CURRICULUM VITAE

12/01-12/03   Senior R&D Engineer
              BBC Research and Development, Surrey, U.K.

Senior Research and Development Engineer at the Studio group of BBC R&D. My responsibilities involve developing and managing projects that use Mixed Reality Technologies to enhanced BBC Studio and interactive TV Production. The developed projects span through several BBC divisions and include the Mixed Reality Studio and Authoring of Interactive Content for enhanced TV. The Mixed Reality Studio project, uses Augmented and Virtual Reality for a variety of TV production scenarios and genres, such as educational, drama, science, and gaming shows. While most of this work is confidential a BBC White Paper on the Authoring of Interactive Content is publicly available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp026.html .

In the context of this work I have enhanced previous links to international and other research organisations, established collaborative work with groups such as the ARToolkit group at HITLab, University of Washington, the Fraunhofer Virtual Environments Group in Germany and the Mixed Realities group at IBM, Yorktown Heights and became candidate for the EUROGRAPHICS committee for this year.  Member of ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE Computer Society, EUROGRAPHICS and founding member of AFRIGRAPH.

Other activities include supervision of PhD research and technical consultancy and participation in the Origami 5th Framework European Project. Part of this project is to provide actor feedback during virtual studio productions, and uses projection-based technology similar to CAVEs.

Invited Scientific Expert and Evaluator of  IST Call 7 Proposals. The Programme is under the Essential Information Society Technologies and Infrastructures: Simulation and visualisation technologies. I was, in both occasions, Expert evaluator for Action Line 4.2 Mixed realities and new imaging frontiers. Its objectives are to develop imaging technologies that enable powerful synergies between people and information appliances in person to person communication, work, education and entertainment.

Appointed Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department as a permanent staff member. Research work focusing on Collaborative Virtual Environments, Computer Graphics, and Multimedia. Ensuring funds and establishing a Research Group and Laboratory in Projection-based Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics with unique in Africa infrastructure.
Developing and Managing funding proposals for research:
• Collaborative Virtual Environment System (CAVES) research project, funded by the Department of Arts, Culture, Technology and Science of South Africa (DACTS) under the highly competitive Innovation Fund programme.
• International research collaboration, in the form of a bilateral project between the German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD) and the Reality group, funded by the German International Bureau and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF).
• Virtual Environments in Education, also funded by the NRF.

Supervision of 5 MSc students and 1 PhD student (near to completion) with research results published in national and international journals and conferences. Developing a longer term research strategy for the department. Teaching focuses on 3rd year undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Computer Graphics and Virtual Environments, including developing curricula and teaching materials.

Linking to international groups and organizations such as ACM SIGGRAPH and EUROGRAPHICS. Organizing the AFRIGRAPH (African Graphics Association) and co-Chair of the 1st international conference in Computer Graphics in Africa. Other activities, include co-ordinator of the MSc/PhD programs of the Department and representing the Department in the SIT (School for Information Technology) Research Committee. Also member of the Marie Curie Fellowship Association and the British Diplomatic Spouse Association.

Research Scientist in the Visualisation and Media Systems Group (VMSD) of GMD. Research work in the area of Immersive Telepresence. Immersive Telepresence focuses in providing an immersive virtual reality environment where geographically dispersed groups can meet as if face-to-face and share the same virtual space and tasks. My research approach brings together technology of virtual studios, teleconferencing and immersive virtual reality systems. Real time stereo video and virtual environments are merged together, by chroma-keying or image-segmentation techniques, and are projected on immersive virtual reality systems, such as the CAVE and the Cyberstage. Viewer tracking and interaction using devices, such as the stylus or the data-glove, allow remote participants to collaborate and communicate in a distributed virtual environment.

During 96 and 97 research in teleteaching, involving the setup and expansion of weekly teleteaching sessions carried out between GMD and the University of Geneva, via an ATM high speed network connection. The teleteaching approach was making use of virtual studio techniques, rear-projection wall displays and specially designed tools on the Internet for combining real-time video and teaching material. Other activities include participation in the Teleport and Virtual Studio research projects and the Distributed Video Production (DVP) ACTS project. Appointed member of the Institute's Advisory Committee and member of the SIMOS steering committee and of the Marie Curie Fellowship Association.

