• Part 1: Branding Yourself and Making Making a “Wow” Resume
• Part 2: Preparing for Your Case Interview to Get Bulletproof
• Part 3: Talking about Your Experience and Sounding like a Bad-ass

Leaving academia and joining consulting firms is a something many PhD students (myself included) are getting interested in. Firms like McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain & Associates once hired mostly MBAs but are now branching out to hire MDs, lawyers, and PhDs.

I wanted to make a big impact with the skill I learned during my PhD. I got excited when I heard about consulting because it promises just that. In the next three parts, I’ll take you through the big lessons I learned while preparing and interviewing: How to get an interview, how to nail the case, and how to dazzle them with your experience.

Part 1: Branding Yourself and Making Making a “Wow” Resume gives you pointers to polish that scruffy science look off your C.V. and generally control your “personal brand” so that interviewers are impressed with you long before you walk in the door.

Part 2: Preparing for Your Case Interview to Get Bulletproof talks about how to approach the case and how to practice so that you can shine while others look dull. I’ll give you some simple exercises that will improve the structure and creativity of the “case” portion of your interview.

Part 3: Talking about Your Experience and Sounding like a Bad-ass covers an important and often overlooked portion of a consulting interview… talking about yourself! I know you have some amazing stories to tell. This sections shows how to make your stories say the right things about you.

Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I recently went through the application and interview process with a top firm, came out with an offer, and signed it! In this series, I share my experience and give some ideas for people on a similar path. However, at the time of writing (July 2009), I do not have any inside information on how any company conducts their hiring. These are just my thoughts!

First I’ll talk about how to build your brand, then I’ll share my tips on resume writing.

Building Your Personal Brand

The first thing I do when I hear about a person is google them to see what they’ve done. The google search results for someone’s name tells a story, and you have the power to control your own story!

To shape the way new people (specifically interviewers) see you on the web you’ll need to think strategically about the story you want to tell and then go get famous for things you’re good at.

Thinking Strategically:

Think about the person that you would like to be and the person that the interviewers are dying to hire. Find where those two people overlap and start thinking strategically about how you can become that person.

It is best to get started early, but it is worth considering at any time. The biggest rewards come from lots of hard work, but you can also make big improvements by being strategic about presenting what you’ve already done.

Let’s say that your goal is to become an, “innovator with a keen business sense and powerful communication skills.” Well, let’s break that down:

• Innovator → Show examples of things you created.
• Business Sense → Have stories of business you’ve been involved in.
• Communication Skills → Communicate well in lots of different mediums.

Read company websites. They’ll often tell you exactly what the company is looking for. If there’s a particular job or firm that you really like then find out what they want and include those things as part of your personal brand.

Find some examples. If you already have great examples of things you’ve created, business scenarios you thrived in, and your communication abilities, you might be done. Otherwise, come up with a plan to fill out those areas.

Get new experiences if you don’t already have them. To become an “innovator,” find where you can add some value by creating something new and get to it. To get “business sense,” take some classes or get involved a venture where you can gain experience and help out at the same time. To show what a great “communicator” you are, you might start a blog. Well… that leads us to getting famous.

Getting famous:

This gets us back to the google results for your name. The goal here is to have your google results page read like a resume. You can make this happen by:

• Getting member pages on web sites for research and professional groups
• Taking leading rolls in events and conferences with web presences
• Contributing to scientific journals with high impact factors
• Creating your own content and sharing it on a personal web-page

Tell a very compelling story about yourself, your accomplishments, and your worth to an employer by creating a blog or personal web-page filled with content that describes your research, solves problems for others, and describes other aspects of your professional life. That’s what I’ve done here, if you haven’t noticed : )

Clean up your facebook page and/or make it private. That should really go without saying, but… yeah. Also fill out your linkedin profile with relevant info and get some recommendations.

Once you have the right experience, and your google results tell your story for you, you’ll have a much easier job putting together a winning resume.

Making a “Wow” Resume

Clearly communicate your brand with your resume. Most of the resumes I see are hard to read, ugly to look at, and filled with jargon. This is sometimes acceptable for a scientific CV, but if you’re stepping out of academia it is time to step up the resume.

