UIC grad student Victor Mateevitsi attends Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical Awards

February 20th, 2015

Victor Mateevitsi and Vasia Rigou attend the Scientific and Technical Academy Awards.
Victor Mateevitsi and Vasia Rigou attend the Scientific and Technical Academy Awards.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: While most of us will enjoy watching the Academy Awards this coming Sunday evening, some Oscars were already presented to Hollywood celebrities recognized for Scientific and Technical achievements. These awards were given out at a black-tie event on February 8 in Hollywood by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and video excerpts from that event will be shown during Sunday night’s broadcast. UIC computer science graduate student and Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) research assistant Victor Mateevitsi was fortunate enough to attend this year’s Academy’s Scientific and Technical Academy Awards program.

Mateevitsi’s impressions of the event are detailed in the UIC NEWS article “And the Oscar goes to … Larry Hornbeck” by journalist Christy Levy, published on February 19, 2015.

Mateevitsi received an invitation to attend the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony because he participated in the 2013 Academy Science and Technology Council’s summer internship program and worked at Pixar Animation Studios. Mateevitsi explains in the article that “They want to find the top engineering students and make sure they stay in the movie industry. They’re afraid that Google, Facebook and other tech companies are taking all the talent.” And, Mateevitsi is open to the idea of working for Hollywood. “I’d definitely be interested in creating the next generation of tools and methods for the film industry,” he says.

Many on the UIC campus know Mateevitsi’s name because he has received recognition for several major projects in which he has been involved over the years, notably his work with the UIC Pathology department on tiled display walls and his thesis work that extends the SpiderSense project.

Read the UIC NEWS article.

Learn about Mateevitsi’s 2013 summer internship at Pixar. Read the Academy Science and Technology Council announcement.

Learn more about Mateevitsi’s work with UIC Pathology.

Learn more about SpiderSense.