Boundary Institute

Associates and colleagues

Richard Shoup obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in 1970. His Ph.D. thesis was the first to explore the idea of reconfigurable hardware, a technology now widely used in computers and other digital electronics.
That same year, Shoup became one of the first employees at the pioneering Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he spent the following decade researching computer graphics and animation, digital video, and theories of computation. At Xerox he built one of the first digital frame buffers and developed painting software for graphic arts. The resulting "SuperPaint" system now resides in the Computer Museum History Center collection at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California.

In recognition of his work in computer graphics, Shoup was awarded an Emmy by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a Computer Graphics Achievement award by ACM Siggraph. He remains one of only a handful of people in front of or behind the camera to win both an Emmy and an Academy Award.
Dr. Shoup left Xerox in 1979 to co-found Aurora Systems, a manufacturer of digital videographics and animation systems. While serving as President and Chairman of Aurora, he continued as designer of two generations of the company's videographics systems, including PC- and workstation-based software packages, user interfaces, and architecture for the real-time hardware of the high-end product.
In 1993, Shoup joined Interval Research Corporation, a unique research lab in Palo Alto founded by industry pioneers Paul Allen and David Liddle. At Interval, he worked in the areas of restructurable computing, theory of computation, quantum computing, and quantum theory. Shoup cofounded the Boundary Institute in 2000, a non-profit research group dedicated to the study of foundations of physics and mathematics, and various aspects of leading-edge science.
Richard resides in San Jose, California with his wife and son, and frequently can be found playing jazz trombone with local ensembles.

Frederick Furtek received BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the mid-1980s, he was one of a handful of individuals to recognize the potential of reconfigurable hardware, and was among the first to expore mathematical techniques in the area of formal modeling and verification.
In 1985, Dr. Furtek founded Concurrent Logic with the vision of reconfigurable hardware as a new computing medium to greatly accelerate a wide range of compute-intensive tasks. At Concurrent, he served as President, and later as Chairman and Chief Technical Officer. The company’s innovative technology has been licensed to several major companies including Apple Computer, National Semiconductor and IBM. Concurrent was subsequently acquired by Atmel Corporation, where Furtek also became principal architect of the successful Atmel AT40K series of FPGAs.
Beginning in 1999, Dr. Furtek continued his earlier work on a suite of automated tools for formal verification, simulation, and behavioral modeling at Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto, California, and subsequently at his company Applied Combinatorics and at Boundary Institute. Since 2001, Furtek has been active in Silicon Valley as architect and designer of innovative reconfigurable hardware and software systems. Dr. Furtek holds 22 issued, and several pending, U.S. Patents

William Bricken holds a multidisciplinary Ph.D. in Research Methods, Educational Psychology and Computer Science from Stanford University, and degrees in Statistics (MS Stanford), Education (Diploma of Education, Monash University Teacher's College, Australia), and Social Psychology (BA, UCLA). He has spent over 20 years developing the tools and techniques of Boundary Mathematics, and has also published widely in the fields of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and education.
Bricken began his career as a Wizard at Atari’s Sunnyvale Research Lab, exploring advanced concepts in user interface. As Principal Research Scientist at Advanced Decision Systems, he implemented the first high-performance Boundary Math inference engines, applying these tools to algebraic optimization of rule-bases, to reasoning in the presence of contradiction, to semantic debugging of programs, and to asynchronous parallel implementations of logical deduction. As Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Autodesk Research Lab, Bricken and his team developed one of the first fully immersive virtual reality systems in the late 1980s. He continued development of innovative software tools as Principal Scientist of University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Lab.
Beginning in 1993, at Interval Research Corporation, while contributing to a project to rebuild the foundations of computing, Bricken designed and implemented innovative algorithmic techniques for Boolean satisfiability, factoring and minimization, with applications to semiconductor logic synthesis and design optimization.
Bricken's academic positions include Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Seattle University, where he led the Masters of Software Engineering Program; and Research Associate Professor of Education and Research Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Washington.
In 2001, Bricken co-founded Bricken Technologies, a start-up company that focused on boundary logic algorithms for area and delay optimization, partitioning, abstraction, technology mapping, and performance parameterization of semiconductor designs.

Thomas Etter has an extensive background in mathematics and philosophy. He has also worked in both computer hardware and software, beginning with several early patents on integrated circuits, one of which was demonstrated by National Cash Register Inc. at the 1963 World’s Fair.
He worked as Senior Software Architect at the E-Speak division of Hewlett-Packard, where he developed a new axiomatization of relational structure aimed at helping to bridge the gap between logic programming and relational database theory. Etter also worked with Richard Shoup and others at Interval Research Corporation on a new approach to mathematical relations called Link Theory.
Etter also has had a long-standing interest in anomalous phenomena known as 'psi' and related interpretations of quantum mechanics. He has conducted research in these areas under grants from the State of New York and the University of Minnesota, during which time he developed mathematical ideas about time loops and double boundary conditions that have today led to the Link Theory representation of a core laws of quantum mechanics.
In past years, Tom has served as President of the Alternative Natural Philosophy Association, an international scholarly organization, and editor of its West Coast journal.