Greymind Research/About Balki
- Objective
- To research and develop new techniques and tools
that provides a richer game experience for the end-user and a more
productive workflow for the game developers.
- Interests
and Strengths
- Video game engines and tools, user experience
design, human player behavior
- Metaprogramming, data and event-driven
programming, parallel computing, component-based software engineering
- Network programming, databases
- Education
- Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science
| University of Southern California
- M.S. in Computer Science
- Focus: A framework for collecting and
presenting player behavior data across games to game/level designers at run-time
in-game
- GPA: 3.88/4.00
- B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering
| Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering
- Focus: Distributed Systems, AI
- Skills
- General Programming | C/C++, Visual C++/Win32,
C++/CLI, C#, .NET, VB.NET,
Java, MSRS, .NET CF
- Scripting | Python, Lua, Jscript, Perl, VBScript
- Operating Systems | Windows Script, WMI, Windows Shell,
GNU/Linux Administration
- Game Development | DirectX, HLSL, Ogre3D, Cg, XNA
- 3D Graphics | Maya, 3DSMAX, SOFTIMAGE|XSI
- Graphics and User Experience |
WPF, XAML, Expression Suite, Photoshop,
CorelDraw Suite
- Web Technologies | WCF, ASP.NET, Web Services, CSS, PHP,
Silverlight, Flash, LAMP, IIS
- Database Systems | SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL
- Multimedia | FMOD, Premiere, ACID, FL Studio
- Work Experience
- Student Producer and Engineering Mentor
| GamePipe, USC
- Teach and mentor students in the Game Engine
Development and Advanced Game Project courses and maintain/write
engine and tools code as required by various teams and courses at
GamePipe.
- Late 2008 - Present
- Research Assistant | University of Southern California, LA
- Office of Naval Research (ONR) funded
project to develop a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG)
ecosystem to support the study of Human Social Culture Behavior
(HSCB) modeling. See "Cosmopolis" under the projects section for
more information.
- Late 2009 - Late 2011
- Video Game Engineer (Part Time)
| Lucas Arts, CA
- Prototyped new game mechanics. Built a demo
game to illustrate the mechanics. Engineered gameplay and framework
based on an in-house renderer and input system (PC, X360), game
design.
- Summer 2008
- Research Assistant | Integrated Media Systems Center, USC
- Worked on a couple of projects in networked
virtual environments and social networking. Engineered framework
base on Ogre3D, UX in Silverlight and web services in ASP.NET
- Early 2008
- Academic Developer Evangelist (Part Time)
| Microsoft India
- Engineered samples/tutorials spanning
various fields including networking, video games, user experiences,
device programming and robotics. Worked on new software releases
(XNAGSE, MSRS, WCF, WPF, XAML, .NET CF) and was actively involved
with the academia all over the country in getting them up to speed
with the same. Delivered many live talks on TV and at conferences
and conducted hands-on lab sessions. Was also the Microsoft Student
Partner (Lead) and Manager of the CNUGStudent user group.
- Early 2007 - Late 2007
- Projects
- Tools
- A lightweight video editor/manager and a
bunch of custom tools for better Maya pipeline integration with game
engines
- Links: [Misc Tools]
[Maya Tools]
- Cosmopolis
- A research-aware MMOG for the study for
behavior models, economic models and the like.
- Role: Chief architect and programmer
- Uses: C#, XNA, C++/CLI, Havok, XACT, Maya API and
scripting
- Links: [www.cosmopolisgame.com]
- GamePipe Game Engine and Editor
- Envisioned a new editor architecture and
re-engineered the engine from scratch to support multithreading,
more efficient game state and resource management and better
integration with GOGS, the editor and other 3rd party tools.
- Role: Lead architect and programmer; Team
(1)
- Uses: C#, Visual C++, Ogre3D,
Multithreading, Python in Maya
- Early 2008 - Early 2009
- GamePipe Online Game Server Library
- GOGS is a research effort towards creating a
highly-scalable, enterprise-grade Massively Multiplayer Online Game
Server library which is extensible and easy to use.
