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CECS401 Scientific Visualization and Virtual Reality |
| MVL Homepage Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science |
Instructor — Prof. K. Palaniappan
Class times: Thursdays 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Classroom:120 EBW (SGI Lab) or 245 EBW
Office: 329 Engineering Building West
Phone: 884-9266
E-Mail: palaniappank@missouri.edu
Course Description: CECS 401 is a newly designed course, being offered for the first time this semester as a graduate level special topics class. Visualization and virtual reality enable the design and use of novel human computer interfaces to understand and interact with large complex multidimensional datasets in a variety of applications such as biomedical, remote sensing, financial, etc. Computer graphics software and hardware tools, visualization and rendering algorithms for visualization and VR will be studied. The course will be lecture and seminar-based with active student participation. The specific topics covered will be based on student interest with the course content listed below being a guideline. The expected software tools include Xmdvtool, Generic Mapping Tool, IBM Open DX, SGI Mineset, GE Vtk, Vis5D, etc. These visualization toolkits permit the analysis and mining of multidimensional multivariate datasets both on workstations and in VR environments. The objective of the course will be to provide the student with a basic level of theoretical and practical familiarity with the concepts and techniques of scientific visualzation and virtual reality in several application areas.
Prerequisites: CECS 361 or CECS 461. Graduate standing in computer science, and consent of instructor.
Course Textbook (required):
1) Scientific Visualization, by G.M. Nielson, H. Hagen, H. Muller, IEEE Computer Society, Piscataway, NJ, 1997 ISBN: 0818677775.
2) At discretion of instructor, other readings to be provided in class or placed on reserve in the Engineering Library.
Course Material (recommended):
1) 3D Computer Graphics, 3r Edition, by Alan Watt, Addison-Wesley, New York, 2000.
2) Scientific Visualization: Advances and Challenges, Edited by L. Rosenblum, R. A. Earnshaw, etc., Academic Press, New York, 1994.
| Weight | |
| Project 1 | 20% |
| Project 2 | 20% |
| Paper Presentation & Class Participation | 20% |
| Final Project & Presentation | 40% |
| Total | 100% |
Description:
Short Projects and Class Participation. There will be two short projects that you will be required to complete. You will also be expected to actively participate in all class discussions. You are also expected to complete any assigned readings and to participate in related class discussions. In addition to discussion, you are also expected to display interest, preparedness, and a positive attitude toward the subject matter and approach in order to do well in class participation. Overall, any activity that contributes to learning, to a cooperative atmosphere, and to positive energy in the class will be considered toward class participation.
Paper Presentation. You will be expected to read one or two research articles and give an in-class presentation of each paper. You will be able to pick papers of interest from a set of selected papers that will be provided in class. The presentations should be approximately 30 minutes long and be prepared using Powerpoint.
Final Project and Presentation. Students will be required to complete a scientific visualization or VR semester project. The project will involve: description of visualization or VR goals, description of tasks, selection of datasets, design of task algorithms, design of user interface, implementation. Sample projects: hand-gesture recognition, speech control for data manipulation, volume visualization, flow visualization, biomedical data visualization, information visualization, haptic interface, etc. You will be required to write an HTML report and make an oral presentation of your work.
Caution: Given the broad nature of the topic, the newness of the course, students may expect to be exposed to experimentation with a variety of pedagogical methods and must be very patient and accepting of rather high levels of frustration in order to get the most out of the course. You should focus on acquiring a basic familiarity with the primary concepts, approaches and algorithms used in scientific visualization and VR.
1) Statement on Academic Dishonesty. Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards academic dishonesty as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences that range from probation to expulsion. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, or collaboration, consult the course instructor.
2) Statement on ADA. If you have a disability and need classroom accommodations, it is your responsibility to notify me as soon as possible. Please see me privately after class. You are also required to register with Disability Services, AO38 Brady Commons, 882-4696, especially if you are requesting academic accommodations such as extended testing time.