brian@sdccsu3.UUCP (12/06/83)
x <- bug killer First, let me thank each one of you who kindly took the time to reply to my "plea for advice" on computer graphics education. You provided me with a lot of directions to explore. A summary of the information I received: Just about everyone recommended two texts as the most important existing on computer graphics principles: Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics by Foley and Van Dam Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics by Newman and Sproull Also recommended were the following: ACM Transactions on Graphics IEEE Computer Graphics SIGGRAPH Several people suggested that I join ACM, IEEE Computer Society, and SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). I've been a full member of both ACM and IEEE for some time and find their publications to be very useful and informative. I recently joined SMPTE and haven't much to go on yet, but what I've gotten looks like its also well worth the membership fee (cheap if you're a student). As far as schools go, the following comments are those received, heavily edited. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full-Name: David Anthony Organisation: The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Here at UNC-C (where I do research) no computer graphics courses per se; and the most advanced graphics library we have is the z-compiler (running on a 11/750 Berkley 4.1 bsd). The University of Virginia (Charlottesville) supposedly offers both the MS and Ph.D. in this area. I don't know what the complexity is, however. Everyone is interested in CT reconstruction, etc; data compression of NTSC in real time, etc. For special effects, I don't know where to go. --David (decvax!) duke!mcnc!unc-c!dya ------------------ >From decvax!yale-comix!donath Sun Nov 27 17:49:15 1983 My undergraduate school (yale) had one graphics course which let me learn the basics of 3d modeling, etc. but no more. p.s. I looked through Petersen's Guide to graduate schools in search of those with much graphics equipment and or professors whose major interest is graphics. the following seem good: University of North Carolina University of Utah in Salt Lake City Brown U. (mainly because of Andeas Van Dam) University of Alberta (in the middle of nowhere, Canada) ---------------------- I work for the computer graphics lab at the University of Waterloo. The lab is used by grad students and professors doing research. We have our own VAX 11/780, an Ikonas frame buffer with 512x512 pixels of 32 bits each, and an Evans & Sutherland MPS black&white vector display. The lab has only been in existence for about 5 years; there are other universities with older programs which are even better-equipped. There is an introductory course in graphics offered every term (3 times a year). It is notorious for the amount of work it demands from students, but if you survive you will understand some graphics. There is an advanced "topics in computer graphics" course offered once a year, involving guest lecturers and reading material. In the U.S, there are a number of well-known schools - Cornell, UNC, Utah come to mind immediately. ------------------------ >From jwp@utah-cs Mon Nov 28 07:57:27 1983 I've been in the same boat for some time. As a result, I'll probably remained parked in utah for a while. The graphics program here is not specificly geared toward film/animation/arg C.G., but there are enough hooks here that I'm learning a reasonable amount about it (at least enough to keep me busy for another year or two). They have lots of equipment here, and a reasonable amount of graphics expertise (four faculty members with backgrounds in the field). While most of the emphasis is on geometric modeling (it pays the bills), a lot of straight-picture work tends to happen on the side. The main 'Graphics education' here is a three term computer graphics sequence. It concentrates mostly on 3D graphics (which I personally enjoy), and the third term is a student defined project. It's probably one of the top programs of it's type in the country. Communication with the art department & the CS dept is happening, slowly. It is difficult for non-art majors to take upper level classes, but fortunatly the film program (and a good film program at that) does not play by those rules, so it is possible for me to take a full year 16mm production workshop. I tend to spend a moderate amount of time running back between the engineering building and the art building, but I'm an exception to the rule. Of other schools (these are MY personal impressions, not to be confused with yours): Cornell- As long as Greenburg's there, is probably close to what you want. Uof Ill, Chicago- Heavy interaction between artists and computer graphics, lots and lots of emphasis on video. Cheap equipment (Bally home computers). Awful end results (at least their pieces at SIGGRAPH have been wretched). Ohio State U- Good equipment, some smart