6.837  Computer Graphics

1. Voting. Please take a moment to vote for your favorite rendering artifact.  You can see the artifacts on the forum where you can also vote for your favorite.  You can either post a short message with a page number for your favorite artifact or you can send us an email with the same information.
2. Final Exam. The ground rules for the final exam are the same as for the midterm. You are allowed to bring any hand written notes to the exam, but laptops, printouts, and so on are not allowed.  If you are in doubt, please send us an email.  The exam will include questions on all topics in the course except for the advanced material  covered after November 27th.  You can find pointers to relevant lecture notes under  Materials on the course web page.
   
3. Course Evaluation. Remember to submit your course evaluation.  It makes a difference for your peers and for your teachers.  The link is available on the front page.

The materials section on the course Web page contains sample problems for the rendering portion of the course.  Answers will be posted on Thursday.  If you have any questions, send us an email or stop by our office hours.

The final exam will be held between 1:30pm and 4:30pm in 32-124.  Notice the location change: the exam is not in our regular lecture hall.

Please use the assignment web page on the course web site to upload artifacts for the fourth assignment: images and animation in standard file formats only.  I will download all artifacts before the class and present them from my laptop.  Due to the number of presentations expected, we won't be using any other laptops, unless there is time at the end.  Instead, we will display each submitted artifact.  Please plan on describing your problem and what you've done with a few short sentences, like what we asked you to do for the README file.

Submission Instructions

You don't need to turn in your code. Instead prepare a short demo/animation and a brief introduction/closing by 1pm on December 11th.  Upload it all along with a README.txt.

Demo

Please upload your artifact by 1pm on December 11th.  Doing so will give us a backup copy for your in-class demonstrations and allow us to keep the class on schedule even in the event of technical problems.  Due to a large number of students in the class, your demonstration should be brief, no more than 3 minutes in length.  We suggest you use the following template:

1. Introduction. Describe the context for your problem: Why you thought it was important or interesting to look into?  Describe the task: What you did to address some aspects of that problem?  Describe the artifact: What does the demo show?
2. Show the demo or artifact
3. Closing. Describe your findings: What you learned doing this task? Describe your conclusion: What these findings taught you?  Describe some perspectives: What future steps should be taken?
   

Readme File

The README.txt file should answer the following questions:

• Introduction for your demo.  At most one sentence answer for each of the following questions. Describe the context for your problem: Why you thought it was important or interesting to look into?  Describe the task: What you did to address some aspects of that problem?  Describe the artifact: What does the demo show?
  

• Closing for your demo. At most one sentence answer for each of the following questions. Describe your findings: What you learned doing this task? Describe your conclusion: What you learned from it?  Describe some perspectives: What future steps should be taken?
  

• Did you collaborate with anyone in the class? If so, let us know who you talked to and what sort of help you gave or received.

• Were there any references (books, papers, websites, etc.) that you found particularly helpful for completing your assignment? Please provide a list.

• Are there any known problems with your code? If so, please provide a list and, if possible, describe what you think the cause is and how you might fix them if you had more time or motivation.

• Got any comments about this assignment that you'd like to share? Like, was it too long? Too hard? Were the requirements unclear? Did you have fun, or did you hate it? Did you learn something, or was it a total waste of your time? Feel free to be brutally honest; we promise we won't take it personally.

Thank you for sharing your thougths to help us improve the course.  Here are a few things you will see in the coming weeks:
- Office hourse: some of you were not aware that we had office hours every week, others could not make them due to conflicts.  We rearranged our office hours to address these concerns.  Take a look at the course home page for that information.  If you still can't find a time to meet with us, please send us an email to 6837-staff.
- Lecture notes: we have relied heavily on the book to provide details and derivations presented in class, but many of you requested lecture notes that would also capture sometimes simpler derivations in class.  We are in the process of aggregating that information and you will see it on the course web page in the coming week.
- Lectures: I often go along with a suggested but erroneous approach in class to illustrate how we might go about detecting such errors in the future.  A few of you expressed some misgivings about that approach and I will modify my lectures to accomodate your requests.
- Lectures: A few of you wanted a more detailed outline/summary at the beginning and end of each lecture.  A will modify my lectures to accomodate your requests.
- Problem solving: Some of you hoped for more problem solving opportunities to help prepare for the exam.  I have posted answers for the midterm exam and we will also post sample problems and solutions for the more recent material in the course.

If you have any other comments or wishes please send us an email.  It was comforting to hear that many of you are enjoying the course, lectures, and assignments.  We hope to make it even more exciting in final month. 

Lastly, there will be no reading memo for next week, but you should take a look at the new reading on Grand Challenges in Information Systems.  Take a look at it over thanksgiving vacation to gain a broader perspective on computer science and computer graphics.