Cha Lee

A Struggling Grad Student

chalee21@cs.ucsb.edu | chalee21@hotmail.com

Links:
- LeadTA Website

Personal Bio

I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand on April 4, 1981. When I was six my family immigrated to the US. We've been living in Willows, a town thirty minutes away from Chico, Ca, ever since. I graduated with a BS in Computer Science at CSU Chico. While there I had the time of my life. I had a steady job, decent grades, and my own apartment. I met lots of new people, made a ton of friends, and just enjoyed myself tremendously. My manga characters would call this the spring of my youth. I don't think I learned much (no, I definitely didn't learn much), but I graduated in 2005 so it must have been enough. Leaving Chico was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, since most of my best friends in the world still live there. Currently I'm TRYING to get a PhD in Computer Science at UC Santa Barbara, if that makes any sense?

Its been said that your memories are what define you. I remember being sick most of the time before we got to the US. I remember being dirty. I remember more than twenty people crammed into a sheet metal room no bigger than my apartment and the small meals which had to be divided between four families. I remember just how special three other people can be to you; giving you everything when they really have NOTHING TO GIVE. But most of all, I remember the constant HUNGER. Not the type which can be remedied with food, although there was much of that too, but the worst kind: the knowledge that there was MORE to life than what you were getting. There just had to be. Call me cynical, but I've never heard a poor man say there's more to life than material wealth.

When we got to this country my parents busted ass. Dad was going to night classes and working three jobs. Mom was doing the same and working two. Bro and I were the center of their lives and everything they did, they did for us. I'm ashamed to admit that as a kid I sometimes felt embarassed that my old man was a janitor, when the other kids would describe their dad's jobs. When I finally lifted my head out of my ass, I realized just how damn lucky bro and I were. We got here in the winter of 1987 with $100 and the clothes on our back. By 2005 my old man owned his own house, had one son who was one of the hottest young managers in Sherwin Williams in So-Cal, and another about to begin his PhDship. Mom and dad did this with pure courage, determination, and a blind love for their kids while their two brats were growing up and bitching the whole time. I've never seen the old man relax or take a vacation in his whole life. Anyone who knows me knows that this is the ONLY reason that I'm in grad school. Its always been for the old man, since I know that his one greatest regret was not being able to go to college.

I've known many things in my short life, and I've realized that life here in the U.S. is damn good but its also DAMN SHORT. Moderation is something I don't believe in, and you can always sleep when you're dead.

Academic Career
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, emphasis in computer graphics
Minor in Business Administration
California State University, Chico
Fall 2000 - Spring 2005

PhD in Computer Science (ongoing)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Fall 2005 - Spring 2010 (expected graduation date)

Publications

                An Immaterial Depth-Fused 3D Display. ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Science and Technology 2007. Best Student Paper Award.
                

		Novel Display Technologies
			-Immaterial Displays
			-Large Scale Displays
			-Multi-Projection-Based Displays
			-Global Calibration Algorithms

		Real-time Simulations
			-GPGPU-Based Approaches

		Rendering Techniques
			-Real-time Depth of Field Display
		

		Fall 2006:          CS 160: Programming Languages. Voted Outstanding TA, Honorable Mention
		Winter 2006:        CS 160: Programming Languages. Voted Oustanding TA
		Spring 2007:        CS 012.
		Awarded Outstanding TA in Computer Science for 2006-2007
		Nominated for 2007-2008 Outstanding TA Award
		Selected Lead TA for 2007-2008
		

		

		July 29, 2008      - Tech Trek 2008, lab visit from Junior High Girl's Tech Trek 2008.
		July 11, 2008      - Taiwan Student Visit, lab visit from Taiwanese middle school students.
		June 20, 2008      - Apprentice Research Program, lab visit from group of high school students.
		June 29, 2007      - Apprentice Research Program, lab visit from two groups of high school students
		June 22, 2007      - Apprentice Research Program, lab visit from junior high school students.
		Jan 30, 2007       - LEAPS visit, lab workshop for local eighth grade science class.
		Nov 16, 2006       - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Visit, introduction to grad student life and research at UCSB. 
		

		WorldViz LLC
		Santa Barbara, CA 93101
		Worked on PPT, an optical tracking system.
		

                Prodigm, Inc
                Chico, CA 95928
                Worked on IMSure, an application for doing MU check, IMRT check, and IMRT patient dose verification.