CineVali: Cinematographic Validation of Software Specifications. Application for funding, research and management of an individual european project, in the area of Software Engineering. The project was fully funded by the european Marie Curie Fellowship Association. It investigates the application of Cinematographic techniques (graphics and animation) in the validation phase of Software Engineering. The aim of the project is to assist the analyst in validating the software system specifications against the customer's needs and statements about the application domain. The CineVali system provides an indication of the dynamic behavior of the information system under development, by the use of animation and visualisation techniques. In particular, three graphical views are used to animate a set of validation scenarios, which explore the interrelationships of the conceptual modelling formalisms used for the task of Requirements Specification.

Research Associate in the Computation Department of UMIST. Responsible for the TEMPORA ESPRIT project, aiming at defining a methodology and the tools for the development of business information systems. My responsibilities included project management during the last year, supervision of a group of 2 research assistants and collaboration with the other european partners of the TEMPORA consortium. My research work included: a tool for validating systems specifications by the use of visualisation and animation techniques.

Employed by the Computer Team s.a. (IBM authorised remarketer) as manager of the research and development department. My activities included: project management, analysis using formal methods such as SSADM, design and supervision of the implementation of software products based on AIX and INGRES DBMS, DOS and PROGRESS DBMS, supervision of two students of the Technical University of Thessaloniki (TEI) doing their dissertations. One of the software products was an Information system for hospitals, currently running in Agios Loukas Hospital in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Participation in the ITHACA and MULTOS projects, funded by the european ESPRIT program. The basic goal of FORTH's contribution to the ITHACA project was to provide a set of tools for assisting an application developed in constructing new applications by reusing existing software components. My task was the graphical visualisation and animation of the software components, which are stored in a Software Information Base. This was accomplished by the use of the tools developed for my M.Sc. thesis.

Worked under the supervision of Dr. M. H. Brown on algorithm visualisation. My project was the design and implementation of GVBT and Jasmine which are tools to facilitate algorithm animation, and was implemented on a Firefly running ULTRIX using Modula 2+ programming language. GVBT is a graphics window that can be used to draw lines, circles, rectangles and other graphical objects using world co-ordinates. Jasmine is a set of functions to define and manipulate graphical objects. As a consequence, Jasmine provides an environment that it is easy to use to create pictures, in particular those typical to an algorithm animation. These tools were used to visualise two scheduling algorithms for a multiprocessor system.

Teaching courses such as programming languages, computer graphics, data bases as an assistant for the computer science department and programming languages for the mathematics department as the main lecturer.

1. Fraunhofer Postdoctoral position
In 1996 I was offered a postdoctoral position at the Frauhofer Research Institute, former German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD). After the successful postdoctoral research carried out during that year, I was offered a Research Scientist position and worked at GMD for the two subsequent years, before joining University of Pretoria.

2. Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (http://www.cordis.lu/mariecurie/home.html)
A prestigious European Fellowship awarded to a small number of European Researchers by the Marie Curie Fellowship Association. There are two levels, one for supporting postdoctoral Researchers (Individual Fellowships) and one for supporting the completion of a PhD degree. My proposal was the first of all in that year and I was awarded with the first type of Fellowship (Fellowship number ERBCHBICT941286), normally given for postdoctoral research, for 1994 and 1995 to complete my PhD.

3. Systems Research Center, Digital Equipment Corporation, Internship
In 1988, while still completing my MSc. degree I was accepted as an Intern, the only from outside the USA for that year, to the above Research Center in the United States.

4. Appointed member of the IMK Advisory Committee
Appointed by the Director of the Institute of Media Communication of GMD, as member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute for 1998. The main purpose of the committee is to advise the Director on research and management issues.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE MEMBER

1. Meet.Me@CyberStage, V. Lalioti, C. Garcia, F. Hasenbrink, Virtual Environments 98, M. Goebel et al. (eds), Springer-Verlag Series, Vienna, Autumn 1998.
2. Visualization of Conceptual Specifications: A Cinematographic View, V. Lalioti, The Encyclopedia of Microcomputers, Volume 20: Visual Fidelity: Designing Multimedia Interfaces for Active Learning to Xerox Corporation, A. Kent, J.G. Williams (Editors), Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, USA.

