CSCI 444/544 - Advanced Computer Graphics

Your final project is broken up into several different components:

1. Project & Code
   • Team Formation
   • Project Proposal
   • Code Submission
2. Presentations
   • Presentation Slides
   • Presentation
   • Live Demo
3. Report
   • Report

Part I - Team Formation

Teams will be made up of pairs of students both registered for the same course number (either both in 444 or both in 544).

Part II - Project Proposal

The project proposal is a formal report outlining the area you will be researching. It is strongly recommended to use LaTeX for formatting your proposal. Your proposal must include the following sections:

1. Description - What the technique / application is.
   
   
2. Application - What the technique / application is used for.
   
   
3. Challenge - Why is the technique / application challenging or difficult?
   
   
4. Existing Work Survey - Provide a summary of existing examples, documentation, tutorials, papers, etc. Include sample images of the resultant output.
   
   
5. References / Sources - Cite everything presented in #4 above and any other resources used as reference/influence for the proposal.

Part III - Presentation Slides

Your presentation should consist of five major sections:

1. Introduce the topic - introduce what the topic is, what it is used for, and show an example
2. Discuss the theory behind it - what graphics techniques are needed, what graphical objects are needed (SSBO, XBO, FBO, etc)
3. Discuss the computations - how is it generated?
4. Discuss the implementation - how is it done?
5. Q & A - this is the opportunity for the audience to ask clarifying and follow up questions

Each group will need to upload their slides in to Canvas prior to their presentation time.

Part IV - Presentation

For your presentation, you will then need to present your slides. Remember - a working demo is not required. You will have 30 minutes to discuss your topic and its implementation. You will be scored on the following criteria:

• Presentation Length: Not including Q&A Time -
  • 28-32m: 5 points
  • 26-28m or 32-34m: 3 points
  • <26m or >34m: 0 points
• Quality of Presentation: 5 points
• Clarity of Presentation: 5 points
• Effective Use of Visual Aids: 5 points

You will be reviewed by the instructor and your peers. Peer Feedback will be given to the presenting teams, so be kind but constructive.

Part V - Report

Depending on which course number your group is registered for (CSCI444 or CSCI544), the content of the report will be the same. The difference will be the required format. For students in CSCI444, the final report can follow paragraph form with figures and tables interspersed. For students in CSCI544, the final report should resemble a conference ready two column paper with figures and tables appropriately placed. There are many templates available and LaTeX will probably prove helpful. Students in CSCI444 may follow the guidelines for CSCI544. For all students, the report needs to be well written, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and clearly explain the topic.

The report needs to contain the following sections:

1. Abstract: Provide a one paragraph summary of your entire project. Very briefly mention why this technique is important, what makes it challenging, what your solution was, and what your results were. This is essentially condensing each section listed below into one or two sentences. You may want to actually write this section last.
   
   
2. Introduction: Give a high level overview of your project. Why is it important? What makes it challenging/difficult? Describe what will follow in the rest of the report. This section should be several paragraphs long (roughly one plus column).
   
   
3. Related Work: Discuss what has previously been done in this area. What existing and similar solutions exists? What have other people done? Where did those existing solutions fall short? You should be citing your references the most in this section (though you will probably need to cite in the first three or four sections). The length of this section will vary.
   
   
4. Problem Statement: Go into technical detail about the challenges in this area. What specifically makes it difficult? What shortcomings did other techniques have?
   
   
5. Problem Solution: Now go into technical detail about how your solution is implemented. Be sure to specifically mention what each shader is doing, what each pass is doing, and what graphical objects are being used.
   
   
6. Results: How did your implementation work? Did it accomplish what it set out to do?
   
   
7. Conclusion: In a couple paragraphs, summarize all of the above sections. Give any final thoughts on lessons learned, challenges that arose and how they were overcome, and next steps to take to future work.
   
   
8. References: List ALL references you used when researching and implementing your topic. This includes books, articles, websites, etc. For CSCI544 students, be sure to properly cite your references throughout your report as well.

Students in CSCI444 should have at least 3 pages and CSCI544 at least 5 pages. On the other end, there is a maximum number of pages. CSCI444 should not exceed 8 pages and CSCI544 should not exceed 10 pages. Therefore keep in mind your image size and placement as well as concisely but clearly explaining each section.

Upload your report as a PDF to Canvas by the final exam time slot (will be filled in when known). Your report will be graded according to the following rubric.

Part VI - Live Demo

Your presentations will be graded according to the following rubric.

Your final project & code will be graded according to the following rubric.