Here are some major things to consider:

• Give ‘Em the Business. The types of projects that PhDs have on their resumes can be very specific and jargon-y. Re-write your experience to talk about the higher-level objectives and accomplishments.
• Include the “So What.” If the reader doesn’t know your field, they may not care about the specifics of your projects. What most people can understand is the “so what.” After a SHORT description of a technical accomplishment, specify the specific result. “This work resulted a patent application,” or “This work resulted in 4 publications.”
• Be Specific. You may think being vague about past projects makes them seem more impressive. It doesn’t. People often assume the worst. By sticking to the facts and being specific you’ll appear honest and accomplished.
• Include numbers. Use numerals to add even more specificity and help readers find facts. “Led a group of 10 people.” or “Organized a conference with 30 participants.”
• Use Bolding and Bullets. Just like writing for the web, it is important to make sure a resume is skim-able. If there are large blocks of simple text you can assume people won’t read them.
• Typography and Whitespace. Make sure the typography looks attractive and has plenty of white space around it. Don’t be afraid to get a little artsy with the fonts, but don’t go crazy.
• Mind Page Breaks. It is acceptable to have a 2-page resume, but make sure those page breaks fall at logical places. Don’t cut a section or sentence in the middle of a page.
• Edit, Edit, Edit. Proof reading is a must, but revising your resume again and again (and again) will make the descriptions of things you’ve done clear, concise, and powerful. LOTS of editing transforms resumes from rambling messes to powerful marketing documents.

After you have drafted your resume, you should have it checked by as many different people as you can and take their criticisms to heart. The same goes for cover letters and application essays. Often times you will not recognize what a third party gets out of your writing until they tell you. Don’t let the only “third person” be the interviewer.

Leave your ideas about branding and resumes in the comments.

Next: Case Interview

Now that you’re famous with an awesome resume, check out:
Part 2: Preparing for Your Case Interview to Get Bulletproof, where I talk about how to approach a case interview and how to practice so that you can shine while others look dull. I also share some simple exercises that can improve the structure and creativity of the “case” portion of your interview.

• Series Intro: A PhD’s Guide to Getting a Consulting Job
• Part 1: Branding Yourself and Making Making a “Wow” Resume
• Part 2: Preparing for Your Case Interview to Get Bulletproof
• Part 3: Talking about Your Experience and Sounding like a Bad-ass

Case interviews are an interview tool that consulting companies use to gauge how your analytical skills. Essentially, the case interview involves answering an open-ended question about a business problem. The interviewer gives some background on a (hypothetical) company that needs help. Then the candidate talks through an analysis and solution.

I’m going to show you how to rock a case interview.

The interviewers are looking for a few things in particular in a case interview:

• Structured thinking
• Hypothesis-driven approach
• Strong analytical ability
• Creative problem-solving skills
• Keen business sense
• Composure in the face of pressure and uncertainty

McKinsey-style Cases Vs. Normal Cases:

Some firms use “McKinsey-style” cases to make the interview more fair and relieve some pressure. These cases are more structured and give the applicant three or four specific questions to answer. “Normal” cases, on the other hand, give a problem statement and expect the applicant to direct the entire case with little or no guidance from the interviewer. It is a good idea to practice both, as they each teach different skills.

You can find good resources and sample cases at the Georgia Tech Consulting Club site.

Things to Remember

If you read some of the material available, you’ll get lots of advice. These are the 5 things that I think are most important.

• Structure Everything. EVERYTHING. Instead of jumping right into an answer, start by outlining your answer to the interviewer. First, describe high-level “buckets.” Next, discuss each one in turn by listing lower-level items within each “bucket.” Think trees. You should give an overall framework for solving the case and separate frameworks for estimation problems, math problems, data analysis, final recommendations… EVERYTHING. The more you structure, the better you’ll look.
• State Your Hypothesis. Never ask the interviewer for information or start making analysis without specifying what you’re attempting to prove (or disprove). You can demonstrate that you are “hypothesis driven” by stating your hypotheses out loud and saying how you plan to evaluate them. This sentence would be a good example, “I would guess that competition is a key driver of the low price because widgets are a commodity. Can you share any information on the competitive landscape to help me confirm that?”
• Back up Assumptions. You’ll often be asked to make assumptions. Partly this is to see if you make reasonable guesses. However, always make educated guesses and then specify how you could go about collecting the real information if needed. For example, “I’d assume 25% of personal automobiles are trucks based on what I see driving around. Of course, I could check that by looking at industry sales numbers. Does 25% sound like a reasonable estimate for now?”
• Ask “So What?” Every time you reach a number, conclusion, or stopping place immediately ask yourself, “So what?” Then answer out loud to the interviewer. Don’t say, “It will cost $2 million.” Instead, say, “It will cost $2 million, which is [surprising, disappointing, expected, etc.] considering…” By stepping back and answering “So what?” without being prompted you show that you can grasp the big-picture. And you’ll make an impression.
• Nail the recommendation. The last thing you’ll do in a case is “give your final recommendation.” Nail it by being direct and decisive. Have the first words out of your mouth be what the company should do. Cite a couple of reasons why, give one or two caviots, re-state the recommendation and stop. Whatever you do, don’t summarize the case to the interviewer… they were there! They know!