people. Cranston-Csuri is a full time nearby animation house that works closely with OSU. They do very neat stuff. Unfortunatly, the master guru there (Frank Crow) has left for Xerox PARC, and I have a feeling this may have seriously hurt the program (it may also mean the NSF money ran out). Berkeley- Small graphics program, heavily oriented towards B-spline theory, UCLA. Home of John Whitney Senior. Whitney is the author of Digital Harmony, and does some interesting things. Sheridan College, someplace in Canada. This has a computer graphics/amination program, but I know little of the details. I've seen some of their traditional animation student films, and they're pretty good. Pratt Institute, New York. Design/architecture school that's gotten into the computer biz. They host a really fancy "animation workshop" each year, and teach some classes on the subject. NYIT. Fancy toys, top-notch artists, famous computer wizards. They also have no educational program. As I said, these are personal opinions. For some hard info, names, addresses, etc., look in back issues of "Computer Graphics" (put out by the SIGGRAPH people). Several months back Maxine Brown (of Digitial Projections) gave some very specific info (including names and addresses) in reply to a question much like yours. Definitly worth checking out (and again, look at Whitney & Co. at UCLA). JW-Peterson utah-cs!jwp jw-peterson@utah-20 -------------------------- Reply-To: Thomas@Utah-CS Well, here at the U of Utah (birthplace of computer graphics), we have a strong graphics program. There has always been a 3 quarter Graphics sequence, plus a 3 quarter Computer Aided Geometric Design sequence. This year we are starting a new undergraduate computer graphics/design sequence (3 quarters also). ------------------------- From: Greg.Glass@CMU-CS-CAD New York Inst. of Tech. has started or is starting a PHD program in comp. sci. ------------------------ >From sdcsvax!ihnp4!decwrl!turtlevax!ken Tue Nov 29 00:40:00 1983 There are not very many schools offering good computer graphics education. I have learned most of what I know from working with graphics people and from attending SIGGRAPH conferences. The primo institution for the type of graphics that you described is New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), followed possibly by Ohio State, Carnegie-Mellon, Utah, etc. Ken Turkowski CADLINC, Palo Alto {decwrl,amd70}!turtlevax!ken ------------------------- From: Henry Fuchs <fuchs%unc@CSNet-Relay> in response to your request on info-graphics about info on graphics courses, we at unc offer several courses at the graduate level, have four faculty with major interest in graphics (fred brooks, steve pizer, turner whitted, and myself). if you'd like to get a bunch of written info on the dept., contact Suzanne Lubinski (sel.unc@csnet-relay, phone 919/962-1269, USmail address, Computer Science Dept, New West Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC 27514). /henry fuchs -------------------------- From: Gerry Wilson <wilson@aids-unix> The primary problem you are encountering is that graphics doesn't quite fit into computer science, doesn't fit into math, and doesn't get fully addressed in communication/tv/et al. The schools I know specifically have work and courses in graphics include Harvard, MIT, and Brown. I have seen mention of some work at Maryland, CMU, and Berkeley. I know there is some work, but I don't know about courses, at Stanford. ----------------------------- From: Steve Feiner <skf%Brown@CSNet-Relay> Graphics is alive and well at Brown University, where I'm a PhD candidate in CS. Our dept. chairman (and my advisor) is Andy van Dam.... To continue my not so veiled plug for graphics at Brown, our interests include graphics package design, interactive "electronic books", ai-based creation of pictures, animation, realistic picture rendering, graphical simulations, and solid modeling. Other interested faculty, besides Andy, include Bernard Chazelle, among whose specialties is computational geometry, and Tom Banchoff (Math Dept.) who uses our resources to create movies of higher dimensional geometric surfaces. Our graphics facilities include: Lexidata 3400 and GS8100, Ramtek 9400, and Apollo DN600 raster systems, ranging in resolution from 512x512x24 to 1280x1024x8; an E&S PS300 vector system; a large VAX 780 dedicated to graphics research; and hardcopy output from a Matrix QCR D-4/2 4096 line color film recorder, an Imagen laser printer, and a Compugraphic 8600 typesetter. Among our general departmental resources are a teaching auditorium containing a network of 60 Apollo DN300 workstations with 1024x800 bitmapped displays, another VAX 780, and a large number of additional research machines in faculty and grad student offices. Should this brief description pique your interest, further info on the graduate program in CS can be obtained from Prof. Eugene Charniak, Box 1910, Dept. of Computer Science, Brown