1. Ndebele Painting in VR, V. Lalioti, A. Malan, J. Pun and J. Wind,  IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications Journal, Projects in VR, March/April 2001.
2. On Collaboration  in Distributed Virtual Environments, G. Goebbels, V. Lalioti, M. Goebbel, in special issue of the Journal of 3D Images, Japan, 2000.
3. Software Chroma-keying in Immersive Virtual Environments, F.vd Bergh and V. Lalioti, Computer Science and Information Systems, South African Computer Journal, No. 24, November 1999.
4. Virtual Studios: State of the Art, S. Gibbs, C. Arapis, C. Breiteneder, V. Lalioti, S. Mostafawy, J. Speier, IEEE MultiMedia magazine, January-March, 1998.
5. Visualisation of Conceptual Specifications, V. Lalioti and P. Loucopoulos, Information Systems Journal, Vol. 19, April 3, 1994.

1. BBC R&D White Paper 2002, Virtual Indentities in Interactive Broadcasting, M. Greeff and V. Lalioti,  http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp026.html
2. Co-Presence and Co-Working in Distributed Collaborative Virtual Environments, G. Goebbels and V. Lalioti, Afrigraph 2001, ACM SIGGRAPH published proceedings of Afrigraph 2001, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 November, 2001.
3. Interacting with Reflections in Virtual Environments, J. Lane and V. Lalioti, Afrigraph 2001, ACM SIGGRAPH published proceedings of  Afrigraph, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 November, 2001.
4. Reflective Interaction in Virtual Environments, James Lane and Vali Lalioti, EUROGRAPHICS 2001, Manchester, United Kingdom, 4-7 September 2001.
5. Interactive Cultural Experiences using Virtual Identities, M. Greeff and V. Lalioti, ICHIM 01, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, September 3-7, 2001.
6. Guided Design and Evaluation of  Distributed, Collaborative 3D Interaction in Projection Based Virtual Environments, G. Goebbels and V. Lalioti, HCI International 2001, 9th International Conference on  Human-Computer Interaction, The Fairmont Hotel, New Orleans, LA, USA, August 5-10, 2001.
7. Authoring Interactive Stories using Virtual Identities, M. Greef and V. Lalioti, EUROIMAGE 2001, International Conference on Augmented,Virtual Environments and 3D Imaging, Mykonos, Greece, May 30- June 1, 2001.
8. Interactive Storytelling with Virtual Identities, M. Greef and V. Lalioti, IPT/EGVE 2001, 5th International Projection Technology Workshop and 7th Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments,  Stuttgard, Germany, May 16-18, 2001.
9. Learning through Virtual Identities, M. Greef and V. Lalioti, Workshop on Interactive Narrative and Knowledge Stewardship in conjunction with ACM SigCHI 2001 conference, Seattle, WA, USA, April 1-2, 2001.
10. Supporting Team Work in Collaborative Virtual Environments, G. Goebbels and V. Lalioti, The Tenth International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-existence, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, October 25-27, 2000.
11. On Collaboration in Distributed Virtual Environments, G. Goebbels, V. Lalioti, M. Goebbel, HC-2000, 3rd International Conference in Human and Computer, University of Aizu, Japan, September 6-9, 2000.
12. Virtual Cultural Identities, C. Jackson and V. Lalioti, CHI-SA, Human Computer Interaction in South africa, in co-operation with ACM SIGCHI, University of Pretoria Conference Center, 8-10 May 2000.
13. Virtual Reality and the Renaissance Team, V. Lalioti, proceedings Medi@terra, Pendulum Symposium,Mediterranean and Balkan Art and Technology Festival, Athens, Greece, 10-12 December 1999.
14. Software Chroma-keying in Immersive Virtual Environments, F.vd Bergh and V. Lalioti, SAICSIT'99, South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologies, Annual Research Conference, Mount Amanzi Lodge, Hartebeespoort, South Africa, 17-19 November 1999.
15. Virtual Meeting in CyberStage, V. Lalioti, C. Garcia, F. Hasenbrink, ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST 98, 2-5 November, Taipei, Taiwan, 1998.
16. Multimedia in Virtual Reality, V. Lalioti, 1st Panhellenic Conference on New Information Technology, Athens, Hellas, October 8-10, 1998.
17. Immersive Telepresence in Responsive Virtual Environments, V. Lalioti, F. Hasenbrink, H. Tramberend and M. Goebel, 9th NEC Research Symposium, Yokohama, Japan, 1998.
18. Co-presence and Co-working in a Distributed Office, V. Lalioti and T. Horstmann, IFIP World Computer Congress, Telecooperation conference, 31 August-4 September, Vienna, Austria, 1998.
19. Meet.Me@Cyberstage: towards Immersive Telepresence, V. Lalioti, C. Garcia, F. Hasenbrink, Virtual Environments `98, 4th Eurographics Workshop, 16-18 June, Stuttgart, Germany, 1998.
20. Towards Immersive Telepresence: Schlosstag '97, F. Hasenbrink and V. Lalioti, 2nd International Immersive Projection Technologies Workshop, May 10-11, Ames, Iowa, USA, 1998.
21. Virtual Spaces: VR Projection System Technologies and Applications, P. Dai, G. Eckel, M. Goebel, F. Hasenbrink, V. Lalioti, U. Lechner, J. Strassner, H. Tramberend, G. Wesche, Tutorial Notes, Eurographics '97, Budapest 1997.
22. Animation for Validation of Business System Specifications, V. Lalioti, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences -30, The Dynamics of Business Systems Engineering, Wailea, Maui, Hawaii, 7-10 January, 1997.
23. Cinematographic Validation: Techniques and Tools, V. Lalioti and B. Theodoulidis, 4th. International Symposium on Applied Corporate Computing, October 30-November 1, Monterrey, Mexico, 1996.
24. Virtual Studios: The State of the Art, S. Gibbs, C. Arapis, C. Breiteneder, V. Lalioti, S. Mostafawy, J. Speier, Eurographics'96 Conference, State of the Art Reports, p. 63-86, Futuroscope Poitiers, France, August 26-30, 1996.
25. Conceptual Visualisation Techniques and Tools, B. Theodoulidis and V. Lalioti, Industrial and Poster Session, Fourteenth International Conference on Object-Oriented and Entity-Relationship Modelling, Queensland, Australia, 13-15 December 1995.
26. Visual Scenarios for Validation of Requirements Specification, V. Lalioti and B.Theodoulidis, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE), Maryland, USA, 22-24 June 1995.
27. Use of Scenarios for Validation of Conceptual Specifications, V. Lalioti and B. Theodoulidis, Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on the Next Generation of CASE Tools (preceding CAiSE'95), Jyvaskyla, Finland, 12-13 June 1995.
28. Visualisation for Validation, V. Lalioti and P. Loucopoulos, Proceedings of the 5th CAiSE Conference, Sorbonne, Paris, June 1993.

