Field of work
Thomas Impelluso was born in The Bronx, NYC. Under normal circumstances, that should be a sufficient list of accomplishments; but there are a few more things to say.
Thomas received his Bachelor Degree in Liberal Arts from Columbia University. His concentration was Art History. He received a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering, and a Master’s degree in Bioengineering from Columbia University. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), conferred his doctoral degree in the area of Computational Mechanics.
For his doctoral thesis he wrote a dynamic, non-linear finite element code to model wave dispersion in composite materials using higher order homogenization theories. During this time, he wrote several large scale, 3D finite element codes of the following types: linear elastic, visco-elastic, elasto-plastic, dynamic, orthotropic. He has written these in C and FORTRAN. He has also coded in Java, Javascript; experimented with C++; and studied Ada and Eiffel.
After receiving his degree, he wrote seismic data acquisition, analysis and visualization software for the US Geological Survey (Sun Microsystems/C).
He has been tenured full professor at San Diego State University. During these years, he researched force-feedback physics-based virtual reality. He connected two 3D Virtual Reality CAVES with force-feedback haptic devices and visualized the results using OpenGL/Inventor. He used the CRAY T3E and parallelized the FE code for 4 nodes using MPI and the BSD socket interface to the TCP/IP stack.
He has written a self-aligning 3D finite element code which inverts the analysis into synthesis to create a locally orthotropic mesh to model femur fracture fixation methods.
He has used commercial finite element software to model mandibular fixation using bio-resorbable resins.
He has secured funding from the US Dept. of Education to research the use of Cognitive Load Theory to create a synchronous virtual classroom for computer programming (C) for 1000 students dispersed around Southern California.
He has also been funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to participate in the Virtual Soldier and Battlefield Surgery programs. He has received funding the US NSF to create a platform in physics-based virtual reality (SGI-Inventor/CAVE Library).
On a boat, on the Thames on December 31, 1999, he met a woman from Bergen, Norway. He was warned “If you marry a Bergen girl, you move there eventually.” He ignored this and married her. In 2011, he moved to Bergen, Norway with his wife and two children.
Around this time, he began to develop a new approach to Rigid Body Dynamics. This method uses a new mathematics and new visualization methods: Lie Group Theory, Cartan's Moving Frames and a new notation from the discipline of geometrical physics. He has contracted with Pearson publishing for the first 3D, interactive textbook in a new approach to dynamics.
Currently he uses this new approach to model ship dynamics. Specifically: writing software to model gyroscopic control of ship roll, control of ship motion due to on-board cranes, gyroscopic wave energy converters and control of ROV motion.
The modules can easily be extended with Artificial Intelligence to support "smart learning mechanical machines." He publishes work with his undergraduate students.
Recently, he created a synchronous Virtual classroom to teach in Bergen, Florø, Kristiansund and Straume, at the same time.
Dr. Impelluso believes that to retain students (male, female and diverse ethnic groups) in engineering studies, social interventions rarely work. Rather, it is time to modernize the mathematics and enhance education with physics-based, interactive 3D animations.
He has served on the Education Board of the Ruben H. Fleet Science Cener in San Diego. He has served on the Education Board of the American Society for Engineering Education (and can advise on Engineering in the K12) He has served on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, reported K12 science assessment data to the U.S. Congress. He has served on the NSF Blue Ribbon Panel for Cyberinfrastructure.
In his spare time, he listens to opera: Mozart, anything by Verdi, Puccini, and the Bel Canto three: Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. He has to be wired up to take on Wagner. He has also attended many performances of American Ballet Theater, Grand Kabuki, Dance Theater of Harlem, Kirov and others at NYC Lincoln Center. Dr. Impelluso apologizes for still not having learned to speak Norwegian.
He is hard of hearing and, like most Americans, only speaks two languages: New York-ese and Californ-ian. After a few glasses of wine, he speaks both languages with a Bronx accent.
Dr. Impelluso won the Bronx Hoola Hoop Championship in Van Cortlandt Park in 1967. He then went on to win the New York City Hoola Hoop Championship later that summer. He is very proud of this tremendous accomplishment.
There has not been a Hoola Hoop Championship since that last year so he is the reigning champion.
CURRENT PROJECTS: To view the five current projects in dynamics, visit each site (unfortunately, you must copy and paste the link as it is not a hyperlink) and click on the gold title bar at the top: http://home.hib.no/prosjekter/dynamics/2018/
LAST YEAR'S BACHELOR PROJECTS (and their papers) http://home.hib.no/prosjekter/dynamics/2017/