“The Power of High-Level Languages in Early Stage Algorithm Exploration”  By Benjamin Hilldore ‘04, Gentex Corporation

We’ll explore how using high-level languages like MATLAB or Python can significantly improve the algorithm development process. By taking advantage of the features of these languages, we can rapidly prototype and iterate on ideas, quickly revealing potential problems and identifying possible paths to success. During this session, we’ll work through a live exercise of attempting to extract depth information from focus blur using a webcam. This will either showcase the power of these languages, or provide an object lesson in why you shouldn’t code live during a presentation. Either way, it should be informative!

Bio: Ben Hilldore (’04) is a Lead Research Engineer with over 17 years of experience in research and development across multiple disciplines. 
In his current role at Gentex, he has designed many of the image processing algorithms for Gentex’s Full Display Mirror platforms, contributing to products launched on vehicles around the world. He has also contributed to many other projects in areas such as chemical classification, lane line detection, electrochromic devices, and hand writing recognition.
Ben graduated from Hope College in 2004 with bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Physics. He then continued his education at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he earned his master’s degree in Computer Science with an emphasis in computer graphics. 
Outside of work, Ben enjoys travelling and has been to over a dozen countries across five continents. He also loves building LEGO with his wife and two sons. One of Ben’s favorite trips was when he and his wife were able to combine these hobbies and spent several days at Lego headquarters in Denmark as part of LEGO’s Inside Tour program – you probably shouldn’t ask him about it unless you have some time to spare.