Accenture
161 North Clark St
Chicago IL
60601
USA
kelly.l.dempski@accenture.com As director of research for Human-Computer Interaction at Accenture Technology Labs, Kelly Dempski helps Accenture and its clients capitalize on emerging technologies to maximize workforce productivity and customer interactions. Some might say Dempski took a circuitous route on his path to the Labs, where he focuses on the vast potential of human-computer interaction to dramatically enhance the way organizations support their workforce and solve difficult challenges, such as reducing the cost and risk involved in an offshore transition or improving the effectiveness of learning and performance support. But for the former bike racer and accomplished author who once pondered a career as an engineer, the road has been full of interesting twists and turns. During his suburban Chicago childhood, Dempski was inspired by his parents’ entrepreneurial skills. They owned several rental properties, and worked hard managing the buildings and tenants. The young Dempski knew real estate wasn’t his calling, but was influenced by his parents energy. “I was always around people who were creating new things,” he recalls. His passion for creativity brought him to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied engineering—an “oddball” major, as he puts it, in that he was able to design his own course requirements. He ended up with a triple specialty in control systems, robotics and manufacturing engineering. Although jumping into a career as an engineer seemed like the next step, Dempski decided law school would be a better fit after graduation. There, he thought he could use his engineering skills in a technical field like intellectual property and work on fresh projects all the time. Newness held strong allure for Dempski from his earliest years. Dempski dutifully completed the paperwork to apply for school—took the LSAT, solicited recommendations, obtained transcripts. Just before the application deadline, however, he decided to go to an interview at Accenture’s Chicago office “because that’s what everyone did after graduating from college.” Despite his skepticism, Dempski found himself instantly smitten with the idea of working with technology. “During the interview, I saw how technology was relevant and dynamic,” he says. “I knew then that I always wanted to be involved with whatever happened to be the newest and the most interesting. It fit all the things I was looking for.” Dempski joined Accenture and quickly found his way into the company’s Center for Strategic Technology Research, which eventually grew into Accenture Technology Labs. In those early days, when “people were just getting excited about Internet browsers and multimedia on computers,” Dempski worked with videoconferencing equipment. This early experience with video and computer screens would be a precursor to Dempski’s later involvement in designing innovative solutions that would be installed in major airports and used by travelers from around the world. Today, Dempski still relishes the creative environment and energy that first attracted him to Accenture. He continually strives to invent practical solutions from cutting-edge technology, balancing the opportunities of the future with today’s realities. “At the Labs, we’re working to predict tomorrow’s problems today and create innovations to solve them now,” Dempski says. “While some academic research labs are divorced from day-to-day life, that isn’t the case here. We’re out-of-the-box thinkers, but our work with real consultants and real clients keeps us grounded to resolving real business problems in the most innovative ways. I like the creatively pragmatic.” One of Dempski’s latest projects is the Interactive Wall, a large, high-resolution interactive screen that puts vast amounts of information at users’ fingertips and helps them see the "big picture.” With installations at both Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, multiple travelers can simultaneously touch the 10 foot by 4 foot screen to get information they need—like checking the weather at their destination, reading the latest news from CNN, or finding out how their favorite team scored while they were in flight. Whether applied to advise consumers about products and services or employed to act as a nerve center for command and control operations, organizations across industries can use the technology to enable new methods of collaboration and interaction. Another project also demonstrates Dempski’s commitment to examining how new technologies can transform the way we interact, communicate, collaborate and work. As today's workforces become increasingly distributed and knowledge-based, organizations are faced with more diverse workforces, as well as the challenge of retaining and transferring unprecedented amounts of data more quickly, with lower costs and at greater distances. Through Accenture Virtual Collaborative Software Design, Dempski and the Labs are helping geographically dispersed teams collaborate more effectively through eye-to-eye interaction and virtual work objects. The innovation, which is like a next-generation video conference, can be used in any business scenario that requires people to collaborate and work effectively across locations. “When you have people working across countries and cultures, you ideally want them to be able to sit down, understand each other and work without technology getting in the way,” Dempski explains. “When two people use the tool, it’s the same as if they were sitting at a desk sharing the same piece of paper. The technology is virtually invisible.” Throughout all the innovations he has touched during his tenure at Accenture, Dempski is in continual pursuit of “the new and interesting,” as well as the opportunity to “create something from scratch.” And, since none of the researchers in the Labs is tied to any one technology, Dempski believes they are freer to innovate. “We are not held down by preconceptions about a technology, which enables us to invent a completely different and innovative way of solving a problem.” Read Dempski’s blog to learn about his latest thoughts on technology and innovation. Selected Publications Multi-User Display Walls: Lessons Learned
