The ECE department will be offering two graphics courses in the Fall 2009 semester. Both courses cover topics related to 3D animation; EE 4702-1, GPU Programming, focuses on GPU programming, including GPGPU techniques while EE 4700-2, Geometric Modeling and Computer Graphics, will cover higher-level topics such as geometric modeling and shape matching.
EE 4702-1, GPU Programming, will cover the theory and techniques needed for implementing physics-driven animation on modern GPUs. Topics will include conventional 3D graphics, GPU performance tuning, physical simulation techniques, and using the GPU as a physics accelerator. The course will target the Nvidia G 80 architecture (used in current Nvidia systems, including Tesla) through both the OpenGL/GLSL and CUDA APIs. Students' aesthetic and technical creativity will be challenged through a term project in which they are to implement a novel, efficient, and visually compelling simulation, perhaps using the course's balloon demo as a starting point. The course will be offered by David M. Koppelman
EE 4700-2, Geometric Modeling and Computer Graphics, will cover techniques needed to model, simulate, analyze, and render complex surfaces. Topics include conventional 3D graphics, representation and modeling such as mesh, spline, and surface-subdivision; texture applications including bump, normal, and environment maps; collision detection, shape mapping, skeleton-driven animation, and more. The course will be offered by Xin “Shane” Li.