How to Practice

You can build up your case interview skills before you ever practice a case with someone else. However, you should definitely get some mock-interviews under your belt before your real interview. Here are 3 ways to practice. 2 you can do solo, the other you need a partner for.

1. Structure Drills

This drill will help you get your “initial structure” handled. This crucial step can make or break a case, and if you do it right, you will be off to a great start. The secret is doing this enough that it becomes second nature.

Read the case intro. Start by finding a case (try looking here). Read the intro paragraph describing the case, but nothing else. Don’t look at any additional information yet.

Work for 10 minutes. Brainstorm and write a detailed tree-shaped structure for approaching the case. Your final tree might look something like this. However, yours should be more detailed, and tailored to the specific case you’re working with.

Keep the structure MECE (mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive). This means that each category is independent from the others, but together they cover all possible areas needed to analyze the case. Edit your structure until you feel that it is as good as it can get.

Improve your structure. Read the rest of the example case and re-evaluate your work. Did you leave anything out? Would a different structure have made more sense in light of the new information? Edit and improve your structure-tree again. Note any revelations that may help you next time.

Practice presenting it in 30 seconds. In the interview, you’ll have about a minute to prepare a structure and then 30 seconds to present it to the interviewer. You want to start with a bang, so make sure you practice presenting it OUT LOUD. Start by saying the top-level items and then going into specifics for each. Make sure you convey which top-level item you hypothesize is the most important and why.

Do this drill over and over until you are a case-structuring-machine!

2. Creativity Drills

Interviewers sometimes ask for you to come up with “some ways to cut costs,” or “some new ways to market the product.” These questions are meant to test for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. To some extent, this has to do with how your brain works. But it you can still warm up and get in the habit of thinking creatively.

As you go through your day, come up with creativity-prompting questions. If you stop for coffee ask yourself, “how could they get me to pay $0.25 more per cup.” When you get groceries ask yourself, “what are some ways I this grocery store could cut costs.” By doing this all the time you’ll get in the habit.

Make lists of 10, 20, 50 things. One way to coax out creativity is to number a page (or open a spreadsheet) and commit to making a list of 10, 20, or 50 creative answers to some of the questions you came up with during the day. Don’t worry about “good” or “bad” ideas, just make sure you get to your number-goal. You’ll be surprised how inspiring that big empty list can be.

3. Mock Cases

Practicing by yourself is necessary to hone certain skills, but nothing compares to sitting across the table from a friend to do some simulated interviewing. Here are a few tips on making the best of practices.

Find good people to help you. The best choices are people who are currently working at the firm you’re applying to. The next best choices are people who have been through these types of interviews. Be careful about how you use these peoples’ time. Don’t use your best resources until your skills are sharp from practicing alone and with less experienced friends.

Be serious throughout the entire mock interview. Don’t joke around just because it’s your friend and it’s “only practice.” Ask your partner not to pull any punches. The stress helps you learn. You want a practice that is as close as possible to the real thing.

Share feedback right after the interview. The interviewee should start off by giving their impression of the case. Even if you’re case skills need work, it is important to make sure your “interviewer” sees the same problem areas as you do. When the “interviewer” gives feedback, take notes and ask questions. This is probably the best information you can get on how to improve.

Leave questions or other preparation ideas in the comments.

Next: Experience Interview

Now you know how to practice for your case interview. Don’t forget:
Part 3: Talking about Your Experience and Sounding like a Bad-ass, which covers an important and often overlooked portion of the interview… talking about yourself! I know you have some amazing stories to tell; learn how to make them say the right things about you.

