Alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur wins the Esteemed 'Technical Oscar'

Parag Havaldar, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, has won the prevalent Technical Achievement Award, also known as the 'Technical Oscar'. The Scientific & Technical Awards prize has been awarded to Havaldar by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.

Havaldar, graduated with computer science and engineering in 1991 from IIT-Kharagpur. He did his Ph.D. in computer vision and graphics from the University of Southern California. He has been honored for his work at the Sony Pictures Imageworks where he was involved with the development of expression-based facial performance-capture technology.

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Havaldar is the Software Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks and heads the performance capture team. Along with his team, he developed a technology that can create conventional character animations. The technology also enables the use of animation at a larger scale.

Some of Havaldar's recognized work includes Watchmen, Hancock, Green Lantern, Beowulf and The Amazing Spider-Man. The Academy will award him the certificate on February 11, 2017. A part-time teacher at the University of Southern California, Havaldar continues to explore the animation world.

Ecstatic with his student's success, Director of IIT-Kharagpur and Havaldar's programming teacher, P P Chakraborty said that image processing has always been one of Parag's favorite subjects. He also informant that Havaldar also did a project on the subject during his days at the institute.

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The first Scientific & Technical Awards was conferred at the 4th Academy Awards ceremony in 1931. The award is given in recognition of innovative developments that help in the implementation of valuable improvements in the field of motion picture production and exhibition.