EG 2020 - Education Papers
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Session 1
Rayground: An Online Educational Tool for Ray Tracing
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Nick Vitsas, Anastasios Gkaravelis, Andreas-Alexandros Vasilakis, Konstantinos Vardis, and
Georgios Papaioannou
Designing a Course on Non-Photorealistic Rendering
Ivaylo Ilinkin
Critical Thinking Sheet (CTS) for Design Thinking in Programming Courses
Jonathan C. Roberts and Panagiotis D. Ritsos
Session 2
Asset Integration: An Exceptional Undergraduate Student Project
Adam Redford
Recreating Past and Present: An Exceptional Student-Created Virtual Heritage Experience
Eike Falk Anderson and Susan Sloan
Session 3
Treemap Literacy: A Classroom-Based Investigation
Elif E. Firat, Alena Denisova, and Robert S. Laramee
Visualization for Data Scientists: How specific is it?
Beatriz Sousa Santos and Adam Perer
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Item Rayground: An Online Educational Tool for Ray Tracing(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Vitsas, Nick; Gkaravelis, Anastasios; Vasilakis, Andreas-Alexandros; Vardis, Konstantinos; Papaioannou, Georgios; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceIn this paper, we present Rayground; an online, interactive education tool for richer in-class teaching and gradual self-study, which provides a convenient introduction into practical ray tracing through a standard shader-based programming interface. Setting up a basic ray tracing framework via modern graphics APIs, such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan, results in complex and verbose code that can be intimidating even for very competent students. On the other hand, Rayground aims to demystify ray tracing fundamentals, by providing a well-defined WebGL-based programmable graphics pipeline of configurable distinct ray tracing stages coupled with a simple scene description format. An extensive discussion is further offered describing how both undergraduate and postgraduate computer graphics theoretical lectures and laboratory sessions can be enhanced by our work, to achieve a broad understanding of the underlying concepts. Rayground is open, cross-platform, and available to everyone.Item Critical Thinking Sheet (CTS) for Design Thinking in Programming Courses(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Roberts, Jonathan C.; Ritsos, Panagiotis D.; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceWe present a quick design process, which encourages learners to sketch their design, reflect on the main algorithm and consider how to implement it. In-depth design processes have their advantages, but often are not practical within the time given to the student, and may not fit the learning outcomes of the module. Without any planning students often jump into coding without contemplating what they will do, leading to failure or poor design. Our single-sheet method, allows the learners to critically think of the challenge and decompose the problem into several subproblems (the appearance, functionality and algorithmic steps of the solution). We have successfully used this technique for three years in a second year computer graphics module, for undergraduate degree students studying Computer Science. We present our method, explain how we use it with second year computer graphics students, and discuss student's experiences with the methodItem Designing a Course on Non-Photorealistic Rendering(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Ilinkin, Ivaylo; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceThis paper presents a course design on Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPAR). As a sub-field of computer graphics, NPAR aims to model artistic media, styles, and techniques that capture salient characteristics in images to convey particular information or mood. The results can be just as inspiring as the photorealistic scenes produced with the latest ray-tracing techniques even though the goals are fundamentally different. The paper offers ideas for developing a full course on NPAR by presenting a series of assignments that cover a wide range of NPAR techniques and shares experience on teaching such a course at the junior/senior undergraduate level.Item Recreating Past and Present: An Exceptional Student-Created Virtual Heritage Experience(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Anderson, Eike Falk; Sloan, Susan; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceWe present an outstanding undergraduate student project in the form of a virtual heritage experience, created by a multidisciplinary group of six 4th semester undergraduate students from a range of computer graphics related programmes of study, ranging from 3D art and design to graphics software development. The "Exercise Smash" application allows participants to take part in a 1944 military exercise that was held in preparation of the D-Day landings in Normandy, during which several amphibious tanks sank, and then to dive down to the tank wrecks on the modern-day seafloor. The virtual heritage experience was presented during a public event at a military history museum and has also been demonstrated at an archaeology conference, being well-received in both cases.Item Asset Integration: An Exceptional Undergraduate Student Project(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Redford, Adam; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceThis paper outlines an exceptional 1st year undergraduate student project that involves the creation of a CG asset (goblet), and the integration of that asset into a live action photographed background. The final created shot of the animated asset shows a high level of photo-realism, and is an exceptionally close match to the live action reference photography of the real goblet.Item Treemap Literacy: A Classroom-Based Investigation(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Firat, Elif E.; Denisova, Alena; Laramee, Robert S.; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceVisualization literacy, the ability to interpret and understand visual designs, has gained momentum in the educational and information visualization communities. The goal of this research is to identify and address barriers to treemap literacy - a popular visual design, with a view to improve a non-expert user's treemap visualization literacy skills. In this paper we present the results of two years of an information visualization assignment, which are used to identify the barriers to and challenges of understanding and creating treemaps. From this, we develop a treemap visualization literacy test. Then, we propose a pedagogical tool that facilitates both teaching and learning of treemaps and advances treemap visualization literacy. To investigate the efficiency of this educational software, we then conduct a classroom-based study with 25 participants. We identify the properties of treemaps that can hinder literacy and cognition based on the results from the treemap visualization literacy test. Results also provide further support for the use of our tool that had a positive effect on treemap literacy skills of university students.Item EUROGRAPHICS 2020: Education Papers Frontmatter(Eurographics Association, 2020) Romero, Mario; Sousa Santos, Beatrice; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceItem Visualization for Data Scientists: How specific is it?(The Eurographics Association, 2020) Santos, Beatriz Sousa; Perer, Adam; Romero, Mario and Sousa Santos, BeatriceData Science has been widely used to support activities in diverse domains as Science, Health, Business, and Sports, to name just a few. Theory and practice have been evolving rapidly, and Data Scientist is currently a position much in demand in the job market. All this creates vast research opportunities, as well as the necessity to better understand how to prepare people as researchers and professionals having the background and skills to keep active in a difficult to anticipate future. While there are courses on Data and Information Visualization described in the literature, as well as recommendations by the SIGGRAPH Education Committee, they do not concern Data Science Programs and thus may not be entirely adequate to this type of Program. Besides the general concepts and methods usually addressed, a Visualization course tailored for this particular audience should probably emphasize specific techniques, tools, and examples of using Visualization in several phases along the Data Science process; moreover, it is reasonable to expect that new approaches, useful in practice, will be proposed by the Visualization research community that should be addressed in such a course. Likewise, the bibliography and teaching methods could probably be adapted. We have analyzed over forty MSc Data Science programs offered in English worldwide, and the Visualization courses most of them include, and we argue that there is a need to adapt existing recommendations and create guidelines for these courses. This panel intends to debate this topic and identify issues that need further reflection.