• Series Intro: A PhD’s Guide to Getting a Consulting Job
• Part 1: Branding Yourself and Making Making a “Wow” Resume
• Part 2: Preparing for Your Case Interview to Get Bulletproof
• Part 3: Talking about Your Experience and Sounding like a Bad-ass

Disclaimer: I recently went through the application and interview process with a top firm, came out with an offer, and signed it! In this series, I share my experience and give some ideas for people on a similar path. However, at the time of writing (July 2009), I do not have any inside information on how any company conducts their hiring. These are just my thoughts!

Experience questions break into two types; simple chit-chat questions and serious in-depth questions. These are both quite important, and I’ll talk about how to prepare for each:

Preparing for Chit-Chat Interview Questions

You should probably have 30-90 sec. answers to a variety of likely “chit-chat” questions in mind.

• “So, why are you interested in consulting?”
• “What is the lay-person version of what your thesis is about?”
• “Why abandon your research when it seems so important?”
• “I won’t ask if your interviewing with our competitors, but… why our firm?”
• “How was your morning?”

Have your answers ready. These questions might get asked in the very beginning of the interview before you even know that it has started. This chit-chat can be very important, though. You’ll want to show that you have thought carefully about why you are interested in consulting and why the firm you’re interviewing with is a good fit.

Preparing great answers to these questions can also help you explain what you’re doing to your friends and family!

Example In-Depth Experience Questions

These questions should give you an idea of the kinds of things you’ll be asked. You can make up hundreds more questions by varying the themes in the samples below.

• Give me an example of a time that you had to take a team in a new direction in order to save a project under a tight deadline.
• Tell me about a time when you set a specific goal for yourself and accomplished it.
• What was the biggest challenge within your PhD and why?
• Give me an example of a time when you tried to change someone’s mind in an important situation. (Could be successful or unsuccessful) For this example, try to think of something where the person was very firm about their position?
• Consider a time when you were forced to go against a group decision. How did you know that you had to do what you did, and what did you do afterwards?
• Tell me about a time when you had to tell a superior or supervisor they were wrong.
• Tell me about a time when you worked with someone that was very challenging. Try to think of a situation in which you had to directly confront this person.
• Recall a time when you had to confront someone for poor work on a project.
• Tell me about a time when you had to influence a large group of people (try to think of something that isn’t school/work related).
• Give me an example of when you had to lead a team through a crisis?
• Many times in consulting we have to work directly with CEOs and other executives. Tell me about an experience when you had to meet with someone very high up in an organization.

Preparing for In-Depth Experience Questions

In-depth questions like those above help the interviewer gauge how you think and how you have solved real problems in your past. They also will cause you to show a lot of your personality if you answer them well. Here are some things to remember.

Prepare at least 5 stories. Each story should be flexible and detailed enough to answer two or three of the sample questions depending on how you tell it. Having at least 5 stories in mind should give you plenty of variety to handle any question the interviewer throws at you.

Use a compelling title. If you have a story about how you had to convince your boss to re-write a chapter in a grant application (for example), Don’t just jump into the story. First, present the title: “This story is about a time when I influenced my supervisor to make a last-minute change that saved our group’s funding.” The short, exciting synopsis sets the tone for the rest of the question.

Have at least 10 minutes of talk for each story. Hopefully you’ll get some breaks, and you won’t have to talk the whole time. Fill your stories with hooks that deliberately bait the interviewer into asking further questions (which you also have answers to). Be interactive throughout the story. Ask the interviewer if they’re following and stop to answer any tangential questions the interviewer may have.

Don’t forget your structure. Prepare by remembering all the details, writing down key bits of information, and trying to impose a structure on the narrative. Come up with lots of 3-bullet-lists to use in the story. 3 Observations you had, 3 problems you faced, 3 things you tried, etc. These will lend structure to the story, help the interviewer know where you’re headed, and keep you focused.

Consider a layout like this:

1. Start with a hook or “headline” (10 sec.)
2. Set up by telling why its important and how it relates to the question (~30-60 sec.)
3. Mention what the 3 major problems were. (10 sec.)
4. Talk about the 1st problem and the solution (120 sec.)
5. Talk about a 2nd problem and the solution (120 sec.)
6. Talk about a 3rd problem and the solution (120 sec.)
7. Give a nice conclusion and epilogue and say what you learned. (30-60 sec.)

Be very detailed about your thought process. Shoot to give details without being prompted, but realize that the interviewer might jump in and ask for clarifications here and there. A big difference between consulting interviews and normal interviews is that consultants want the details. Be sure to tell why you did things, how you reached your conclusions, and what specifically you did about them.

