xVRML Project People

The xVRML Project team is currently composed of three central people at RIT. A number of other people in the general community contribute occasional time, energy, and code. Contributions to the team are focused on three areas right now: the Schema and specification, a viewer application, and educational materials.

Jeff Sonstein

Professor Jeffrey Sonstein teaches in the Information Technology Department at RIT. Jeff has been involved in "Web 3D" since the Draft VRML 1.0 specification was being discussed on the list at www-vrml@wired.com. He was a part of the Web3D Consortium Contributors Group when the initial design of what is now X3D was developed, and has contributed both code and Schema expertise to that effort. Jeff has been talking with the community about the issues involved in Web-based 3D shifting to XML for years, and formed the xVRML Project in 2003. Jeff began recruiting exceptional graduate students to work on the Project in mid-2004.

Dave Huffman

Dave Huffman is currently working on finishing his thesis at RIT. Dave became interested in xVRML after taking an Introduction to Virtual Reality class from Prof. Sonstein in the Spring of 2004. Dave has been building the Carina viewer application as part of the xVRML Project team since mid-2004, and has contributed extensively to the specification and Schema. Dave worked on the Carina viewer application in his "spare time" while taking graduate classes, learning as he went. Dave is an excellent software designer and programmer, and has been an invaluable team member.

Yu-Fen (Winnie) Lin

Winnie Lin is currently finishing her graduate classes at RIT. Winnie became interested in xVRML after taking an Introduction to Virtual Reality class from Prof. Sonstein in the Spring of 2005. That class was the first to be taught using xVRML. Winnie has been building content creator tutorial materials as part of the xVRML Project team since mid-2005, and has contributed to the specification and the Schema. Winnie is an excellent coder, creates beautiful, low-polygon-count models, and is a highly valued member of the team.

Community Members

Numerous Web3D community members have donated time, specification review work, and models to the Project. I have been remiss in publicly thanking them, and need to make up a list of contributors to post to this site.