Rumesh Kumar Machap

I received a phone call from the UK early yesterday morning with sad news about the tragic death of my friend Rumesh. This is crazy, just crazy! I still can’t believe it.

Those who might have seen me presenting or mentioning the White Dwarfs application would have seen (in photos) and heard of Rumesh. He was responsible for the implementation of the desktop 3D and Cave visualisation aspects of the application. He did that as part of his MSc project which I supervised and then continued working on it just for the fun of it.

Rumesh was the best student I’ve ever worked with. We had long discussions about his future and what he wanted to do during the summer of 2004, so I was very pleased when he finally took the decision to stay at the University of Newcastle after his MSc. and read towards a PhD in graphics and cinematography. He was always enthusiastic about his work and excited about technology. Because of him I played with an xbox connected to the Cave! I really enjoyed interacting with Rumesh, initially as a supervisor and then as friends. He’d always drop by my office to chat and we’d often go out for a drinks, like he did with all the other folks at the School of Computing Science.

Everyone in Newcastle liked Rumesh. He was so sociable and likeable guy, always talking to everyone and making new friends. Small guy… our teenager-looking PhD student! Always with a smile, ready to have fun.

I really don’t know what to say. I will miss not seeing him online the crazy hours we were both up chatting via Messenger. I know that everyone in Newcastle is shocked as I am too. This is such a big big loss. It’s soooo unfair.

My thoughts are with his family.