Course Group Status Report

1. Summary

The field of Computer Graphics continues to evolve at a rapid pace, fueled mainly by the research and development taking place in industry - places such as Microsoft, SGI, SUN, PIXAR and ILM, just to name a few. The curriculum struggles to keep pace with the rapid development of the field, the interests of the students, and the demands of the employers.

We have a four courses in graphics. Three of these comprise a sequence in display and illumination algorithms - the spine of computer graphics. The fourth course is in geometric modeling. The field of computer graphics has grown dramatically and we are trying to keep pace with the many subareas which are evolving as the depth of knowledge increases in all aspects of graphics. Fitting all of the important topics that students should know into these courses is a continual challenge. In addition to accommodating more topics in the main sequence, there is use for a single course which would serve as a stand alone survey of computer graphics for those students not interested in going into the field in depth. Apart from the these four courses, the graphics faculty offer regular research seminars that cover the most recent developments in Animation, Visualization, and Virtual Reality; the result is that these topics are not covered yearly. Introducing advanced courses on these topics is a priority of the graphics faculty.

2. Detailed Analysis

2.1 Summary of the courses

CIS681: Introduction to Computer Graphics is the introductory course to computer graphics. 681 takes the student up through 3D wire frame perspective display with clipping and then ends with an introduction to using OpenGL. 681 started out incorporating a lot of 2D graphics including some business graphics. Over the years, we have decided to concentrate more and more on 3D graphics and have dropped a fair amount of the 2D graphics in order to accommodate the advanced 3D material in the display sequence. Introducing OpenGL to 681 is a fairly recent development and has replaced an introduction to ray tracing which essentially duplicated material in CIS781.

CIS781: Introduction to 3D Image Generation is a survey of display algorithms and basic illumination and shading models. It concentrates on the two standard display algorithms: ray tracing and z-buffer. 781 also surveys several (6 or 7) other display algorithms so that the students know the various approaches that have been used and why they are less desirable than the standard ones. The survey is also useful because it increases the students geometric bag of tricks as they learn the many geometric computations that are employed in the various algorithms. In addition to display algorithms, standard shading and illumination models are surveyed including smooth shading and basic texture mapping.

CIS782: Advanced 3D Image Generation contains all of the most sophisticated display techniques including radiosity, speed-ups for ray tracing, basic anti-aliasing of visible surfaces and anti-aliasing of texture maps, an introduction to curves and surfaces, and various topics from computer animation, volumetric graphics, and scientific visualization.

CIS881: Geometric Modeling surveys the representations, generative procedures, manipulative operations, and data structures important in modeling geometric objects. Basic polyhedral constuction and manipulation operations are surveyed including extrusion, solids of revolution, sweep operations, Euler operations, boolean operations, lofting, rounding, simplification, subdivision, and skinning. The data structures covered are the basic vertex-face list and the Winged Edge data structures. Curves and curved surfaces form a major component of the course and include Hermite curves and Coons patches, Bezier, B-spline, and NURBS curves and surfaces.

2.2 Relation of the courses to the rest of the program

2.3 Relation to program objectives

Objective 1.To provide graduates with a thorough grounding 
in the key principles and practices of computing, and in 
the basic engineering, mathematical, and scientific principles
that underpin them. Students will: 
  a.Demonstrate proficiency in the areas of software 
    design and development, algorithms, operating systems, 
    programming languages, and architecture. 
  b.Demonstrate proficiency in relevant aspects of mathematics, 
    including discrete mathematics, as well as the appropriate 
    concepts from physics and electrical circuits and devices. 
  c.Successfully apply these principles and practices to a 
    variety of problems. 

Objective 2.To provide graduates with an understanding 
of additional engineering principles, and the mathematical 
and scientific principles that underpin them. Students will: 
   a.Demonstrate an understanding of differential and 
     integral calculus, differential equations, physics 
     and several areas of basic engineering sciences. 
   b.Have the ability to work with others and on 
     multi-disciplinary teams in both classroom and 
     laboratory environments. 

Objective 3.To provide graduates with an understanding of 
the overall human context in which engineering and 
computing activities take place. Students will: 
  a.Demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively. 
  b.Obtain familiarity with basic ideas and contemporary 
    issues in the social sciences and humanities. 
  c.Obtain an understanding of social, professional 
    and ethical issues related to computing. 

Objective 4.To prepare graduates for both immediate 
employment in the CSE profession and for admission to 
graduate programs in computing. 
   a.A large fraction of graduates will be immediately 
     employed in high-technology companies that utilize 
     their computing education. 
   b.Strong graduates from the program will be prepared 
     to enter good graduate programs in CSE

2.4 Feedback

Textbooks for the mainstream of Computer Graphics display and illumination are well-developed at this point and, while we continually fine tune, there are no major problems. Geometric modeling has few books which cover the range of topics which we include in our course, so the basic text is augmented by papers from the literature. Some of our seminars lack good texts, but papers from the literature are used effectively.

2.5 Possible changes

Many students take only one course in computer graphics in order to get some exposure to the technology. However, CIS681, the first course of the sequence, was really designed as the first course of a sequence. There is some question about how well such a course serves those students who only take one course. As a result, we are currently discussing the possibility of introducing a single survey course in Computer Graphics. This would give those students a more tailored and more complete introduction to the field by eliminating content which only serves to prepare them for the rest of the courses in the sequence. This would make room for more practical material, which would serve them better for jobs in areas other than computer graphics.

Other possible courses which might be introduced are:

• Computer Animation
• Visualization

3. Conclusions

People involved in preparing report: Rick Parent, Roger Crawfis

Date of report: Feb. 8, 1999