Tom Calvert, P. Eng.

As others have shared, there are so many different facets to Tom Calvert that have been sparkling inspiration and clear advisory over the years to many, including myself. I am fortunate to have witnessed some of Tom's many contributions: as teacher/supervisor (when I was in his gaggle of cross-disciplinary students); Tom as multidisciplinary researcher (when he offered me the role of managing the Graphics & Multimedia Research Lab); and Tom as an entrepreneurial-thinker (when I moved from the Lab to Credo Interactive, the company Tom founded). Tom was also part of other university spin-outs as well as inspiring a number of students to start their own companies. As students, we were attracted to his work in computer graphics as we heard Tom spent a year in LA, in Hollywood, in visual effects for a movie which I believe was The Last Starfighter (I hope I got this right). I always loved the vibrancy of The Graphics Lab, due to Tom having this unique knack of bringing people from different disciplines together; the lab was often filled with dancers dancing and stretching while looking over a computer screen of a high-end Silicon Graphics machine, engineering students tinkering with biomechanical systems, suits and sensors for capturing full-body movement or gestures, computer scientists and mathematicians working on optimizing algorithms - Tom's research was one of the first to use Quaternions in human figure or character animation, software interface designers testing out different user interfaces and considering the "human in the loop" of computerized systems, as Tom always stressed the importance of first making software tools intuitive for people to use. (I think of this today.) I recall the Graphics Lab was always a stop on any VIP tour or demo at SFU. Tom's, and that of his students', work in human figure animation and specification lead to the creation of LifeForms, now known as DanceForms(tm). We actually started "shipping product" in the graphics lab with students designing and printing labels and burning CDs to be sent to early adopters / users around the world from day one. Early users of LifeForms included Merce Cunningham, the American Choreographer considered the Father of Modern Dance; Merce became LifeForms' master user and the work with LifeForms is considered one of Merce's 4 key lifetime discoveries. And more broadly Tom's work with the dance community, including with Rhonda Ryman, Ilene Fox at the Dance Notation Bureau in NY, Iris Garland at SFU with the Cyberdance course, was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dance and Technology community - one of a number of lifetime achievement awards Tom received. Some of his Lifeforms students would go on to help grow the local visual effects and game development industry, as well as down to Hollywood, LA and CA. His students would all say that without Tom generously inviting them into the lab or onto projects or companies, they would not know where they would be now. He made a huge impact on so many of our life and career experiences. When Tom, "semi-" or "sort of-" retired, he assumed again the role of CEO of Credo Interactive in 2003. And I had further opportunity to work with Tom in the past few years, including on different research projects. Tom enjoyed the brainstorming of new ideas, his eyes would light up, and then he would turn to you and say "so how are you going to do this?". :-) Finally, many have commented on Tom's quirky subtle sense of humor. I will end with a story being shared about how Tom would nod off in group meetings, his head would drop and his eyes close. And just when you are wondering how Tom could fall asleep in such an important meeting, he would perk up and speak out with the most insightful questions and guidance, with a bright gleam in his eyes. I personally think that he purposefully appeared to look like he was nodding off to see what we would do or say! And I think he is gleaming at us now. --- Tom - We, including the Credo DanceForms community, will miss you. Happy sailing!