University, Providence RI 02912 (ec@brown). ------------------------------- From: David Benjamin <benjamin.uci-750a@Rand-Relay> I am in the Ph.D. program at UC Irvine and find very little faculty support for my desire to study interactive graphics. I have heard that the University of Texas (at Austin, I think) is getting into graphics. RPI is really into CAD/CAM research but is mostly industry funded. -------------------------------- From: Tony Li <Tli@Usc> NYIT and U of Utah both have graphics programs worth looking into. -------------------------------- From: AXLER.Upenn-1100@Rand-Relay (David M. Axler - MSCF Applications Mgr.) While I'm not a graphics expert myself, one of my housemates is, and I've enough knowledge of what's going on here to suggest that the program at Penn may be of interest to you. Basically, graphics is taught as a part of the curriculum in Penn's Computer & Info. Science Dept. (which, in turn, is a part of the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences). There are two courses, both one semester in length, both at the 500 level; i.e., they're primarily grad courses, but are open to "qualified" undergrads, with the professor defining the meaning of "qualified". The first course is an intensive survey of theory and techniques, with three or four assignments, primarily utilizing our Sperry 1100/62 and three Ramtek graphics workstations (sorry, but I'm atrocious at remembering model numbers). The second course is the advanced one; here, actual work is often done using the CIS Department's VAXen with an assortment of fairly powerful equipment. The faculty member in charge of all this is Norman Badler, who's also one of the big names within SigGraph. Many of the grad students here are doing research under his direction, often on projects being funded by such interest- ing folks as NASA. The big thing here (that I know of, anyway) is the "BubbleMan" and "BubbleWoman" work -- you may have seen some pictures of them in the new book "Computer Images". It's not necessary, however, for grad students with graphics interests to do research related to Norm's projects. Hope this helps Dave Axler (Axler%Upenn-1100@Upenn) -------------------------------- From: Douglas J. Trainor <trainor@UCLA-CS> Hello, I am an undergraduate in mathematics/computer science here at UCLA primarily interested in computer graphics. As far as other schools, I suggest UCB & UCLA since you are in the UC system. I attended the SIGGRAPH convention in Detroit, and it looked like UCB was doing some interesting stuff. At UCLA, graphics is finally being taken seriously by the department. In the past, it has been comprised of only a few disjoint individuals; now, a formal graphics laboratory has been formed (money) under the Center for Experimental Computer Science. We have been given a VAX and support; large grants are still pending. The CS dept has two formal classes, and also special studies classes. New classes are still in the approval stage. The Math dept also has two formal classes, with the second being a small honors class. ------------------------------------ From: MONTALVO%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC If you want a really good education in Computer Graphics, go to one of the schools where they have really good equipment and experts in the kind of graphics you want to do. I got my graphics education (after PhD.) at LBL (Berkeley) and LLL (Livermore); was working at LBL at the time. Good places to go to are: Berkeley, Utah, U.of No. Carolina (where Turner Whitted is), Cornell (Don Greenberg), or USC (a program that's just starting up in connection with some companies in LA doing Animation Graphics. contact Walt Scacchi in CS Dept.). Fanya Montalvo ---------------------------------- >From sdcsvax!decvax!cwruecmp!glassner Wed Nov 30 22:14:54 1983 New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). This is a commuter school in Long Island. On the school campus but COMPLETELY UNASSOCIATED with the school is one of the best computer graphics research labs in the world. The classes were a total waste of time and energy. Basically this is a place for either a job or a very good informal education, working with some of the best people in the field in the world. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Most graphics at MIT comes from the Architecture Machine Group. They have a very small but bright group of people working on all kinds of esoteric projects. Needless to say, it's very hard to get into MIT, but the schooling is excellent and the graphics people there know what's going on. They don't publish too much on the realistic-image synthesis subject; they do a lot of human interface stuff with eye-tracking and see-through data tablets and special viewing systems and the like. Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Highly recommended. RPI has done some impressive image synthesis work, and their people are well informed. The school has a commitment to computer graphics and seems to keep the money flowing. Cornell University. Another winner. Cornell has an ongoing graphics research lab and they've been at it at least six or seven years. They seem pretty well funded; I don't really know too much more offhand. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Excellent graphics department, supporting many outstanding researchers. You may never have heard of UNC in general computer circles; they are well known in graphics and are becoming much more well known by the year. They are very well funded (there's a new computer building in construction right now), and they have LOTS of specialized and fascinating hardware. The teachers are very well known; Henry Fuchs is there and Turner Whitted is now an Associate Professor or something (sort of half Bell Labs, half Professor). They have the stated intention of being the BEST computer graphics school in the country. They are certainly one of the best now, and will probably be THE best very soon. Certainly a VERY strong contender for schools to apply to. California Institute of Technology (CalTech). Very mixed reaction. The school is excellent, and ohmygosh itsinCalifornia! It would be a delight to go there; but how's the graphics? Mediocre at best. This is surprisin in light of their faculty: James Kajiya (who I mentioned in the other mail) is there, and Jim Blinn (a Shining Light in the field) is associated with them through JPL (the Jet Propulsion Labs). However, the hardware is very scarce from what I hear, Blinn is rarely there, and Kajiya is very busy. It sounds exciting but not too hot as far as real graphics education goes. Of course, everything I've said has been from the perspective of the graduate programs. I imagine things would be similar for undergrads, but it would be a lot harder to get to the equipment and/or convince researchers to let you do your own work. The schools I've picked out and described are those that I think will let their grad students do their own self-directed research; so that rather than working on what some professor thinks is interesting you can work on what you think is interesting (assuming it really is valid work, of course!). Good luck on your quest - - maybe I'll see you in class! ----------------------------------- >From sdcrdcf!allegra!watmath!wateng!padpowell Fri Dec 2 06:11:53 1983 I would like to suggest that you come the University of Waterloo, and work with Kelly Booth and John Beatty. The courses, drive, and just general enthusiasm are second to none in North America. Also note that the CS program at Waterloo ranks about #3 in N.A. Patrick ("I hope you follow up on this") Powell System Dictator for WATENG VLSI Research Group, U. Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont. Canada ----------------------------------- From: sdcsvax!dcdwest!decvax!tekgds!orca!warner Having just graduated from UCSD I know well your frustration. I've thought about your very question. The directions I would go would be either: 1)Find a place in industry that is doing the sort of graphics that you want to do. In general industry has much more money than schools. I'm having a great time up here at Tektronix. 2) Try the New York Institute of Technology. They seem to be the premier graphics school. They did the opening sequences for NOVA. - Ken Warner ----------------------------------- >From sdcsvax!decvax!utcsrgv!dave Sun Dec 4 15:14:22 1983 U of Toronto Computer Systems Research Group (whose VAX gives this machine its name utcsrgv) has done computer graphics for a long time. Ron Baecker, who now runs Human Computing Resources Corp., was a prof here for many years and supervised some outstanding graphics students. Bill Reeves and Tom Duff, for example, who now run the computer graphics dept. at Lucasfilm. Bill Buxton (mixture of music and graphics), who is now a prof here. There were at least a dozen M.Sc. students who did theses on graphics. The other prof running the Dynamic Graphics project was Leslie Mezei, of whom you may have heard. He dropped out some years ago. Alain Fournier is now in charge of graphics here. Focus has switched somewhat from simulation and animation (especially animation) to raster graphics, 3D shaded images, colour map wizardry, and whatnot. I'm not sure how many students are specifically doing graphics here now, but there are some. We still have a PDP-11/45 running v6, never upgraded because of the amount of code wired into the kernel to support real-time animation on the "Graphic Wonder", a super-fast (60,000 refresh vectors per second) monochrome display processor. We also have an Ikonas RDS3000, an Orcatech or two, and I don't know what else. Send mail to decvax!utcsrgv!alain (Alain Fournier) and ask him about it. I think you might find Toront an interesting place to continue your education. Dave Sherman (sometimes) Computer Systems Research Group Toronto
brian@sdccsu3.UUCP (12/06/83)