- Role: Lead architect and programmer (GS);
Team (9, 2(GS))
- Uses: Visual C++, C#, Multithreading
- Late 2007 - Early 2008
- 3D 8-ball Pool
- A standard pool game with emphasis on
realistic physics and appearance
- Role: Lead architect, programmer and
producer; Team (4)
- Uses: Cg, Ogre3D, Visual C++
- Late 2007
- Real-time Detection of DDoS Attacks using SVMs
- An in-line system for the real-time
detection of DDoS attacks. SVM runs in a kernel module. Learning and
monitoring is done via support tools.
- Role: Lead network and AI programmer; Team
(3)
- Uses: C/C++, C#, GNU/Linux Kernel
- Early 2007
- Distributed Environment for Evaluating
Algorithms
- An execution environment was set up
using LAM/MPI on an 8-node diskless cluster and modifications to
popular parallel implementations of graph algorithms were proposed.
- Role: System administrator and programmer;
Team (3)
- Uses: C/C++, GNU/Linux, Diskless 8-node
cluster, LAM/MPI
- Early 2007
- Codename Snowflake: 2D Racing Game Simulation
- A racing game simulation that exposes an API
for writing gameplay logic for the cars. Was developed for an
algorithm and programming challenge.
- Role: Lead graphics and framework
programmer; Team (2)
- Uses: Visual C++, DirectDraw 8.0,
Multithreading
- Early 2006
- Website design, programming and maintenance
- Worked on several commercial website
solutions for corporate clients in India.
- Role: Lead programmer and user interface
designer; Team (2)
- Uses: ASP.NET, C#, Photoshop, Dreamweaver,
Flash
- Early 2005 - Late 2006
- Publications
- Designing a Massively Multiplayer Online Game /
Research Testbed Featuring AI-Driven NPC Communities
- Michael Zyda, Marc Spraragen, Balakrishnan
Ranganathan, Bjarni Arnason, Peter Landwehr
- AIIDE 2010, Industrial
- Links: [PDF]
- Planning a Cosmopolis: Key Features of
an MMOG for Social Science Research
- Peter Landwehr, Marc Spraragen, Balakrishnan Ranganathan, Kathleen Carley,
Michael Zyda
- CHI 2010
- Links: [Website] [PDF]
[PDF]
- Information Channels in MMOGs: Implementation
and Effects
- Michael Zyda, Marc Spraragen, Balakrishnan
Ranganathan, Bjarni Arnason, Huahand Liu
- AHFE 2010, CCDM
- Links: [PDF]
- Testing Behavioral Models with an Online Game
- Zyda, M., Spraragen, M., Ranganathan, B.
- IEEE Computer 42, 4 (April 2009)
- Links: [PDF]
- A Scalable Parallelization of All-Pairs Shortest Path
Algorithm for a High Performance Cluster Environment
- T. Srinivasan, R. Balakrishnan, S. A. Gangadharan, V. Hayawardh
- IEEE CS, ICPADS 2007
- Links: [IEEE
Xplore] [PDF]
- Supervised Grid-Of-Tries: A Novel Approach To
(Packet) Classifier Management
- T. Srinivasan, R. Balakrishnan, S. A. Gangadharan, V. Hayawardh
- Springer’s LNCS, ICDCN 2006
- Links: [SpringerLink]
[PDF]
- Patents
- Information Channels in MMOGs
- Zyda M, Arnason B, Ranganathan B, and M
Spraragen
- United States Utility Patent 2010
- Filed, awaiting processing
- Noteworthy Presentations
- Developing an MMOG as a Data Source and Test Bed for
Social and Behavioral Models
- Michael Zyda, Marc Spraragen, Balakrishnan Ranganathan, Peter Landwehr,
Kathleen Carley
- HSCB 2009
- Links: [Coming soon]
- Relevant Coursework
- Networked Games – Design and Implementation
- Networked Artificial Intelligence
- Game Engine Development
- Game Design
- 3D Graphics and Rendering
- Computer Animation and Simulation
- Operating Systems
- Advanced Operating Systems
- Artificial Intelligence
- Advanced Game Projects
- Analysis of Algorithms
- Web Technologies
- Database Systems
- Contact
- Balakrishnan "Balki" Ranganathan