News

The SIGGRAPH Pioneers group is proud to announce our Featured Speakers for 2024.

This year for the first time, the Pioneers Featured Speakers presentation is open to all conference attendees! Our 2024 Featured Speakers are Mary Whitton and Nick England, who co-created the Ikonas Graphics Processor in 1978. Ikonas was the world’s first General-Purpose Graphics Processor Unit, which was crucial in almost every pioneering application of computer graphics. Nick will talk about those early programmable graphics processor developments, which originally came out of North Carolina State, and Mary will talk about the development of Virtual Reality technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

If you are interested in becoming a Pioneer, and have at least 20 years of professional experience in the field, please click on the Pioneers webpage link below to learn how to become a member. Click the “Online Contents” link to watch any of the videos created by the SIGGRAPH Pioneers, including panels on important historical topics and interviews with many of the pioneers themselves!

https://www.siggraph.org/siggraph-365/pioneers/

-Ed Kramer

 Chair, SIGGRAPH Pioneers

Panelist Bios:

Nick England

I got introduced to interactive 3D graphics in 1972 in John Staudhammer’s lab at NC State. Designed a programmable graphics processor which was the foundation for Ikonas Graphics Systems in 1978. Later co-founded Trancept Systems. Both companies were acquired by larger companies but engineering stayed in NC – I got my Delta Airlines million-miler award thanks to Sun Microsystems. Worked on PixelFlow project at UNC-CH starting in 1993, then in 2000 founded 3rdTech Inc to commercialize several technologies developed there. Now retired to restoring vintage Navy radio and teletype equipment. Still located in NC.

Mary Whitton

Mary Whitton studied at both Duke and NC State and had a distinguished 25-year career as a research professor at UNC Chapel Hill.  She got involved with interactive computer graphics in 1976, in John Staudhammer’s lab at NC State. She was a co-founder of Ikonas Graphics Systems (1978) and Trancept Systems (1987). These companies’ products were high-end user-programmable hardware with software libraries for graphics, image processing, volume rendering, and visualization. At UNC she co-led the Effective Virtual Environments research group, and she received the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Community (VGTC) Virtual Reality Career Award in 2021.  She was Chair of the ACM SIGGRAPH organization 1993-1995 and received the ACM SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award in 2013. 

Join ACM SIGGRAPH Chair Mona Kasra on 27 June 2024 at 5:00 pm EST, in a moderated webinar discussion entitled ACM Open: Navigating the Open Access Publication Model with ACM Director of Publications Scott Delaman and ACM Senior Member Jonathan Aldrich. 

This webinar is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of ACM OPEN. Our speakers will discuss the open access model, publication tiering structures, the status of the transition to open access, the impact on ACM Digital Library, and the implications and benefits of Article Processing Charges (APC) for ACM SIGGRAPH authors and contributors. They will also engage in a Q&A session to address any additional concerns or questions from the audience. 

ACM transitions to 100% Open Access in January 2026. You can prepare for the webinar and learn more about the transition in an interview between Kasra and Aldrich on SIGGRAPH’s website. To learn more about ACM Open visit ACM Open website.

Please register for the webinar by following this link. 

The ACM SIGGRAPH Archive team is looking for a volunteer web programmer to join the SIGGRAPH History Archives team.  This is an excellent opportunity to work on an exciting project that has world-wide exposure. 

The programming involves:

Coding using PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS and other web languages

Overseeing website security and updates

Writing APIs to export XML and connect data between SQL databases

Working within a complex WordPress environment

We are looking an individual that possess the following attributes:

Able to devote time to the project

Excellent problem solver

Advanced programming skills

Experience working with databases

Very motivated and takes a proactive approach to getting work done

Trustworthy and Reliable

Can work both independently and in a team

About the Project:

The ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive is an innovative WordPress-based custom content management system using Pods. It contains documentation of SIGGRAPH conference and organization presentations, demonstrations and much more. The innovative nature of this project is the interconnectedness of the data and the real-time customized page delivery system.  

The archive is being developed by a team of volunteers and directed by Bonnie Mitchell and Jan Searleman. This project is presented at the SIGGRAPH conferences and other venues world-wide.  

Advantages of Joining the Team:

Networking opportunities with pioneers in the field of computer graphics

Gain skills in coding complex systems

Teamwork experience working with other professionals

Being involved in a high-profile project that is recognized internationally

Project URLs:

https://history.siggraph.org

Contact the Project Directors:

historyarchives@siggraph.org

Professor Bonnie Mitchell, Bowling Green State University, USA

Professor Jan Searleman, Clarkson University, USA

ACM SIGGRAPH is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s awards and new members of the SIGGRAPH Academy, listed below.

Computer Graphics Achievement
Aaron Hertzmann
For his pioneering work in non-photorealistic animation and rendering (NPR), image synthesis, character animation, computational photography and the interplay between computer generated and traditional art

Significant New Researcher Award
Adriana Schulz
For her outstanding contributions to interactive 3D design tools for physical artifacts

Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
Zachary Ferguson
“Provably Robust and Accurate Methods for Rigid and Deformable Simulation with Contact”

Honorable mention to Yu Wang for his dissertation “Geometric Computing beyond the Laplacian” and Fangcheng Zhong for his dissertation “Path from Photorealism to Perceptual Realism”

Outstanding Service Award
Adele Newton
For her long-term, visionary, and dedicated service to ACM SIGGRAPH

Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art
Tamiko Thiel
For her innovations in virtual and augmented reality art used to explore place, space, the body, and cultural memory

ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award
F. Sebastian Grassia
For technical leadership of and contribution to Universal Scene Description

ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Educator Award
Mike Bailey
For his dedication to introducing the basics and joy of computer graphics to thousands of students and the SIGGRAPH conference attendees in a decades-long endeavor

ACM SIGGRAPH Academy
Baoquan Chen
For contributions to large-scale scene reconstruction, point-cloud processing, and shape design for manufacturing

Jacquelyn Ford Morie
For pioneering contributions to the fusion of art with virtual reality and immersive technologies, and for advancing digital arts within the SIGGRAPH community

Dinesh K. Pai
For groundbreaking contributions to animation using physics-based and data-driven simulation techniques

Ariel Shamir
For pioneering work in algorithms for image, video, and geometry processing that are driven by models of human perception

Mary C. Whitton
For contributions to programmable graphics systems and virtual reality, and for exemplary leadership in the SIGGRAPH community