x <- bug killer First, let me thank each one of you who took the time to reply to my "plea for advice" on computer graphics education. You provided me with a lot of directions to explore. A summary of the information I received: Just about everyone recommended two texts as the most important existing on computer graphics principles: Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics by Foley and Van Dam Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics by Newman and Sproull Also recommended were the following: ACM Transactions on Graphics IEEE Computer Graphics SIGGRAPH Several people suggested that I join ACM, IEEE Computer Society, and SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). I've been a full member of both ACM and IEEE for some time and find their publications to be very useful and informative. I recently joined SMPTE and haven't much to go on yet, but what I've gotten looks like its also well worth the membership fee (cheap if you're a student). As far as schools go, the following comments are those received, heavily edited. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full-Name: David Anthony Organisation: The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Here at UNC-C (where I do research) no computer graphics courses per se; and the most advanced graphics library we have is the z-compiler (running on a 11/750 Berkley 4.1 bsd). The University of Virginia (Charlottesville) supposedly offers both the MS and Ph.D. in this area. I don't know what the complexity is, however. Everyone is interested in CT reconstruction, etc; data compression of NTSC in real time, etc. For special effects, I don't know where to go. --David (decvax!) duke!mcnc!unc-c!dya ------------------ >From decvax!yale-comix!donath Sun Nov 27 17:49:15 1983 My undergraduate school (yale) had one graphics course which let me learn the basics of 3d modeling, etc. but no more. p.s. I looked through Petersen's Guide to graduate schools in search of those with much graphics equipment and or professors whose major interest is graphics. the following seem good: University of North Carolina University of Utah in Salt Lake City Brown U. (mainly because of Andeas Van Dam) University of Alberta (in the middle of nowhere, Canada) ---------------------- I work for the computer graphics lab at the University of Waterloo. The lab is used by grad students and professors doing research. We have our own VAX 11/780, an Ikonas frame buffer with 512x512 pixels of 32 bits each, and an Evans & Sutherland MPS black&white vector display. The lab has only been in existence for about 5 years; there are other universities with older programs which are even better-equipped. There is an introductory course in graphics offered every term (3 times a year). It is notorious for the amount of work it demands from students, but if you survive you will understand some graphics. There is an advanced "topics in computer graphics" course offered once a year, involving guest lecturers and reading material. In the U.S, there are a number of well-known schools - Cornell, UNC, Utah come to mind immediately. ------------------------ >From jwp@utah-cs Mon Nov 28 07:57:27 1983 I've been in the same boat for some time. As a result, I'll probably remained parked in utah for a while. The graphics program here is not specificly geared toward film/animation/arg C.G., but there are enough hooks here that I'm learning a reasonable amount about it (at least enough to keep me busy for another year or two). They have lots of equipment here, and a reasonable amount of graphics expertise (four faculty members with backgrounds in the field). While most of the emphasis is on geometric modeling (it pays the bills), a lot of straight-picture work tends to happen on the side. The main 'Graphics education' here is a three term computer graphics sequence. It concentrates mostly on 3D graphics (which I personally enjoy), and the third term is a student defined project. It's probably one of the top programs of it's type in the country. Communication with the art department & the CS dept is happening, slowly. It is difficult for non-art majors to take upper level classes, but fortunatly the film program (and a good film program at that) does not play by those rules, so it is possible for me to take a full year 16mm production workshop. I tend to spend a moderate amount of time running back between the engineering building and the art building, but I'm an exception to the rule. Of other schools (these are MY personal impressions, not to be confused with yours): Cornell- As long as Greenburg's there, is probably close to what you want. Uof Ill, Chicago- Heavy interaction between artists and computer graphics, lots and lots of emphasis on video. Cheap equipment (Bally home computers). Awful end results (at least their pieces at SIGGRAPH have been wretched). Ohio State U- Good equipment, some smart people. Cranston-Csuri is a full time nearby