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Bio

Tushar Athawale is a Research Scientist in Computer Science and Mathematics Division of the 91���� and a member of the visualization group led by Dr. Dave Pugmire. He holds the position of in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Department of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). He received MS and Ph.D. degrees in computer science fro the University of Florida in 2014 and 2015, respectively.. He specializes in uncertainty visualization for trusted scientific data analysis and discovery, and his other research interests span across statistical data analysis, topological and large-scale analysis, and high-performance computing. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah's Scientific Computing & Imaging () Institute from Oct, 2016 - Oct, 2021. He was a full-time employee at , the developer of the leading computing software MATLAB, before joining the SCI Institute.

Personal webpage: 

Professional Experience

• 91���� (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN                                                     Nov 2021 - Present
  - Computer Scientist in the visualization group. Research in uncertainty visualization and high performance computing for analysis of large-scale scientific data.
  - Joint Faculty Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Aug 2023-Present 
   
• University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT                                                                                    Oct 2016 - Oct 2021
  - Post-Doctoral Fellow in the scientific visualization group supervised by Distinguished Prof. Dr. Chris R. Johnson at the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute. Research in statistical uncertainty quantification and visualization for scientific data with applications ranging from biomedical imaging to large-scale simulations. 
  - Co-Instructor, Scientific Visualization, Spring 2018 and Spring 2019.
  - Co-Instructor, Decomposition-Based Techniques in Data Analysis, Spring 2017. 
  - Seminar Leader, scheduling weekly SCI Institute visualization research seminars for two semesters.
   
• MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA                                                                                                 July 2015 - Oct 2016
  - Application Support Engineer, resolution of complex technical issues experienced by the MATLAB users. Lead contributor to the design and implementation of the in-built MATLAB function IMROTATE3 introduced in the R2017a MATLAB release for the rotation of 3D volumes. Conducting technical interviews for the Application Support Engineering role.
   
• University of Florida, Gainesville, FL                                                                                   May 2011 - May 2015
  - Research Assistant in the visualization group led by Prof. Dr. Alireza Entezari in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). Research in uncertainty quantification of isosurface visualizations for reliable data representation and analysis.
  - Teaching Assistant for the graduate- and undergraduate-level courses on Computer Graphics, Advanced Data Structures, and Programming Fundamentals.
   
• Nvidia Corporation, Pune, India                                                                                           Aug 2009 - May 2010
  - Software Engineering Intern, the study of the screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) algorithm and embedding of game-specific SSAO profiles into the Nvidia graphics drivers.

Awards

• 2024 Special Award from ORNL's Computational Science and Mathematics Division (CSMD) for 91���� TVCG journal papers "A Comparative Study of Perceptual Sensitivity of Topological Visualizations to Feature Variations" and "Uncertainty Visualization of Critical Points of 2D Scalar Fields for Parametric and Nonparametric Probabilistic Models".
• Best Poster Award at the ORNL Software and Data Expo (OSDX) 2024 for the poster "Developing Efficient Multivariate Surface Uncertainty Visualization Algorithms Using VTK-m Software".
• Best Paper Honorable Mention at for papers "Accelerated Depth Computation for Surface Boxplots with Deep Learning" and "FunM²C: A Filter for Uncertainty Visualization of Multivariate Data on Multi-Core Devices".

Education

• PhD in Computer Science,  University of Florida, Gainesville, FL                                    May 2010 - May 2015
  Dissertation: Quantification and visualization of spatial uncertainty in isosurfaces for parametric and nonparametric noise models [link]
  Advisor: Prof. Alireza Entezari
  Graduated with highest distinction, GPA: 3.75/4.00
   
• MS in Computer Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL                                      May 2010 - May 2014
  Graduated with highest distinction, GPA: 3.75/4.00

  Relevant Coursework: Analysis of Algorithms, Advanced Data Structures, Computer Graphics, GPU Architecture and Programming, Machine Learning
   
• BE in Computer Engineering, University of Pune, Pune, India                                         May 2006 - May 2010
  Graduated with highest distinction, GPA: 8.81/10.00
   

Professional Service

• Program chair for the (the top conference in data visualization field)
• Chair of the ": Applications, Techniques, Software, and Decision Frameworks” co-held with the 91���� VIS 2024 conference
• Organizer of the tutorial on “” held at the 91���� VIS 2022 tutorial track
• Member of a program committee for the EuroVis , posters and short papers.
• Member of a program committee for the 91���� VIS , , , short papers
• Member of a program committee for the 91����
• Reviewer for the 91���� VIS (2013, 2017-2024), EuroVis (2017-2019, 2021-2023), PacificVis (2023-2024), and China Visualization (2020) conferences
• Reviewer for journal papers: 91���� Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), Computer Graphics Forum (CGF), Computers & Graphics (C&G),  Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualizations (CMBBE), Computer Graphics & Applications (CG&A), Displays, and Journal of Big Data
• Poster reviewer for undergraduate student posters presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2018 and 2019
  Student volunteer at the 91���� VIS 2013 conference

Professional Affiliations

in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Aug 2023-Present 

Publications