160 TEACHERs COLLEGE COLUmbIA UNIvERsITy
biographies
(2004-7). He is also co-principal investigator of
Aikon, together with Patrick Tresset. “Patrick and I
met in late 2004 and started collaborating on AIkon
in 2005. In 2009 we received a grant from the Lever-
hulme Trust which has helped fuel our research
project and explore more in depth in particular
embodiments of AIkon within robotics.” Frederic
received his B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering, with
honors in aeronautics, from the University of Mon-
treal, his M.Eng. from McGill University in Com-
puter Vision and Biomedical imagery, and his PhD
from Brown University (in 3D shape representation
and computational geometry). His current research
interests incorporate ideas from computer vision,
together with the physics of waves and shocks and
their modelling in modern mathematics via singu-
larity theory. Frederic is also working on perceptual
models grounded in geometry, based in part on
Gestalt theory. Frederic has initiated several “shape-
based” projects mixing the Arts, Humanities, Social
Sciences, and Computing, including CyberCity and
CyberMonument (late 1990’s), Digital sculpting
(with the Mid-Ocean Studio, 2002-5), and Digi-
tal archaeology (co-founder of the SHAPE lab. at
Brown University, established in 1999).
Howard Riley studied at the Hammersmith
College of Art, Coventry College of Art, and the
Royal College of Art. He holds a doctorate of the
University of Wales in the practice and pedagogy
of drawing. He taught at various art schools in Lon-
don before taking up a post in the School of Art and
Design, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia,
where he studied with Professor Michael O’Toole, a
pioneer of visual semiotics at Murdoch University
in Perth. He has published in the areas of visual
semiotics, generative art and multi-modality. His
drawings have been exhibited in Australia, Malay-
sia, Finland and the UK. Currently, Riley is Pro-
fessor of Visual Communication and Head of the
School of Research & Postgraduate Studies at the
Dynevor Centre for Arts, Design & Media, Swansea
Metropolitan University, Wales, UK.
Neil Shah is a Senior Fellow of Head and Neck
Optical Diagnostics Society. He is a Consultant Oral
& Maxillofacial Surgeon, St Bartholomew’s Hospi-
tal, London. Current Research Interests:
• The relationship between art, anatomy & sur-
gery• Oncology: tumour behaviour
• Reconstructive surgery: stem cells
• Comparative anatomy & human evolution-
ary anatomy
• Mineralised Tissue biologySeymour Simmons is an Associate Professor in
the Department of Fine Art at Winthrop University,
Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he coordinates
the Undergraduate Art Education program and
teaches courses in both art education and studio art,
e.g., drawing and figure drawing. He has a B.F.A.
in Printmaking from Colorado State University, as
well as Masters and Doctorate degrees in Education
from Harvard University where his degree was in
Philosophy of Education. Prior to coming to Win-
throp, he taught at Massachusetts College of Art
and worked as a researcher at Harvard ProjectZero
with Dr. Howard Gardner. http://www.seymour-
simmons.com/Angela Hodgson Teall is a research student
at Wimbledon College of Arts. She has worked as
an artist in the field of arts and science for health,
negotiating the expanding territory of medical
humanities, since the 1990s. Through diverse draw-
ing practices and empathic interactions she entices
others to produce artworks with her. Angela stud-
ied medicine many years ago at University College,
followed by arts degrees at Goldsmiths and Univer-
sity of the Arts, London. She works as a consultant
medical microbiologist in South London Healthcare
Trust, a series of hospitals where her collaborative
drawing events are located, as part of her PhD in
Visual Art, Drawing on the Nature of Empathy. Her
research is interdisciplinary and her practice needs
the collaboration of staff and students in both fields.Sumru Tekin was born in Erzurum, Turkey and
emigrated as a child to the US with her family. Edu-
cated at Massachusetts College of Art, and Parsons
School of Design, she has a MFA in Visual Art from
the Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in Art
History from the University of Vermont. Her mul-
tidisciplinary approach to exploring the effects of
language and image through translation and repre-
sentation includes drawing, photography, text, and
installation. Mining a historical rupture in recogni-
tion of a past that appears to be lost, she questions
the adequacy of representation, notions of redemp-
tion, and the efficacy of apology. How can one rep-