT36801 Advanced Java Programming
MT36901 Web Application Development
MT35101 Discovering Computer Graphics
MT358 Discovering 3D and Virtual Reality
MT35801 Discovering Video Games and Virtual Reality
MT38101 Advanced 3D and Virtual Reality
POSTS AND APPOINTMENTS
Director, Grid Institute, 2005-present
Director, Media Grid international standards organization, 2003-present
Lecturer, Boston College, 1999-present
Liaison to Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) for Web3D Consortium, 2001-2004
Chair, Web3D-MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) Working Group, 2000-2005
Editor and lead author, Prentice Hall Web3D book series, 1999-2002
Liaison to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for Web3D Consortium, 1999-2002
Co-Chair, Web3D Consortium's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Group, 1998-2000
Chair, Web3D Consortium Universal Media Working Group, 1997-2004
Manager, Advanced Technology Center (ATC), Boston College, 1990-1992
Faculty Liaison, IT Department, Boston College, 1988-1990
Books (selected works)
Walsh, A. E., J2EE 1.4 Essentials. John Wiley & Sons, February, 2003. 480 p.
Walsh, A. E., ed., UDDI, SOAP, and WSDL: Web Services Specification Reference Book. Prentice Hall, April 2002. 336 p.
Walsh, A. E., ed., ebXML: The Technical Reports. Prentice Hall, February, 2002. 576 p.
Walsh, A. E., ed., ebXML: The Technical Specifications. Prentice Hall, January, 2002. 640 p.
Walsh, A. E. and Bourges-Sevenier, M., MPEG-4 Jump-Start. Prentice Hall, December, 2001. 460 p.
Walsh, A. E. and Gehringer, D., Java 3D API Jump-Start. Prentice Hall, August, 2001. 245 p.
Walsh, A. E. and Raggett, D., XHTML Example By Example. Prentice Hall, July, 2001. 745 p.
Walsh, A. E. and Bourges-Sevenier, M., Core Web 3D. Prentice Hall, September, 2000. 1088 p.
Walsh, A. E., Couch, J, and Steinberg, D., Java 2 Bible. IDG Books Worldwide, December, 1999. 905 p.
Walsh, A. E., Java for Dummies (3rd edition). IDG Books Worldwide, October 1998. 381 p.
Walsh, A. E. and Fronckowiak, J., Java Bible. IDG Books Worldwide, March 1998. 1093 p.
Walsh, A. E., Java for Dummies (2nd edition). IDG Books Worldwide, May 1997. 371 p.
Walsh, A. E., Foundations of Java Programming for the World Wide Web. IDG Books Worldwide, June 1996. 906 p.
Walsh, A. E., Java for Dummies (1st edition). IDG Books Worldwide, April 1996. 365 p.
Walsh, A. E., Destination Multimedia. IDG Books Worldwide, November 1995. 251 p.
Articles, papers, specifications and standards (selected works)
Walsh, A. E., (2007, October). The Media Grid: A Public Utility for Digital Media. Keynote Paper and Address: 8th International Symposium on Spatial Media (ISSM) jointly held with IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (IEEE CIT). University of Aizu, Fukushima Japan, October 16-19, 2007. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://mediagrid.org/publications/papers/The_Media_Grid-A_Public_Utility_for_Digital_Media.pdf
Walsh, A. E., (2007, June). The Immersive Education Faculty-Student Ecosystem. Published online through the Immersive Education Initiative (ImmersiveEducation.org). Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://mediagrid.org/groups/technology/grid.ied/Immersive%20Education%20Ecosystem.pdf
Walsh, A. E., (2005, November). The Media Grid: A public utility for digital media. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/184406310
Walsh, A. E. and Nagel, H.N. (2005, May). Transforming Technologies for Mobile 3D Computing. MobilizedSoftware.com. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/163105163
Walsh, A. E. and Nagel, H.N. (2004, November). Mobile Three-Dimensional Computing. MobilizedSoftware.com. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/52600411
Walsh, A.E., et al. (2004, August). Extensible 3D (X3D) International Standard ISO/IEC 19775:2004. Part 1: Architecture and base components, Annex D: MPEG-4 interactive profile. International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.web3d.org/x3d/specifications/ISO-IEC-19775-X3DAbstractSpecification/
Walsh, A. E. (2003, September). Creating Java Grid Services: Building computational grids using the Globus Toolkit. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Vol.28 Issue.9 pp. 18-23. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/dept/java/184405426
Walsh, A. E., (2003, August). Emerging Web3D Web Standards and Technologies. Keynote Paper and Address: 6th International Conference on Humans and Computers. University of Aizu, Fukushima Japan, August 28-30, 2003. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://mediagrid.org/publications/papers/Emerging_Web3D_Web_Standards_and_Technologies.pdf
Walsh, A. E. (2003, July). JavaServer Pages 2.0: JSP technology takes a big step forward in 2.0. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Vol.28 Issue.7 pp. 48-57. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/java/184405384
Walsh, A. E. (2003, May). IETF RFC 3541, A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for the Web3D Consortium (Web3D). Published in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC repository and normatively referenced by the Extensible 3D (X3D) International Standard ISO/IEC 19775:2004. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3541.txt?number=3541
Walsh, A. E. (2003, April). Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 Web Services. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Vol.28 Issue.4 pp. 34-39. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/java/184405314
Walsh, A. E. (2002, September). Standard Practice: Weighing the Risks and Rewards of Standards. New Architect Magazine. Vol.7 Issue.9 pp. 26-30. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/architect/184411687
Walsh, A. E. (2002, July). Understanding Scene Graphs: Using graph-based data structures to organize and manage scene contents. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Vol.27 Issue.7 pp. 17-26. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/184405094
Walsh, A. E. (2002, April). The MPEG-4 Java API & MPEGlets: Creating interactive MPEG-4 content with MPEG-J. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Vol.27 Issue.4 pp. 40-45. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/java/184405021
Walsh, A. E. (2000, May). Universal Media: Media-Rich Content for Bandwidth-starved Devices. ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics. Vol.34 No.2 May 2000. pp. 37-40. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=351440.351450
Walsh, A. E. (1992, December). Sound As a Data Type. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/architect/184408892
Walsh, A. E. (1992, July). Programming Quicktime: Multimedia to the Macs. Dr. Dobb's Journal. Vol.17 Issue.7 pp. 76-80. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.ddj.com/architect/184408803
Walsh, A. E. (1991, March). Asynchronous Sounds. MacTutor: The Macintosh Programming Journal. Vol.17 Issue.7 pp. 56-60. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.07/07.03/AsyncSounds/
Clients have included Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Boston College, Computer.com (acquired by Computers4Sure, an Office Depot Company), Fidelity Investments, Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Boston's historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child at Harvard University, University of Aizu (Japan), and Boston College's Agora project. Agora allows students to connect at ultra-high speeds to the Internet and Web directly from their dorm rooms using the same cable that delivers television signals, and was featured in the Wall Street Journal as a system heralding the convergence of cable and Internet access. Clients of a recent startup venture have included ABC/Disney, Boston Herald, Cartoon Network, CNN International, Level 3 Communications, and Turner Broadcasting.
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