July 2013 - csc-general

Guest Speaker Gavriel State: The Future of 3D Graphics is in Software! this Monday. | Code Party 1 Friday | CSC/CMC Cleanup (Important Notice Within) | Ctrl+D
by Computer Science Club 20 Jul '13

20 Jul '13

Greetings again Daleklings, Finishing up our graphics-themed talks this term are Guest Speakers Gavriel State and Nicolas Capens from TransGaming giving a talk entitled "The Future of 3D Graphics is in Software!" The talk will happen Monday, July 22nd, 17:00, in MC 4020. Summary and link to full abstract below: Convergence between CPU and GPU approaches to processing sets the stage for an exciting transition to 3D rendering that takes place entirely in software. TransGaming's Nicolas Capens and Gavriel State will speak about this convergence and how it will influence the future of graphics. For more information please visit http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4020-2013-07-22-5:00PM. == Then, this coming Friday, come out to the Code Party (1) happening in the MC Comfy Lounge, July 26, at 19:00! Why sleep when you could be hacking on $your_favourite_project or doing $something_classy in great company? Join us for a night of coding, music, snacks, and camaraderie! Pizza and other refreshments will be provided. == The following Monday, July 29, we will be performing a thorough cleaning of the CSC and ex-CMC offices. ***** Items appearing to be forsaken and using up precious space, including electronics, food paraphernalia, personal papers, useless print material, etc. will (upon some consultation with regular office denizens) be disposed of. If you happen to be storing items in these rooms, please remove them or let us know when you will be able to pick them up. ***** The offices are considerably more welcoming to fall term frosh Daleklings when they are clean and have space. =) == Lastly, Ctrl+D, our termly EOT event, will be happening most likely Friday, August 2, at the usual Westcourt abode. If you are interested in coming and don't know the location, feel free to inquire at the office. == Your overlord, Calum T. Dalek EXSANGUINATE

1 0

CSC Goes Outside tonight!
by Computer Science Club 19 Jul '13

19 Jul '13

Fellow Dalek-lings! The weather forecast for tonight isn't looking that bad. We will start setting up at the EV Firepit at 7 and will have ice cream sandwiches available to cool you down. If it starts pouring at any point, we can wait it out inside EV, but at the moment it looks like rain will only be temporary and shouldn't interfere later in the night. Your overlord, Calum T. Dalek EXUBERATE

1 0

Upcoming events: Gavriel State on future of 3D graphics in software, Path Tracing tutorial, CSC Goes Outside, and Code Party 1
by Computer Science Club 12 Jul '13

12 Jul '13

Hello CSC Members! Hope your term's coming to an agreeable end. We have a variety of events coming up in the next couple of weeks to finish off the term. == Path Tracing by Syed Albiz Thursday, July 18, 17:00, in MC 4041 Abstract: As a follow on to last term's tutorial on building a ray-tracer from scratch, I'll be presenting the basic mechanics of how a bidirectional path- tracer creates a globally illuminated scene, advantages and limitations of this approach over other offline global illumination techniques along with simple example path-tracer written in C++, and (time permitting) opportunities for hardware acceleration on GPUs. == CSC Goes Outside! Friday, July 19, 19:00, EV Fire Pit Event will happen rain or shine. Come out for an evening at a campfire BBQ at the Laurel Creek Firepit across from the Environment building / near Velocity. Feel free to bring friends, musical instruments, frisbees, or other entertainment. We'll have more than sufficient meat, Smores, Ice cream, etc. available for enjoyment. =) == The Future of 3D Graphics is in Software! by Gavriel State, founder of TransGaming and Nicolas Capens Monday, July 22nd, 17:00, in MC 4020 Abstract: For some time now, it has been clear that there is strong momentum for convergence between CPU and GPU technologies. Initially, each technology used radically different approaches to processing, but over time GPUs have evolved to support more general purpose use while CPUs have evolved to include advanced vector processing and multiple execution cores. At TransGaming, we believe that this convergence will continue to the point where typical systems have only one type of processing unit, with large numbers of cores and very wide vector execution units available for high performance parallel execution. In this kind of environment, all graphics processing will ultimately take place in software. In this talk, we will explore the converging nature of CPU and GPU approaches to processing, how dynamic specialization allows CPUs to efficiently perform tasks usually done by GPUs, and why we believe that the increased flexibility of more programmable architectures will ultimately win out over fixed function hardware, even in areas such as texture sampling. *TransGaming Inc.* works at the cutting edge of 3D graphics, building technologies that bridge the gap between platform boundaries to allow games to be played on a variety of devices and operating systems. TransGaming works with other industry leaders to update established APIs such as OpenGL, while also breaking new ground in software rendering technology, which we believe will become increasingly important as CPU and GPU technologies converge. *Nicolas Capens* is the architect of SwiftShader, TransGaming's high performance software renderer, and is also deeply involved in the ANGLE project, which provides efficient translation from OpenGL ES to Direct3D APIs for implementing WebGL on Windows. Nicolas received his MSci.Eng. degree in computer science from Ghent University in 2007. *Gavriel* *State *(Gav) is TransGaming's Founder & CTO, and has worked in graphics and portability for over 20 year on dozens of platforms and APIs. Gav wrote his first software renderer when taking CS488 at UW, where he later graduated with a B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering. == Code Party 1 Friday, July 26, 19:00, in MC Comfy Lounge Celebrate the last Friday of classes working on some personal projects or just hanging out with the cool crowd. Pizza and other refreshments will be provided, as well as music, entertainment, and potentially more Artemis later in the evening. (We do want to get some coding done this time around ;) ) == Future events: The following week is likely to include CSC Clean Up Party and our termly Ctrl+D EOT party. Information will come forth closer to date. == Looking forward to seeing you at our events. Calum T. Dalek Overlord, CSC X-TERMINATE

1 0

Upcoming CSC Talk: 3D Movies and Computer Science
by Computer Science Club 08 Jul '13

08 Jul '13

Hello CSC Members! We are hosting a faculty talk this Thursday, July 11 in MC 4041: 3D Movies and Computer Science by Lesley Northam Abstract: While humans started making 3D motion pictures in the 1800's, several technical and artistic challenges prevented widespread interest in the medium. By investing heavily in a computerized production pipeline, James Cameron's 2009 release of Avatar ushered in an era of mainstream interest in 3D film. However, many technical and artistic problems still find their way into otherwise-modern 3D movies. The talk explores some of these problems while introducing the fundamentals of 3D film-making from a CS perspective. Hope to see you there! Calum T. Dalek Overlord, CSC X-TERMINATE

1 0

Re: [CSC] CSC Goes Outside POSTPONED DUE TO RAIN to Friday, July 12, 2013
by Computer Science Club 05 Jul '13

05 Jul '13

Hey all, CSC Goes Outside has been cancelled tonight due to rain. We will announce location once we have everything booked early next week. Enjoy your weekend everyone! =) Calum T. Dalek / ctdalek EXTERMINATE

1 0

CSC Goes Outside | Friday, July 5, 2013
by Computer Science Club 04 Jul '13

04 Jul '13

Hello, CSC is going outside tomorrow: Friday, July 5. We're having a campfire BBQ at 7PM at the Laurel Creek firepit, across from Environment 3. There will be meat and other food items for consumption. Feel free to bring friends, musical instruments, a frisbee, and/or other fun things. We hope to see you there! Shane Creighton-Young / srcreigh President

1 0