Committee Chair Candidates Sought

Committee Chair Candidates Sought

ACM SIGGRAPH is seeking candidates for the position of chair of each of the following committees

The essential responsibilities of each chair are listed below.

Chapters Committee Chair: Chapters of ACM SIGGRAPH continue the work of the organization on a year-round basis via their meetings, site visits, conferences, video screenings, art shows and special events. Each ACM SIGGRAPH Professional or Student Chapter consists of individuals involved in education, research and development, the arts, industry, and entertainment. The Chapters Committee Chair will help promote, plan, and facilitate the full integration of chapter activities into ACM SIGGRAPH while identifying and facilitating the flow of additional ACM SIGGRAPH benefits to chapters. They will also provide a link for communication with ACM on technical issues, and ensure compliance with all relevant policies and procedures.

Digital Arts Committee Chair: The Digital Arts Committee fosters the evolution of a strong digital arts community within the international organization and promotes a dialogue between visual artists and the larger SIGGRAPH community. It maintains an interactive Arts Portal and an associated social networking site that provides a central place for artists and scientists to share resources, information, artwork, and opportunities for collaboration. The Digital Arts Chair will oversee all of these efforts.

Interactive & Immersive Committee Chair: The vision of the Immersive and Interactive Environments Committee is to support researchers and practitioners involved in the design and creation of interactive and immersive experiences ​and promote them throughout the SIGGRAPH organization. The Immersive and Interactive Environments Committee was created to raise awareness of how Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (CG&IT, the backbone of SIGGRAPH) are used to create world class immersive experiences at SIGGRAPH conferences and in the broader community. This includes creating a web portal showcasing Interactive and Immersive Experiences, identifying leading examples of Interactive and Immersive Experiences, promoting education and innovation in the area, etc.

International Relations Committee Chair: The mission of the International Resources Committee (IRC) is to extend the reach and influence of the ACM SIGGRAPH conferences and organization globally through language and intercultural support. Among other things, the IRC produces multilingual content  and supervises the English Review Service for SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia. The IRC selects and works together with the International Center Manager in the organization and curation of the ACM SIGGRAPH Theater presentations at SIGGRAPH, as well as the presentations at SIGGRAPH Asia. The IRC Chair oversees all of these efforts.

Please contact Thierry Frey if you are interested in applying for any of these positions. Provide a CV and vision statement (why you’re interested in being chair and what you hope to accomplish in that role).

The schedule is the following

  • April 14 – May 15 – Call for Nominations Open
  • May 15 – 31 – Review by Nominations Committee
  • June 1 – Recommendation to EC
  • June 15 – New Chairs Announced
  • September 1 – Term begins

Volunteer with the Lifelong Learning Committee

About the Lifelong Learning Committee

The ACM SIGGRAPH Lifelong Learning Committee is a Standing Committee of ACM SIGGRAPH composed of individuals in a broad variety of Computer Graphics related fields including games, animation, education, research, UX and art. The mission of the Lifelong Learning Committee is to connect Computer Graphics professionals with applicable, relevant, and globally accessible learning resources. One of the core areas within the Lifelong Learning Committee’s work is the SIGGRAPH University, which is currently in development with the vision of serving as the hub for all things learning related within the ACM SIGGRAPH community, and providing resources to students and professionals in Computer Graphics around the world. The Lifelong Learning Committee is also dedicated to mentoring professionals in their careers, providing free resources and events throughout the year.

Current Job Openings

The Lifelong Learning Committee is currently seeking volunteers for the positions listed below. We are looking for volunteers with the passion and dedication to serve the Computer Graphics community, and help us in furthering the mission set forth by this committee.

Time Commitment

Volunteers at the Lifelong Learning Committee are expected to commit to regular committee meeting attendance (1 hour every two weeks) as well as some additional time as required (1-3 hours per week for tasks, and additional meetings if needed).

Course Content Associate

We are looking to fill two positions for help with collecting, curating, creating, editing, and uploading course content for SIGGRAPH University. The Course Content Associate will work closely with the Learning Leads in creating exciting content for the SIGGRAPH University.

TO APPLY:

Please complete form here. SKILLS: ● Experience with WordPress blogging site and/or Course Learning Management Systems (LMS) ● Insight into creative curriculum and course design. ● JavaScript or Python programming experience is a plus. ● Experience in Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro or any video editing software. RESPONSIBILITIES: ● Help collect, curate, and recommend content to be featured on the SIGGRAPH University website. ● Test run and provide feedback on content, organization, and presentation of course modules. ● Proof read content for any inconsistencies and grammatical errors. ● Upload content to LMS and help make recommendations for streamlining the content creation process. ● Assist with preparing marketing and promotional materials for email, social, video, landing pages and website. ● Work closely with the Learning Leads to maintain cohesive course design. ● Edit videos to produce logical course modules. Identify, tag, add subtitles and annotate content to enrich course experience. ● Add watermarks to videos, and check for accessibility standards.