animation house that works closely with OSU. They do very neat stuff. Unfortunatly, the master guru there (Frank Crow) has left for Xerox PARC, and I have a feeling this may have seriously hurt the program (it may also mean the NSF money ran out). Berkeley- Small graphics program, heavily oriented towards B-spline theory, UCLA. Home of John Whitney Senior. Whitney is the author of Digital Harmony, and does some interesting things. Sheridan College, someplace in Canada. This has a computer graphics/amination program, but I know little of the details. I've seen some of their traditional animation student films, and they're pretty good. Pratt Institute, New York. Design/architecture school that's gotten into the computer biz. They host a really fancy "animation workshop" each year, and teach some classes on the subject. NYIT. Fancy toys, top-notch artists, famous computer wizards. They also have no educational program. As I said, these are personal opinions. For some hard info, names, addresses, etc., look in back issues of "Computer Graphics" (put out by the SIGGRAPH people). Several months back Maxine Brown (of Digitial Projections) gave some very specific info (including names and addresses) in reply to a question much like yours. Definitly worth checking out (and again, look at Whitney & Co. at UCLA). JW-Peterson utah-cs!jwp jw-peterson@utah-20 -------------------------- Reply-To: Thomas@Utah-CS Well, here at the U of Utah (birthplace of computer graphics), we have a strong graphics program. There has always been a 3 quarter Graphics sequence, plus a 3 quarter Computer Aided Geometric Design sequence. This year we are starting a new undergraduate computer graphics/design sequence (3 quarters also). ------------------------- From: Greg.Glass@CMU-CS-CAD New York Inst. of Tech. has started or is starting a PHD program in comp. sci. ------------------------ >From sdcsvax!ihnp4!decwrl!turtlevax!ken Tue Nov 29 00:40:00 1983 There are not very many schools offering good computer graphics education. I have learned most of what I know from working with graphics people and from attending SIGGRAPH conferences. The primo institution for the type of graphics that you described is New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), followed possibly by Ohio State, Carnegie-Mellon, Utah, etc. Ken Turkowski CADLINC, Palo Alto {decwrl,amd70}!turtlevax!ken ------------------------- From: Henry Fuchs <fuchs%unc@CSNet-Relay> in response to your request on info-graphics about info on graphics courses, we at unc offer several courses at the graduate level, have four faculty with major interest in graphics (fred brooks, steve pizer, turner whitted, and myself). if you'd like to get a bunch of written info on the dept., contact Suzanne Lubinski (sel.unc@csnet-relay, phone 919/962-1269, USmail address, Computer Science Dept, New West Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC 27514). /henry fuchs -------------------------- From: Gerry Wilson <wilson@aids-unix> The primary problem you are encountering is that graphics doesn't quite fit into computer science, doesn't fit into math, and doesn't get fully addressed in communication/tv/et al. The schools I know specifically have work and courses in graphics include Harvard, MIT, and Brown. I have seen mention of some work at Maryland, CMU, and Berkeley. I know there is some work, but I don't know about courses, at Stanford. ----------------------------- From: Steve Feiner <skf%Brown@CSNet-Relay> Graphics is alive and well at Brown University, where I'm a PhD candidate in CS. Our dept. chairman (and my advisor) is Andy van Dam.... To continue my not so veiled plug for graphics at Brown, our interests include graphics package design, interactive "electronic books", ai-based creation of pictures, animation, realistic picture rendering, graphical simulations, and solid modeling. Other interested faculty, besides Andy, include Bernard Chazelle, among whose specialties is computational geometry, and Tom Banchoff (Math Dept.) who uses our resources to create movies of higher dimensional geometric surfaces. Our graphics facilities include: Lexidata 3400 and GS8100, Ramtek 9400, and Apollo DN600 raster systems, ranging in resolution from 512x512x24 to 1280x1024x8; an E&S PS300 vector system; a large VAX 780 dedicated to graphics research; and hardcopy output from a Matrix QCR D-4/2 4096 line color film recorder, an Imagen laser printer, and a Compugraphic 8600 typesetter. Among our general departmental resources are a teaching auditorium containing a network of 60 Apollo DN300 workstations with 1024x800 bitmapped displays, another VAX 780, and a large number of additional research machines in faculty and grad student offices. Should this brief description pique your interest, further info on the graduate program in CS can be obtained from Prof. Eugene Charniak, Box 1910, Dept. of Computer Science, Brown University, Providence RI 02912 (ec@brown). ------------------------------- From: David Benjamin <benjamin.uci-750a@Rand-Relay> I am in the Ph.D. program at UC Irvine and find very little faculty support for my desire to study interactive graphics. I have heard that the University of Texas (at Austin, I think) is getting into graphics. RPI is really into CAD/CAM research but is mostly industry funded. -------------------------------- From: Tony Li <Tli@Usc> NYIT and U of Utah both have graphics programs worth looking into. -------------------------------- From: AXLER.Upenn-1100@Rand-Relay (David M. Axler - MSCF Applications Mgr.) While I'm not a graphics expert myself, one of my housemates is, and I've enough knowledge of what's going on here to suggest that the program at Penn may be of interest to you. Basically, graphics is taught as a part of the curriculum in Penn's Computer & Info. Science Dept. (which, in turn, is a part of the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences). There are two courses, both one semester in length, both at the 500 level; i.e., they're primarily grad courses, but are open to "qualified" undergrads, with the professor defining the meaning of "qualified". The first course is an intensive survey of theory and techniques, with three or four assignments, primarily utilizing our Sperry 1100/62 and three Ramtek graphics workstations (sorry, but I'm atrocious at remembering model numbers). The second course is the advanced one; here, actual work is often done using the CIS Department's VAXen with an assortment of fairly powerful equipment. The faculty member in charge of all this is Norman Badler, who's also one of the big names within SigGraph. Many of the grad students here are doing research under his direction, often on projects being funded by such interest- ing folks as NASA. The big thing here (that I know of, anyway) is the "BubbleMan" and "BubbleWoman" work -- you may have seen some pictures of them in the new book "Computer Images". It's not necessary, however, for grad students with graphics interests to do research related to Norm's projects. Hope this helps Dave Axler (Axler%Upenn-1100@Upenn) -------------------------------- From: Douglas J. Trainor <trainor@UCLA-CS> Hello, I am an undergraduate in mathematics/computer science here at UCLA primarily interested in computer graphics. As far as other schools, I suggest UCB & UCLA since you are in the UC system. I attended the SIGGRAPH convention in Detroit, and it looked like UCB was doing some interesting stuff. At UCLA, graphics is finally being taken seriously by the department. In the past, it has been comprised of only a few disjoint individuals; now, a formal graphics laboratory has been formed (money) under the Center for Experimental Computer Science. We have been given a VAX and support; large grants are still pending. The CS dept has two formal classes, and also special studies classes. New classes are still in the approval stage. The Math dept also has two formal classes, with the second being a small honors class. ------------------------------------ From: MONTALVO%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC If you want a really good education in Computer Graphics, go to one of the schools where they have really good equipment and experts in the kind of graphics you want to do. I got my graphics education (after PhD.) at LBL (Berkeley) and LLL (Livermore); was working at LBL at the time. Good places to go to are: Berkeley, Utah, U.of No. Carolina (where Turner Whitted is), Cornell (Don Greenberg), or USC (a program that's just starting up in connection with some companies in LA doing Animation Graphics. contact Walt Scacchi in CS Dept.). Fanya Montalvo ---------------------------------- >From sdcsvax!decvax!cwruecmp!glassner Wed Nov 30 22:14:54 1983 New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). This is a commuter school in Long Island. On the school campus but COMPLETELY UNASSOCIATED with the school is one of the best computer graphics research labs in the world. The classes were a total waste of time and energy. Basically this is a place for either a job or a very good informal education, working with some of the best people in the field in the world. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Most graphics at MIT comes from the Architecture Machine Group. They have a very small but bright group of people working on all kinds of esoteric projects. Needless to say, it's very hard to get into MIT, but the schooling is excellent and the graphics people there know what's going on. They don't publish too much on the realistic-image synthesis subject; they do a lot of human interface stuff with eye-tracking and see-through data tablets and special viewing systems and the like. Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Highly recommended. RPI has done some impressive image synthesis work, and their people are well informed. The school has a commitment to computer graphics and seems to keep the money flowing. Cornell University. Another winner. Cornell has an ongoing graphics research lab and they've been at it at least six or seven years. They seem pretty well funded; I don't really know too much more offhand. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Excellent graphics department, supporting many outstanding researchers. You may never have heard of UNC in general computer circles; they are well known in graphics and are becoming much more well known by the year. They are very well funded (there's a new computer building in construction right now), and they have LOTS of specialized and fascinating hardware. The teachers are very well known; Henry Fuchs is there and Turner Whitted is now an Associate Professor or something (sort of half Bell Labs, half Professor). They have the stated intention of being the BEST computer graphics school in the country. They are certainly one of the best now, and will probably be THE best very soon. Certainly a VERY strong contender for schools to apply to. California Institute of Technology (CalTech). Very mixed reaction. The school is excellent, and ohmygosh itsinCalifornia! It would be a delight to go there; but how's the graphics? Mediocre at best. This is surprisin in light of their faculty: James Kajiya (who I mentioned in the other mail) is there, and Jim Blinn (a Shining Light in the field) is associated with them through JPL (the Jet Propulsion Labs). However, the hardware is very scarce from what I hear, Blinn is rarely there, and Kajiya is very busy. It sounds exciting but not too hot as far as real graphics education goes. Of course, everything I've said has been from the perspective of the graduate programs. I imagine things would be similar for undergrads, but it would be a lot harder to get to the equipment and/or convince researchers to let you do your own work. The schools I've picked out and described are those that I think will let their grad students do their own self-directed research; so that rather than working on what some professor thinks is interesting you can work on what you think is interesting (assuming it really is valid work, of course!). Good luck on your quest - - maybe I'll see you in class! ----------------------------------- >From sdcrdcf!allegra!watmath!wateng!padpowell Fri Dec 2 06:11:53 1983 I would like to suggest that you come the University of Waterloo, and work with Kelly Booth and John Beatty. The courses, drive, and just general enthusiasm are second to none in North America. Also note that the CS program at Waterloo ranks about #3 in N.A. Patrick ("I hope you follow up on this") Powell System Dictator for WATENG VLSI Research Group, U. Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont. Canada ----------------------------------- From: sdcsvax!dcdwest!decvax!tekgds!orca!warner Having just graduated from UCSD I know well your frustration. I've thought about your very question. The directions I would go would be either: 1)Find a place in industry that is doing the sort of graphics that you want to do. In general industry has much more money than schools. I'm having a great time up here at Tektronix. 2) Try the New York Institute of Technology. They seem to be the premier graphics school. They did the opening sequences for NOVA. - Ken Warner ----------------------------------- >From sdcsvax!decvax!utcsrgv!dave Sun Dec 4 15:14:22 1983 U of Toronto Computer Systems Research Group (whose VAX gives this machine its name utcsrgv) has done computer graphics for a long time. Ron Baecker, who now runs Human Computing Resources Corp., was a prof here for many years and supervised some outstanding graphics students. Bill Reeves and Tom Duff, for example, who now run the computer graphics dept. at Lucasfilm. Bill Buxton (mixture of music and graphics), who is now a prof here. There were at least a dozen M.Sc. students who did theses on graphics. The other prof running the Dynamic Graphics project was Leslie Mezei, of whom you may have heard. He dropped out some years ago. Alain Fournier is now in charge of graphics here. Focus has switched somewhat from simulation and animation (especially animation) to raster graphics, 3D shaded images, colour map wizardry, and whatnot. I'm not sure how many students are specifically doing graphics here now, but there are some. We still have a PDP-11/45 running v6, never upgraded because of the amount of code wired into the kernel to support real-time animation on the "Graphic Wonder", a super-fast (60,000 refresh vectors per second) monochrome display processor. We also have an Ikonas RDS3000, an Orcatech or two, and I don't know what else. Send mail to decvax!utcsrgv!alain (Alain Fournier) and ask him about it. I think you might find Toront an interesting place to continue your education. Dave Sherman (sometimes) Computer Systems Research Group Toronto -- -Brian Kantor, UC San Diego {decvax,ucbvax} !sdcsvax!sdccsu3!brian Kantor@Nosc