It’s like being at a party. You want to be engaging, suspenseful, and impressive. You should let people jump in to ask questions, but you should be able to roll with the story if no one does. This also means you should use real stories. Pull from research, class projects, past jobs, personal life, hobbies, etc., but don’t make stuff up.

Other ideas for practicing for experience interviews? Leave a comment.

Conclusion

Well, folks. That wraps it up. We’ve covered building your brand, honing your resume, prepping for case interviews, and now, talking about your experience. With these tools and some careful practice you should be able to go in and rock those interviews!

I wish you the best of luck in finding the consulting job of your dreams!

• Series Intro: A PhD’s Guide to Getting a Consulting Job
• Part 1: Branding Yourself and Making Making a “Wow” Resume
• Part 2: Preparing for Your Case Interview to Get Bulletproof
• Part 3: Talking about Your Experience and Sounding like a Bad-ass

Disclaimer: I recently went through the application and interview process with a top firm, came out with an offer, and signed it! In this series, I share my experience and give some ideas for people on a similar path. However, at the time of writing (July 2009), I do not have any inside information on how any company conducts their hiring. These are just my thoughts!

In short, the techniques called “Market-based Management” (MBM) described in the book are string of very sensible ideas. The true power of the book is that it shows how to join these sensible ideas together into a cohesive and effective management strategy. In this review, I’ll briefly describe the points that really hit home with me.

1. Opportunity Cost – Surely everyone knows that an opportunity cost is “the cost of the best alternative forgone to do something.” Koch stresses how this simple principle is under-utilized in most companies, and that by paying close attention to the opportunity cost of EVERY action, companies can be sure to work on the most valuable thing.
2. Comparative Advantage – Here, Koch reiterates the idea that each person should do what adds the most value. This builds on the idea of opportunity cost saying that appropriate distribution of tasks causes people, teams, divisions, and companies to work on what they do best and not forgo their comparative advantage. Doing this all the time at all levels ensures minimal waste.
3. Decision Rights – This term is used as an analog to “property rights.” By distributing the “ownership” of decision making privileges in the same way that property might be distributed, decision makers have clear responsibility for decisions they make. This means that they will reap all of the benefits for good decisions as well as the repercussions of bad decisions. Allowing a person’s decision rights to grow based on how well they use them makes more sense than allowing them to grow based solely on seniority or rank.
4. Appropriate Incentives – Finally, Koch describes how incentives are put in place to encourage long-term growth and value creation. A quote I particularly liked was that a company should, “take from each according to their ability and give to each according to their contribution.” Thus, incentives are firmly rooted in how much an employee actually contributes rather than being fixed to seniority, rank, or title.
5. Principled Entrepreneurship – Furthermore, Koch suggests rating performance not just on contributions but also on missed contributions. Hence, if an employee misses an opportunity to make $1 million, that should be judged as if the employee lost $1 million by failing in any other way. This encourages employees to take prudent risks and remain entrepreneurial at all times.

All in all, a very interesting, but quick read. It seems that these principles really work as evidenced by Koch Industries success. I fear that established companies would be very hard pressed to start incorporating these ideas, but new managers or managers with a great deal of freedom should read this book twice before starting to plan how their company or group will operate!

This is a 128 question test where people mark whether or not adjectives describe them. Thus a person might check yes to “Good Leader” and no to “Hard to Impress.” Once all the appropriate answers are marked, each one is weighed and put into an appropriate bin. The size of each bin marks the prominence of that personality trait in the person.

I’ve used this program as my first e-commerce venture. Visit http://www.shawnlankton.com/icl to get information about the program, download the fully-featured demo, or purchase the full program!

I just have a couple pictures to share. I’ll tell you what, the rooms at the Ritz sure beat the hell out of the rooms I stay in when I travel to conferences! Gigantic beds, big bathtubs, marble counter tops, full closets, and what a view.

When we weren’t eating, drinking, hiking, and socializing I worked with a small group of five people to study, analyze, and solve a practice consulting scenario. David, Judy, Sauraub, Yi and Elizabeth were all bright, funny, and capable. If consulting means working with only top-notch people… I’m in. Here’s the group on a mountain during a hiking trip (minus Yi who decided to go white water rafting instead).

Hopefully this trip was a preview of what being a consultant is like because if it is… I like it!