Graphic Designer

We are looking to fill one position for help with creating marketing promotional materials, design banners, flyers, cards, and other graphic design tasks. The Graphic Designer will work closely with the Marketing Lead and Design Lead in creating digital and physical marketing materials for events and promotions. TO APPLY: Please complete form here. SKILLS: ● 2+ years of experience in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign). ● Knowledge of Figma and Adobe After Effects is a plus. ● Exceptional communication skills with the ability to gather and disseminate information to present facts clearly and accurately in a graphic form. ● Creative, innovative and solutions-oriented team player who enjoys contributing to moving the team forward. ● Well organized and ability to properly manage individual workload. ● Demonstrated experience in the field of design, specifically in Graphic design and Branding. ● Portfolio is required. RESPONSIBILITIES: ● Create concise and compelling brands, from strategic foundations to visual identity system and expression. ● Turn purpose and strategy into aspirational stories through visuals, writing, and other media. ● Design Banner, Flyers, promotional assets for Conference Booths, and Social Media Graphics. ● Lead all Graphic Design, Branding, and Communication design using layout, color, and typography across a variety of mediums such as print, digital, environmental and so forth. ● Produce and create digital web and print solutions, to ensure consistency of brand identity. ● Work closely with the Marketing Lead and Design Lead to ensure continuation of a stable production environment and meeting design standards. ● Create Style guides and signages as required.

Social Media & Community Manager

We are looking to fill one position for help with managing social media and community for SIGGRAPH University. The ideal candidate is someone who loves interacting with people and always has fun ideas on ways to engage with others. The SIGGRAPH University Lifelong Learning committee is seeking applications from students and professionals to volunteer and work closely with the Marketing Lead and Design Lead in creating exciting social content. TO APPLY: Please complete form here. SKILLS: ● Work experience or relevant equivalent as a Community or Social Media Manager. ● Experience using Discord, Telegram, Twitch, and other key platforms & tools. ● Strong written communication skills and English proficiency. RESPONSIBILITIES: ● Engage in online communities to discover audience interests, trends, goals, and preferred channels. ● Identify and promote SIGGRAPH University on forums, threads, online meetups, and within Computer Graphics communities. ● Manage and improve the SIGGRAPH University community presence. ● Partner with advocates to collect and answer FAQ. ● Suggest and organize events such as AMAs, Q&As, and meetups. ● Suggest and curate social media content. ● Maintain regular presence at various Social Media Platforms for SIGGRAPH University.

CGI Friday | Doug Trumbull Lived in the Future, and I Was Lucky to Visit

The world became a little less amazing two days ago. When we lost my friend Doug Trumbull to his battle with cancer, at age 79, it sent a ripple of shock and sadness throughout the universe. Particularly the universe of visual effect artists who, in complete unison, credit his work on films like Blade Runner (1982) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as one of their main reasons for entering the field.
Ed Kramer on the passing of Doug Trumbull. Read more at The Companion.
Memories of Chuck Csuri

Memories of Chuck Csuri

Wayne Carlson,  SIGGRAPH Pioneer

The computer graphics world, and indeed the entire world, lost a great friend and colleague this week. Charles ‘Chuck’ Csuri passed away just months from his 100th birthday. Chuck retired from a distinguished and exemplary career at the Ohio State University, but his influence has been felt far beyond the boundaries of the campus. In the last few days I have read several postings memorializing Chuck, and many wonderful comments from former students and people from the multiple disciplines that he touched with his contributions.

I was fortunate to work with him for nearly 20 years, first as a graduate student in his lab, then as a VP at his commercial computer graphics company, and ultimately as his successor in the academic program and research facility that he created. His mentorship defined my own academic career in computer graphics, and I am forever grateful to him.

Chuck was born in 1922 on the 4th of July in West Virginia and was always proud of his Hungarian roots. He graduated from Fine Arts at Ohio State, where a friend and classmate, and later fellow faculty member, was Roy Lichtenstein.

Chuck’s choice to attend Ohio State is interesting in its own right. In his own words, he was “a skinny kid that was growing into a bigger body” and was a pretty good football player at Cleveland West Tech. An assistant coach at OSU was friends of his high school coach at Tech, and saw him play. He convinced Chuck that he might be able to be successful playing for the Buckeyes while he pursued his art degree. He ended up as a three-year letterman at tackle, playing for legendary coach Paul Brown, played on the school’s first national championship team in 1942, and earned All American and MVP honors. The following year he was selected in the 1944 NFL Draft by the Chicago Cardinals, but instead of playing in the NFL he served the next three years in the Army, and fought in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge in WWII.

