Paul Kruszewski (born 1967) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

AI technologist and serial entrepreneur known for his work in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

. He is the founder and CEO of , an AI and computer vision software engineering company based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. He has founded three AI startups, including , specializing in

crowd simulation Crowd simulation is the process of simulating the movement (or ) of a large number of entities or characters. It is commonly used to create Virtual cinematography, virtual scenes for visual media like films and video games, and is also used in cri ...

, NPC behaviours, and human pose estimation. His projects have gradually gotten more complex as he's moved from developing AI software capable of understanding many people doing simple tasks to fewer people engaged in more complex tasks to perfect knowledge of individual body language.

Academic life

Kruszewski completed his bachelor's degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. While attending U of A, he was president of the Computer Science Association. After graduating, he went on to obtain an MA and PhD in computer science from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

. For graduate school, Kruszewski received a

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; , CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering research in Canada. NSERC directly funds university professors and students as ...

(NSERC) Science and Engineering scholarship in 1992. His PhD thesis on

random binary tree In computer science and probability theory, a random binary tree is a binary tree selected at random from some probability distribution on binary trees. Different distributions have been used, leading to different properties for these trees. Ran ...

s suggested a method to produce realistic images of trees digitally. His work was inspired by '' The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants'' by

Przemysław Prusinkiewicz Przemysław (Przemek) Prusinkiewicz is a Polish computer scientist who advanced the idea that Fibonacci numbers in nature can be in part understood as the expression of certain algebraic constraints on free groups, specifically as certain Linden ...

. After completing his thesis, Kruszewski developed and commercialized the software, naming it the "Tree Druid."

Professional life

Work in industry

After obtaining his PhD, Kruszewski held various positions across North America, Europe, and Asia. During this time he developed the first

cloud-based Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

human simulator at My Virtual Model. He also developed both the

PS2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 November, in Australia on 30 November, ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

game engines at

Behaviour Interactive Behaviour Interactive Inc. (stylized as "bEHAVIOUR", sometimes shortened to "BHVR") is a Canadian video game developer and publisher based in Montreal. The studio is best known for the multiplayer horror game '' Dead by Daylight''. History The co ...

Entrepreneurial initiatives

BioGraphic Technologies Inc.

Kruszewski founded BioGraphic Technologies (BGT) in 2000. BGT is best known for developing "AI.implant", a

program. Working from his previous experience in video game development, Kruszewski focused BGT's vision on the

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and

gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playing ...

industries, collaborating with such companies as

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

and

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

. Engenuity Technologies, now Presagis, a modeling and simulation software provider, saw the benefits of simulating large civilian crowds for training purposes, purchasing the company in 2005. Kruszewski became the CTO of Engenuity.

GripHeavyIndustries

In July 2007, Kruszewski founded GripHeavyIndustries, better known as Grip Entertainment, which created complex AI characters for a range of game developers, such as EA,

, and

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American ...

. The company is credited on such titles as Army of Two: The 40th Day and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. In 2011, the company experienced some controversy when gamers rallied against Grip's boss fights at the end of the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Eidos Montreal had outsourced the development of the game's boss fights to Grip due to time constraints and the complex nature of the open-ended gameplay. Players felt that the fights were inflexible when compared with the rest of the game, causing a stir in the industry. That same year,

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

, a multinational software company, acquired Grip Entertainment.

Kruszewski's latest venture builds on previous experience gained from working with computer vision technology. He founded in April 2014 in Montreal's TandemLaunch incubator. With he has developed BodySLAM, a deep learning AI body-tracking software. As a man-machine interface, BodySLAM has multiple possible applications in various industries, such as health care, security, retail and entertainment. Sep. 17, 2021 — Hinge Health, the world’s #1 Digital Musculoskeletal Clinic™, has acquired wrnch, developer of the leading computer vision platform for measuring human motion. wrnch’s three-dimensional motion-tracking technology enables the same precise tracking of full-body movement used by elite athletes and the motion picture industry. Hinge Health has the largest computer vision team in digital health.

Publications and patents

Publications

The Botanical Beauty of Random Binary Trees
(1995)
On the Horton-Strahler Number for Random Tries
(1996)
An algorithm for sculpting trees
(1999)
A probabilistic technique for the synthetic imagery of lightning
(1999)
A Note on the Horton-Strahler Number for Random Binary Search Trees
(1999)
Crowd Modeling For Military Simulations Using Game Technology
(2005)
Believable and Reactive Crowds in Next Generation Games
(2006)
Navigation Challenges in Massively Destructible Worlds
(2007)
Integrating Crowd-Behavior Modeling into Military Simulation using Game Technology
(2008)
Engineering Fun
(2011)

Patents

* Method and Stem for On-Screen Animation of Digital Objects or Characters,
2004
* System and Method for Displaying Selected Garments on a Computer-Simulated Mannequin,
1999200920112012

References

__FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Kruszewski, Paul 1967 births Living people McGill University alumni Canadian people of Polish descent Computer vision researchers Canadian artificial intelligence researchers University of Alberta alumni Canadian software engineers Businesspeople from Montreal Scientists from Montreal