1. CineVali : A Cinematographic Validation of Conceptual Specifications, PhD. thesis, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Computation, Manchester, U.K., 1995.
2. Jasmine: A Cinematographic representation of Algorithms, MSc. thesis, University of Crete, Computer Science Department, Heraklion , Greece, 1990.

1. Team Work in Distributed Collaborative Virtual Environments, G. Goebbels, PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 2001
2. Virtual Laboratories in Education, R. Kfir, ACM SIGGRAPH published proceedings of AFRIGRAPH 2001, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 November 2001.
3. Expressive Textures, Kenny Fei, AFRIGRAPH 2001, 1st International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, and Visualisation  in Africa, an ACM SIGGRAPH publication, Cape Town, South Africa, Nov 5-7, 2001.
4. Virtual Drums, J. Lane, South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologies, Annual Research Conference, SAICSIT2000, South Africa, Cape Town, 1-3 November 2000.Expressive Texture: Avatars, Kenny Fei, MSc. Thesis, University of Pretoria, Computer Science Department, South Africa, 2001.
5. sing Catadioptrics for multidimensional interaction in Computer Graphics, J. Lane, MSc. Thesis, University of Pretoria, Computer Science Department, South Africa, 2001.
6. Interactive Storytelling with Virtual Identities, M. Greeff, MSc. Thesis, University of Pretoria, Computer Science Department, South Africa, 2000.
7. A Device-Free Locator Using Computer Vision Techniques , F.vd Bergh, MSc. Thesis, University of Pretoria, Computer Science Department, South Africa, 1999.