Ginger Alford

Contact

Educational Background

BS, Mathematics, University of Texas; MS, Computer Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University; PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Iowa

About

With degrees in mathematics, computer science and electrical and computer engineering, Dr. Jennifer (Ginger) Alford has emphasized mathematical and computational foundations of image processing, computer graphics, and computer vision.  A GE Fellowship supported her doctoral research in the area of digital halftoning.  Her publications have focused on applying computational models of human visual perception to improve visual quality for halftoning.  She studied under Theophano Mitsa, the co-inventor and patent holder for the “Blue Noise Mask,” widely adopted in the printer industry.

Specializing in the interdisciplinary field of visual computing, Dr. Alford has worked on industry projects ranging from implementing algorithms to render streaming imagery overlaid with graphics from geo-located data to writing device-driver level code.  She worked as a software engineer for General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) writing embedded avionics software to control graphical indicators in the heads up display.  She was lead software engineer for E-Systems (now Raytheon) in development of a graphics workstation that merged image-based and geometry-based elements into a single augmented display for image analysis.   She has worked as an intellectual property consultant, providing technical analysis of patents and source code in the areas of digital halftoning for image display and printing.

Passionate about education, Dr. Alford works with several institutions supporting formal and informal computer science and STEAM education.  She has developed a computer science, digital fabrication and creative robotics program for grades 5-12 for Trinity Valley School, including a capstone “Humanitronics” project which embeds creative robotics in a 7^th grade core humanities curriculum.  She provides professional development for the Fort Worth Independent School District teachers and collaborates with colleagues at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History focusing on immersive environments for informal education.

Active with professional organizations, she is Chair of the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee, General Submissions Chair for the 2020 SIGGRAPH Conference and is on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Computer Graphics and Application Magazine.  She has also served on the ACM Education Council.