Member Profile: Norbert Nopper
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I studied computer science and got my diploma in 1997. Since then, I worked in the Internet, Computer Games, Automotive and Semiconductor industry. After the Dot-com crash, I began to follow my passion for computer graphics and started focusing on it. I am the Managing Director and co-owner of UX3D since 2017, which is providing GPU based software and products.
2. What was your first job?
As a teenager, my first job was delivering the newspaper.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
At the Furtwangen University in Germany.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
For computer graphics research, there is no way around the ACM Digital Library. When I moved to Munich, I participated in the Munich ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter.
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
Every time I wanted to go to a SIGGRAPH conference, there was a showstopper. In 2019, my family increased (a good showstopper) and two of my colleagues went to SIGGRAPH. In 2020, the COVID-19 did not allow me to visit the conference. Trying hard for the future.
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
Our glTF editor Gestaltor, https://gestaltor.io
glTF is a royalty-free specification for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models by applications from the Khronos Group. With Gestaltor, one can edit glTF directly.
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
Sir William Rowan Hamilton. I want to know, what he felt, when he carved the basic rules for multiplication of quaternions into the bridge.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
My first computer was a Commodore 64, which I bought at the age of 15 (You needed to deliver a lot of newspaper to afford one). Most people probably stay with their hobby until they do have the chance to make it as their profession. In between, I did not touch computers for several years. Preferred skateboarding.
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
One of my Professors at the University. I learned from him to put things in question and try to understand things from a different point of view.
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Someone told me, it is not enough to search the Internet for computer graphics algorithms. You need to read the books and papers. No way around ACM SIGGRAPH if you are working in the computer graphics industry.
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
A co-developed computer games auction site did become alando.de and finally eBay Germany. Being part of the glTF 2.0 specification team right from start and to see the impact of it.