一位受人尊敬的工程师的逝世
麦肯齐
基思·皮尔斯
最靠谱的网赌软件 lost one of its most respected engineering faculty members with the passing of Frederic (Rick) 麦肯齐, professor and chair of the Department of Computational 建模 and Simulation Engineering (CMSE) in the 巴顿工程学院 and 技术 (BCET).
麦肯齐, who provided 21 years of dedicated and invaluable service to ODU, died over the weekend. 他55岁.
最靠谱的网赌软件校长约翰. Broderick said 麦肯齐 was a remarkable colleague who worked tirelessly for both the benefit of 大学 and his engineering profession.
“虽然博士. 麦肯齐的英年早逝让我们悲痛欲绝，思念他, 众所周知，他给予学生的支持和鼓励, 教职员工将继续生活下去,布罗德里克说. "I believe his commitment and passion for his work will continue to be an inspiration."
"This is a devastating loss for our BCET family," said Ben Stuart, interim dean of the College. “他给我们学院留下了深远的影响, 大学, and the broader engineering community and will be greatly missed."
在他的领域里很受尊敬, 麦肯齐 served as principal and co-principal investigator on projects involving software architectures for simulation, behavior representation in simulations and medical modeling and simulation. His work led to several publications relating research in modeling human-like intelligent agents, 包括人群, 分布式仿真体系结构的正式描述, objective measures of successful prostate surgery and augmenting standardized patients. Many of these projects also involved virtual reality and scientific visualization.
"Rick was a passionate advocate for his students, staff and faculty," Stuart said. "He was a dedicated leader who strove for excellence in his programs and was a significant contributor to the evolving vision for the BCET."
最近, recognizing a critical need by health-care workers for personal protection equipment, 麦肯齐 led a team of students and faculty in the development of an open-source mask designed with a removable filter for health-care providers at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD).
麦肯锡与CHKD的合作关系可以追溯到更早的时候. 在2018年，与博士合作. 罗伯特•凯利, CHKD的外科主任, 麦肯齐 and a team developed a 3D scanning tool to track improvement of chest deformities in children and teens. The technology was so remarkable it attracted the attention of hospitals in Korea, China and France after Kelly and 麦肯齐 presented it at a conference hosted by the Chest Wall 国际 Group in Seoul, 韩国.
在那之前, 麦肯齐's team had already developed a simulation to help train doctors to perform a procedure that was developed in 1987 by Dr. Donald Nuss at CHKD for treating pectus excavatum, a chest wall abnormality most common in children.
"Surgical simulation is a hot topic in medicine right now, which is why a few years ago we asked Dr. 麦肯齐 for help developing a training tool for the Nuss procedure. 一路走来, 我们也一直在RESEARCH非手术治疗, which is when he agreed to develop a simulator for those procedures,凯利说。. "Dr. 麦肯齐是ODU和我们地区的一笔巨大财富. He had an incredible intellect, with the rare ability to work in many different fields. 他也是一个可敬而亲切的人. He made a tremendous difference in many lives and will be keenly missed."
麦肯齐获得了博士学位.D. in computer engineering from 大学 of Central Florida in 1994. 加入ODU之前, he was a senior scientist at Science Applications 国际 Corporation (SAIC), serving as principal investigator for several distributed simulation projects. At SAIC, he was a team leader on a large distributed simulation system. 加入上汽集团前, 麦肯齐 worked as a student researcher on projects involving the NASA Kennedy Space Center and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. His several years of research and development experience in the software and artificial intelligence fields included object-oriented design and knowledge-based systems. 两个都是M.S. 和Ph值.D. work were in artificial intelligence - focusing on knowledge representation and model-based diagnostic reasoning.
"Rick was one of the most talented and intelligent professionals on campus,奥斯汀说, 教务长兼学术事务副校长. "He was a friend to many and a problem solver who was always focused on ways to use his skills for the good of others. 我们将深深地怀念他."
麦肯齐 is survived by his wife, Issel, and two sons, Karl and Connor.
A private funeral mass will take place on Friday, July 24, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. and is open to all via 脸谱网 livestream (@AscensionVB) beginning at 10:55 a.m. 鲜花和卡片可以送到耶稣升天教堂, 弗吉尼亚海滩, 安妮公主道4853号, 弗吉尼亚海滩, VA 23462.
