Meet the Team
Bob O’Bara
Assistant Director of Scientific Computing
Kitware New York
Clifton Park, NY
Service at Kitware
Bob O’Bara joined the Kitware team in August 2006 as an R&D Engineer. His main areas of interest are geometric modeling, mesh generation, model and mesh visualization, and general scientific visualization techniques. Since he started working at Kitware, Bob has been involved in the areas of Information Visualization as well as improving the processing of SpyPlot files. For the past year and a half, Bob has been working with the Oil & Gas Industry in the development of visualization/information management components for subsurface data from various sources and disciplines (Geo-Sciences & Engineering). Recently, Bob is also involved with the Army Corps of Engineers in developing an integrated visualization environment for hydrologic modeling which includes large multi-dimensional simulations of watersheds, rivers, reservoirs, estuaries, and oceans.
Bob received his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics from Case Western Reserve University in May 1985. He completed his Masters of Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in May 1988 with a thesis analyzing the modeling clip mechanism proposed in the PHIGS+ standard.
Prior to joining Kitware, Bob was a senior software engineer at Simmetrix Inc. where he was project manager of the GeomSim product. His other responsibilities included developing an attribute management system for representing non-geometric information necessary for simulation-based design, an attribute definition system that provided the ability to define complex attribute representations, as well as various meshing and geometric modeling algorithms including void filling and curvilinear mesh generation techniques. He also developed a visualization infrastructure for displaying geometric information as well as creating and editing attribute information. Bob was also the principle investigator for the following SBIRs:
Mesh Generation for High-Order Finite Element Methods — NSF Phase I, II, and IIB. (2001-2005)
The purpose of this project was to develop innovative automatic mesh generation capabilities as needed to apply high-order finite element methods in the solution of partial differential equations over general curvilinear domains.
Generation and Adaptive Control of Grids for High-Speed Reacting Flows — Air Force Phase1 (2005)
This Phase I SBIR project focused on extending Simmetrix’ automatic mesh generation tools to generate meshes necessary for types of high-speed reacting flow simulations being investigated by the Air Force. This included creating anisotropic mixed element meshes with boundary layers.
Publications
- C. Harris, P. O'Leary, M. Grauer, A. Chaudhary, C. Kotfila, and R. O'Bara, "Dynamic Provisioning and Execution of HPC Workflows Using Python," in Workshop on Python for High-Performance and Scientific Computing, 2016. [URL]
- M. Hanwell, P. O'Leary, and B. O'Bara, "Sustainable Software Ecosystems: Software Engineers, Domain Scientists, and Engineers Collaborating for Science," in Working Towards Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences, 2014. [URL]
- X. Luo, M. Shephard, L. Yin, R. O’Bara, R. Nastasi, and M. Beall, "Construction of near optimal meshes for 3D curved domains with thin sections and singularities for p-version method," Engineering with Computers, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 215-229, Jun. 2010. [URL]
- A. Hines, S. Howington, B. White, O. Eslinger, C. Kees, M. Farthing, R. O'Bara, R. Blue, Y. Yuan, A. Bauer, and B. King, "Computational Model Builder (CMB): A Cross-Platform Suite of Tools for Model Creation and Setup," in DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program Users Group Conference, 2009. [URL]
- M. Shephard, J. Flaherty, K. Jansen, X. Li, X. Luo, N. Chevaugeon, J. Remacle, M. Beall, and R. O'Bara, "Adaptive mesh generation for curved domains," Applied Numerical Mathematics, vol. 52, no. 2-3, pp. 251-271, Feb. 2005. [URL]
- X. Luo, M. Shephard, R. O’Bara, R. Nastasia, and M. Beall, "Automatic p-version mesh generation for curved domains," Engineering with Computers, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 273-285, Sep. 2004. [URL]
- M. Shephard, M. Beall, R. O'Bara, and B. Webster, "Toward simulation-based design," Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, vol. 40, no. 12, pp. 1575-1598, Jul. 2004. [URL]
- R. O'Bara, M. Beall, and M. Shephard, "Attribute Management System for Engineering Analysis," Engineering with Computers, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 339-351, Nov. 2002. [URL]
- S. Dey, R. O'Bara, and M. Shephard, "Towards curvilinear meshing in 3D: the case of quadratic simplices," Computer-Aided Design, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 199-209, Mar. 2001. [URL]
- M. Shephard, H. de Cougny, R. O'Bara, and M. Beall, "Automatic grid generation using spatially-based trees," in Handbook of grid generation. CRC Press, 1999.
- S. Dey, R. O'Bara, and M. Shephard, "Curvilinear Mesh Generation In 3D," in In Proceedings of the Eighth International Meshing Roundtable, 1999.
- M. Shephard, M. Beall, and R. O'Bara, "Revisiting the elimination of the adverse effects of small model features in automatically generated meshes," in Proceedings of the International Meshing Roundtable, 1998.
- R. Spilker, M. Shephard, J. Flaherty, P. Donzelli, W. Dunbar, R. O'Bara, V. Mow, and G. Ateshian, "Computational Tools for the 3D Analysis of Diarthrodial Joint Soft Tissue Mechanics using Physiological Data," in Proceedings of the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting, 1997.
- R. Spilker, M. Shephard, J. Flaherty, P. Donzelli, W. Dunbar, R. O'Bara, V. Mow, and G. Ateshian, "3D analysis of biphasic layers using physiological data," in Proceedings of the U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics, 1997.
- R. O'Bara, M. Beall, and M. Shephard, "Analysis model visualization and graphical analysis attribute specification system," Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 325-348, May 1995. [URL]
- J. Miller, D. Breen, W. Lorensen, R. O'Bara, and M. Wozny, "Geometrically Deformed Models: A Method for Extracting Closed Geometric Models from Volume Data," in SIGGRAPH Conference Proceedings, 1991.
- R. O Bara and S. Abi-Ezzi, "An Analysis of Modeling Clip," in Eurographics, 1989. [URL]
- M. Skolnick, S. Kim, and R. O'Bara, "Morphological Algorithms For Computing Non-planar Point Neighborhoods On Cellular Automata," in [1988 Proceedings] Second International Conference on Computer Vision, 1988. [URL]
