Short Bio

My name is Markus Billeter, and I work with real-time rendering and high-performance parallel methods with (or without) GPUs. I graduated from Chalmers University of Technology some time ago, where I completed [my Ph.D.] in the topic of real-time computer graphics methods and algorithms. I’m currently a Lecturer / Assistant Professor at the University of Leeds, Visualization and Computer Graphics.

Contact me at <first name> ‘at’ newq.net.

About Me

As mentioned in the ‘Short Bio’ above, <strike>recently</strike> some time ago I completed my Ph.D. focusing on research in real-time rendering and parallel GPU algorithms. My work there included developing algorithms consider single- and multiple-scattering in real time, as well as developing the clustered shading method together with Ola Olsson. Prior to this, I studied Engineering Physics (“Teknisk Fysik”) and later picked the Complex Adaptive Systems major.

During my Ph.D., I interned in the Visual Computing team at the Bosch Research and Technology Center (Palo Alto, CA). There I first got to mess with mobile graphics, something that has remained a bit of an interest since - especially when combined with my work in many-light rendering. After returning from Palo Alto (and before resuming my Ph.D.), I spent a few months at Mindary, a tech-startup co-founded by my Ph.D. supervisor Ulf Assarsson. I joined the team looking at 3D-scanning for that time.

I spent some time as a postdoc at the VMML at the University of Zürich as part of the the DIVA (Data Intensive Visualization and Analysis) project. The project revolved around large scale data visualization. Before returning to Chalmers, I briefly visited Disney Research where I optimized the latency of the Makeup Lamps prototype. I briefly returning to Chalmers,with the department of Earth and Space sciences where my work revolved around high-performance computing on GPUs (and more recently, devices like the Intel KNL). After this, I visited the group of Elmar Eisemann, CGV at the Delft Unviversity of Technology (Netherlands) on a Advanced Postdoc.Mobility grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Now, I am a lecturer / assistant professor in Computer Graphics at the University of Lees. I teach computer graphics, and advanced rendering. Sometimes, I have a bit of time over to pursue my research, which still broadly falls into real-time rendering with a focus on efficient algorithms and data structures.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science and Engineering
  • Licentiate of Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering
  • Master of Science, Complex Adaptive Systems
  • “Civilingenjör” (a.k.a. Master of Science in Engineering), Engineering Physics

Employment

  • 2020-present: Lecturer/Assistant Professor at University of Leeds
  • 2018-2020: Visiting Postdoc (Advanced Postdoc.Mobility from SNSF) at CGV (Delft University of Technology)
  • 2016-2018: Researcher/“GPU Expert” at Chalmers University of Technology
  • 2014-2016: Postdoc VMML (University of Zürich)
  • 2008-2014: Ph.D. student at Chalmers University of Technology
  • 2012 and 2013: Intern in the Visual Computing Team at the Bosch Research and Technology Center in Palo Alto
  • 2013: Developer at Mindary

Previous engagements

  • Chalmers Capoeira Angola / Filhos de Angola Gothenburg (in various roles, ranging from member, to cashier, chair person and assisting trainer) [now defunct].
  • F-spexet (as a sound/light technician, which mainly involves carrying heavy equipment; and as responsible for the homepage for Beowulf).
  • SNF, Spidera & F6 (these are various committees at for at the physics student’s union at Chalmers – webpages from my years seem to have been lost since.)

About this page

Like my previous homepage, this page uses a bit of a weird mix of technologies - the choices are mostly based on curiosity (i.e., stuff that I’d like to mess with and learn more about).

The page uses Wt to do the heavy lifting. Run-time data is fetched from a Redis key-value store. Some of the content (like this page) is written in Markdown (not my first choice for a markup language, but it beats raw HTML, and has nicer-to-integrate parsers than LaTeX), and parsed with hoedown. I have a custom renderer for hoedown that extracts stuff like titles and some other meta-data.

Nginx runs in front of all this and also serves static resources. The nginx process executes in its own container (LXC), as does redis and the Wt-executable. The host is a VM-ware instance running at GleSys, a swedish hosting company.

Credits

Additionally, the page uses the following resources:

  • HighlightJS for code syntax highlighting.
  • Font: Alegreya, Alegreya Sans (SIL Open Font License v1.10)
  • Font: Source Code Pro (SIL Open Font License v1.10)
  • Font: Proxima Nova (licensed from FontSpring)

Disclaimer

In the words of Humus:

I shouldn’t need to say this, but wise from experience I’ll do it anyway: This website is my personal website and does not represent the views of my employer, former employers or anyone else other than myself. There you have it!

Presumably this might be a good thing to say – so the same applies here, too!