Assistant Professor Matthew Turk has been recognized by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) as an outstanding 2016-2017 SPIN mentor. The SPIN (Students Pushing Innovation) internship at NCSA provides undergraduates at Illinois with the opportunity to apply their skills to real challenges in areas such as high-performance computing, data analysis and visualization, and cybersecurity. Turk was nominated for the honor by his SPIN intern, Charles Rozhon, who recently graduated with his BS in computer science. Rozhon's project was to develop interactive visualization tools for volume rendering simulation datasets.
"Chuck built from scratch an OpenGL volume renderer that could handle a particularly persnickety data format called adaptive mesh refinement, and then he put that upstream (ultimate source of his project) into an open source project," Turk said. "I'm delighted that Chuck will be continuing in his studies toward a PhD, but we'll miss him at Illinois. He is an engaged, outstanding collaborator, and it was a true pleasure and honor to be able to work with him on this project."
Rozhon is grateful for Turk’s mentorship and support.
"Over the past several years, Professor Turk has greatly encouraged my professional development as both a researcher and a student," he said. "He has been an invaluable teacher, who helped me conceptualize a research problem that felt challenging and fulfilling."