Kelly Dempski and Brandon Harvey
CHI 2006 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
Montreal, Canada
April 22-27, 2006
Information Visualization and Interaction Techniques for Collaboration across Multiple Displays
April 22-23, 2006 (2-day workshop)
[Abstract of Multi-User Display Walls: Lessons Learned] [ Paper (PDF, 37KB)]
PDF Help Touchable Interactive Walls: Opportunities and Challenges
Kelly L. Dempski and Brandon Harvey
IFIP 4th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Kwansei Gakuin University, , Kobe Sanda Campus, Sanda, Japan
September 19-21, 2005
[Abstract of Touchable Interactive Walls: Opportunities and Challenges] [ Paper (PDF, 499K)] Multi-User Affordances for Rooms with Very Large, Interactive, High Resolution Screens
Kelly L. Dempski and Brandon Harvey
Computer Human Interaction Virtuality 2005
April 2–7, 2005
Portland
[Abstract of Muti-User Affordance for Rooms with Very Large, Interactive, High Resolution Screens] [ Paper (PDF, 167K)]
Supporting Collaborative Touch Interaction with
High Resolution Wall Displays
Kelly L. Dempski and
Brandon Harvey
2nd Workshop on Multi-User and Ubiquitous User Interfaces (MU3I) January 9, 2005 at IUI 2005
[Abstract of Supporting Collaborative Touch Interaction with High Resolution Wall Displays] [Paper (PDF, 175K)]
PDF Help Advanced Lighting and Materials with Shaders
K. L. Dempski and E. Viale
This book provides explanations of recent 3D rendering techniques using the emerging programmability of 3D hardware. Different advanced techniques, such as Spherical Harmonics lighting are explained in detailed with sample implementations using shaders. The web site of the book is available at: http://www.advancedrenderingtechniques.com The Use of Broadcast Infrastructures for On-Demand
Services
Kelly L. Dempski
International Conference
on Cross Media Service Delivery, May 31, 2003, Santorini,
Greece
[Abstract of The Use of Broadcast Infrastructures for On-Demand Services]
[ Paper
(PDF, 516K)]
Focus on Curves and Surfaces
Kelly
L. Dempski
This book provides explanations of the mathematics behind Bezier
curves, B-Spline, and NURBS. The curve concepts are then extended to 3D
surfaces based on the same mathematics.
Real Time Television Content Platform:
Personalized Programming Over Existing Broadcast
Infrastructures
Kelly L. Dempski
Second Workshop on
Personalization in Future TV (TV '02) at the Second
International Conference on Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-based Systems
(AH 2002), 28 May 2002, Malaga, Spain
[Abstract of Real Time Television Content Platform]
[ Paper
(PDF, 504KB)]
Real Time Rendering Tricks and Techniques in
DirectX
Kelly L. Dempski
Premier Press
This new book
offers explanations of several rendering techniques using the latest hardware
and software. Several shader techniques are discussed, including shadow
generation, bezier patches, skinned meshes, and more.
Context-Sensitive eCommerce
Kelly L. Dempski
2000 Conference on Human Factors in
Computer Systems (CHI 2000) Extended Abstracts, 1-6 April 2000, The
Hague
[Abstract of Context-Sensitive eCommerce]
[Paper (PDF, 117K)]
PDF Help Augmented Reality-Enabled eCommerce
(demonstration)
Kelly L. Dempski and Mitu Singh
Second IEEE
and ACM International Workshop on Augmented Reality (IWAR '99), 20-21
October 1999, San Francisco
[Abstract of Augmented Reality-Enabled eCommerce]
Augmented Workspace: The World as your Desktop
Kelly L. Dempski
First International Symposium on
Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing (HUC '99), 27-29 September 1999,
Karlsruhe, Germany
[Abstract of Augmented Workspace]
[Paper (PDF, 1.2MB) (ZIP)]
In Search of A New Generation of Knowledge
Management Applications
Edy S. Liongosari, Kelly L. Dempski
and Kishore S. Swaminathan
ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin, July
1999
[Abstract of In Search of a New Generation of Knowledge Management Applications]
[Paper
(PDF, 2MB) (ZIP)]
PDF Help Integrating Disparate Knowledge Sources
Adam B. Brody, Kelly L. Dempski, Joseph E. Kaplan, Scott W.
Kurth, Edy S. Liongosari and Kishore S. Swaminathan
Second
International Conference on The Practical Application of Knowledge Management
(PAKeM '99), 21-23 April 1999, London
[Abstract of Integrating Disparate Knowledge Sources]
[ Paper
(PDF, 4.7MB) (ZIP)]
Education
- B.S., General Engineering, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign
Personal Interests
I try to spend time outdoors doing things like cycling,
rollerblading, and rock climbing. When I can't be outside, I like starting
little projects that I have no realistic hope of finishing. I also enjoy
cooking, and occasionally playing the didgeridoo.
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