UAB Computer Graphics Camp 2007, June 25-29, 2007 (part of UAB CS Camp)
Overview
Since 1999, the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has run a weeklong Computer Science Camp (now called Computer Graphics Camp) for high school students, from sophomores to seniors. Students from many local high schools have participated in the camp (see below). The camp is designed to introduce students to computer science at a deeper level than they may have seen before, develop some fun working software for real problems, and prepare students for potential study at the university level. Students listen to daily lectures and do hands-on supervised laboratory work, developing software in C++ and OpenGL that implements the material learned in lecture. By providing prototype software developed by the faculty members running the course, which is then altered, the students can explore sophisticated ideas. Prof. Johnstone emphasizes aspects of computer graphics, while Prof. Sloan emphasizes aspects of algorithm design and visualization. Past projects have included the geometric modeling of smooth objects, visualization of sorting algorithms, and motion design. We have discussed visibility analysis for interactive rendering in complex environments, motion design for computer animation, design of curves and surfaces for population of virtual scenes, various optimal and practical sorting algorithms, algorithmic complexity, and algorithmic shortcuts.
Graphics Camp 2007
Computer Graphics Camp 2007 will be held June 25-29, 2007.
Participating high schools in previous years
Bios
The camp is taught by two UAB professors, John K. Johnstone and Kenneth R. Sloan.
Dr. Johnstone received his Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell University. He was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University before joining the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at UAB. His research expertise is in geometric modeling and computer graphics.
Dr. Sloan received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. He held faculty appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Washington before joining the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at UAB. His research expertise is in computer graphics and computer vision.
2007 Application form: UAB Computer Graphics Camp 2007 Application Form
The cost of the camp is $150, or $500 for the entire offering of CS camps (see the website www.cis.uab.edu/programs/camps).
Some experience in programming (e.g., C, C++, Java) is highly recommended.
Additional information: John Faulkner (934-7019) would be happy to provide students or parents information about camp logistics.
Optional textbook: 'OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL' by Dave Shreiner, Mason Woo, Jackie Neider and Tom Davis, 5th edition, Addison-Wesley (2005). An early edition of this book is also available online, in the public domain. This book is used as a general reference. More specialized material is presented in lectures.
Some of the research presented by Prof. Johnstone at this camp is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-0203586.
Created by John K. Johnstone. Last updated 02/12/2007