Biography
Dr. Stander fell in love with teaching back in high school, helping friends with math and other subjects. He says nothing is sweeter than seeing someone light up with understanding.
Personal mottos: “I teach the students, not the lessons” and “There are things more important than computer science, albeit not very many.”
Favorite short story: Cipher in the Snow.
Previous Teaching
In addition to current courses, has taught Fundamentals of Programming, Object-Oriented Programming, Operating Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Algebra, Trigonometry, and Senior Project. He has also taught at Success Academy high school and in various outreach programs for younger students.
Experience
More than 25 years of teaching at Utah Tech University, plus extensive informal teaching before that.
Research & Interests
- 3D graphics programming
- Game development
- Virtual reality
- Compilers
Publications & Projects
- “A Lipschitz method for accelerated volume rendering”
- “Interactive re-polygonization of blobby implicit curves”
- “Polygonizing implicit surfaces with guaranteed topology”
- “Guaranteeing the topology of an implicit surface polygonization for interactive modeling”
Presentations
Presented interactive 3D modeling research at SIGGRAPH, the premier conference in computer graphics.
Conferences & Workshops
- Virtual Reality Workshop, Utah Valley University
- POGIL Interactive Teaching Workshop, Missouri
- Attended multiple conferences in earlier career
Awards & Honors
- Washington State High School Chess Champion (1985)
- BYU Chess Champion (1991)
- Washington State University Programming Contest Winner
Additional Information
Enjoys good music and playing the piano.