Stephen Flemming
“Transforming Innovative Tech into Business”

As with any other person who has been a VC or angel investor, Steve was incredibly sharp, and seemed like he would be impervious to BS either on the giving or receiving end. Steve began his talk discussing the pros and cons of starting a business in the Southeast. He went on a diatribe about how ludicrous the spending in California is. Then he pointed out that although there isn’t much VC investment in Georgia and the surrounding states, there is a better tax situation, and much better access to real estate, talent, and customers.

Steve continued by discussing the cyclical relationship between institutional investors, VC’s, and entrepreneurs giving some insight into how that relationship drove VC’s behaviors. Some interesting take-aways were that VC’s want the entrepreneur to get rich, and that they’ll only have to be brutal and cruel if they have to in order to make the returns they promised their investors.

After giving some insight in these areas, he began enumerating the things that you must convince investors of when trying to raise capital for a business.

1. You have a large, fast-growing market segment
2. You have a technological advantage that will block competition
3. You have reasonable financial terms
4. You have measurable milestones for success

He went on fleshing these out for most of the remainder of the talk, but kept peppering in useful tips. I’d like to point out some here:

1. Get a good referral (from another investor, an attorney, etc.) If you’re plan comes pre-qualified it. You’re in.
2. Make a 20 page business plan with a 2 page executive summary. No More!
3. Power-Point deck using the 10-20-30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point type)
4. In all of these documents, sell the company, not the product.
5. Do your homework on the investors you’re presenting to and tailor the presentation. It will help you and impress them.
6. Choose your investor wisely. Don’t just follow money; find someone that can help you with experience, expertise, contacts, etc.

Check out Steve Fleming’s website as well. Here you can find his blog as well as some useful information about starting companies.

Furthermore, here is a list of other resources and websites that Steve
suggested:

• Tesla Motors
• The Elements of Style
• Edward Tufte
• The Art of Start (Guy Kawasaki)
• Presentationzen.com

This short, fast read talks about the myths that people have about the process of innovation, and some steps on overcoming these myths and innovating well anyway! Although I found the book inspiring and informative, I think I can sum up all of Berkun’s talking points briefly below and save you the trouble of reading the book : )

• Work hard.
• Work on meaningful problems.
• Work on hard problems.
• Work diligently and tirelessly, but take well-earned breaks to reflect. He belabors the point that innovation comes from persistent effort, not “ah ha” moments.
• Frame and re-frame the problem you’re working on. By following the same rules and same metrics for success that everyone else follows, you’re doomed to mediocrity. Re-examine the problem and re-frame it.
• Work really, really, really hard.

Finally, here is a video from the “Google Tech Talk” series. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ll bet you can get the gist of the whole book over the 1 hour video.

Seam Carving

This is brilliant (and brilliantly simple work). It solves a problem, and in doing so gives us tools to solve problems we didn’t even know we had! Its hard to explain, check the video out.

Dr. Ariel Shamir has a host of other interesting research as well: link.

Read on for more great research:

Vision-aided multi-touch collaboration

This is a fantastic application of computer vision to do something that was done expensively and not as well before. Using computer vision, the guys at MSR in Cambridge, UK built a multi-touch interface that not only acts as a natural way for people to use a computer solo, but aids in collaboration in what looks like a very natural way. Check out the demo video. This is out of Microsoft research labs, so we may well see this in real-life soon!

3D tracking from 2D videos

Another nice webcam collaboration-type application. These guys can track rigid objects by fitting a 3D model to image data collected. After looking at their paper, I’m skeptical at how widely applicable the algorithms could be, but the posted results are very impressive! Check the video.

3D models from uncalibrated video

I’m seeing a pattern that a new push in computer vision will be to make sense of a 3D world from 2D images (just like our brain does). Dr. Pollefey at UNC has several projects related to this goal. Below is a video of a sculpture. From the video (taken from a hand-held camcorder) a 3D computer model of the sculpture is obtained.

Mixed Reality Billiards

Here’s another application deserving of study: Game-Playing. With the success of the Wii I am certain that interactive games (read: games requiring more than button pushing) will become more and more popular in the coming years. Here, someone is trying to design for that market. In the video below, the player uses real-life objects seen by a camera to control a billiards video game… I’m impressed.

Expect more posts on this type of thing as I try to flesh out my understanding of what the entire industry is doing. By all means! if you know of some cool research, send me a link or leave a comment.