When he returned to the states, the Army assigned him to an engineering school for training, and his interest in combining the aesthetics of art with issues in the world of engineering was piqued. This interest in interdisciplinary relations permeated his career from that point on. He got his graduate degree in Art and joined the faculty, and became interested in how he could use the computer to realize his visions from the first time he was introduced to this emerging technology. In the early 1960s he began experimenting in this realm and in his words, was “hooked”.

In the late 1960s, Chuck created the Computer Graphics Research Group (CGRG) using funding from a grant from the National Science Foundation. This funding, and subsequent grants, allowed him to create amazing images over the following years, including a computer generated movie, “Hummingbird”, now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. One of his early pieces, “Random War”, was influenced by his experiences in the Army, and depicts the idiocy and randomness of death in battle.

The makeup of the members of CGRG matched his desire to put people from diverse disciplines together to advance his vision of creating artistic artifacts with the aid of the computer. Mathematicians worked with designers, with statisticians and engineers, and with artists and computer scientists. This interdisciplinary interaction brought us together. I had earned degrees in theoretical mathematics, but had become enamored with the things that a computer could bring to the discipline, so I headed to Ohio State from my home state of Idaho to do a PhD in computer science. One evening I attended a lecture by an artist who was using the computer as an artistic tool. I stayed after and talked for the next hour with that artist, Chuck Csuri.

I got a call not long after that from one of Chuck’s students. Chuck was looking for a mathematician to help with a grant that he had received from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research that provided funding to develop software to visualize the stresses on the wings of Air Force fighters at high speeds, and he remembered our conversation. Our relationship began with that call, and I soon joined his lab.

The next five years saw my fellow graduate students in the lab pushing the boundaries of cgi and computer animation. We developed software and hardware solutions and published our results, all in the progressive environment of interdisciplinary study fostered by Chuck as the director of the lab. It wasn’t always easy… Chuck might come into the lab in the morning saying “I want to be able to render artistic smoke clouds” or “I would like to see galaxies interact with each other, represented by millions of stars in each”. We’d look at our PDP 11-45 computer and swallow hard, but we would find a way to do it. It was Chuck’s energetic desire to push the limits that drove our contributions to the discipline.

Chuck had a way of quietly connecting with other researchers and labs across the country, and indeed, around the world. I don’t know how he did it, but he found a way to set aside enough cash to support every member of the lab to attend the SIGGRAPH conference every year. We would learn so much from the technical sessions, but the real advantage was meeting well into the night with other researchers, exchanging ideas and video tapes, and generating immeasurable energy that would impact us the entire year until the next conference.

In 1981 Chuck realized a personal goal of obtaining funding to take what we did in the lab to create a commercial computer animation company, and he asked me to join in that venture. Cranston/Csuri Productions created commercial animation for various clients over the next almost seven years. The necessary environment with artists and technologists working together in a company of this type was a natural extension of what we did in Chuck’s lab, and greatly contributed to the company’s success.

The company was co-located with CGRG in offices on the edge of campus, and the symbiotic relationship benefitted both organizations. Staying engaged with the University, Chuck succeeded in finally creating a formal academic program in computer graphics and computer art. Called the Advanced Computing Center in the Arts and Design, or ACCAD, it has become one of the premiere graduate programs in the country. I was honored to be chosen to succeed Chuck as the director of the program when he “retired” in 1990. We were able to acquire permanent funding that provided space in the lab and personnel to assist Chuck in the continuation of his creative ventures, which he did until his death.

Throughout his years at the University, Chuck navigated the politics within the University and the skepticism of the kind of cross-disciplinary environments that defined his activities. He eventually convinced faculty and administrators of the value of his vision, and in 2000 achieved the highest recognition of all of his various accomplishments. He received the Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts, and Ohio State’s Joseph Sullivant Medal in acknowledgment of his lifetime achievements in the fields of digital art and computer animation. In 2006, ACM-SIGGRAPH arranged a retrospective of his career’s work titled Beyond Boundaries, and in 2011 they bestowed upon him the Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art. Beyond Boundaries then travelled to different art museums and sites around the world. In 2014, he received the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences.

I know many of his students and colleagues that benefited from his energy and insight that are currently in universities, cgi labs, and companies around the world will remember Chuck Csuri forever. He was preceded in death in 2019 by his artist wife of 70 years, Lee, who he always referred to as his best friend, and his son Steven in 2018. His daughter Caroline and his two granddaughters Hannah and Emily Reagh continue to contribute to his legacy. A memorial statement from Ohio State indicates that donations and gifts in Chuck’s name are requested to be directed to his favorite charity, the Special Olympics. His website https://www.charlescsuri.com and instagram account https://instagram.com/charlescsuri will remain active, and condolences can be left at either.

OSU Oral History Project, June 2003, https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/5928

Charles A. Csuri: Beyond Boundaries 1963-Present,  https://www.otterbein.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/csuri_glowski_beyond_boundries.pdf