Teaching

Organisation

3D computer graphics and interactive data visualization methods are becoming increasingly important in a wide range of application domains including but not limited to product marketing, entertainment, engineering as well as sciences. In this seminar, we study technologies, methods and use of graphics and visualization methods, comparing and analyzing their algorithms, system implementations as well as applications in software products.

Good knowledge of mathematical foundations, algorithms and data structures as well as programming is necessary. Knowledge of fundamental principles in one or more areas of computer graphics, scientific visualization, image processing, computer vision or multimedia is required. Strong computer science and mathematical skills are beneficial.

The seminar targets MSc students and BSc students in advanced semesters.

Current Theme

This semester's topics cover various topics ranging from Rendering and Illumination, Geometry Processing, Scientific Visualization, Geographic Visualization to Information Visualization.

Successful completion of the seminar requires the following:

1. Select one topic and find 4 papers on the assigned topic. Papers must be of seminal impact, advancing the state-of-the-art, as well as be a good ground for discussions, maybe even slightly controversial.
2. The selected 4 papers have to be presented briefly in class in 1-2min each, indicating why they have been chosen e.g. based on relevance, contribution or impact.
3. 2 papers will then be selected that will have to be read and presented in more detail. (reading papers)
4. Each student will thus have to present two such reading papers in detail in class.
5. Students also have to select papers from others on which they have to act as discussion moderator.
6. 2 papers will be assigned to each student. (discussion papers)
7. Each student will have to moderate the question & answer part of two such discussion papers, after their presentation.
8. As moderator, the presented paper must also be read and 3 key questions must be prepared to ask after the presentation. These questions can be, e.g. to challenge the method, to scrutinize the technique or to identify the limitations in the results, and must be argued for (see deliverable).

Students will thus be scheduled in pairs of presenter and moderator throughout the semester.

Evaluation

Grading will be based on a point system. Foreach of the two presentations up to 6 points can be achieved, and foreach of the moderated discussion up to 3 points can be achieved. Hence a maximum of 18 points can be achieved in total. To pass the seminar at least 12 points have to be reached.

Deliverables

• List of references and literature
• Two presentations (PowerPoint, Keynote or PDF) for the reading papers
• Two lists of questions and argumentation for the moderated discussion papers

Presentations

The seminar presentations includes two talks, followed by a discussion of your presentation and the topic. Attendance and active participation in seminar presentations and discussions of other students is mandatory.

You will need to hand in all your presentation materials, such as slides, notes, figures etc.

Close attention must be paid to the structure of the presentation, which should in general include a short introduction and motivation of the topic, a precise statement of the problem, a detailed analysis of the method, a summary of the results and a personal conclusion.

It is strongly recommended that you rehearse your presentation beforehand and review the presentation with the seminar assistant.

Literature

A good starting point for finding recent publications (besides) Google are the ACM Digital Library, the IEEE Digital Library or the Eurographics Digital Library where a majority of the relevant publications are hosted. You can access the content from these Digital Libraries from within the UZH (VPN) network.

Further publication venues include the following conferences and symposia: IEEE Visualization/InfoVis/VASR, IEEE Pacific Visualization, EUROGRAPHICS, EuroVis, EuroVA, ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM SIGGRAPH Visualization Symposium, along with the associated journals (ACM Transactions of Graphics, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, and Computer Graphics Forum). See Section Links further below for links.

LaTeX templates:

• See: SIGGRAPH Author Instructions

Specialized conferences:

• IEEE Visualization Conference (IEEE Vis)
• IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium (IEEE PacificVis)
• Eurographics Visualization Conference (EuroVis)
• EUROGRAPHICS Conference
•  
• ACM SIGGRAPH
• ACM Symposium on Visualization

Journals:

• ACM Transactions on Graphics
• IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
• Computer Graphics Forums

Digital libraries:

•  ACM Digital Library
•  IEEE Digital Library
•  Eurographics Digital Library

Finally, Google is your friend -- most authors put their papers online either on their personal websites or in some University provided space. Further, you might find presentation notes, sample implementations and other notes that can help understanding otherwise technically-advanced papers.