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South African Author and Illustrator Trevor Romain to Keynote ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion Summit at SIGGRAPH 2020

Aug 11, 2020 |

Photo Courtesy of The Trevor Romain Company

CHICAGO — As the SIGGRAPH 2020 North America conference goes to a virtual format starting on 17 August, 2020, the 3rd annual installment of ACM SIGGRAPH’s Diversity & Inclusion Summit welcomes best-selling children’s author and illustrator Trevor Romain as its virtual keynote speaker. In addition to going virtual this year, the Summit will also span across two days from 22-23 August in alignment between the two week conference in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC/GMT-7). After 28 August, access to the conference content will be available until 27 October, while the ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion Summit will be permanent on SIGGRAPH.org and ACM SIGGRAPH Facebook page courtesy of the ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion committee. 

Romain, who serves as the president of the Trevor Romain Company based in Austin, TX, established a career spanning over 30 years as a successful children’s book author, illustrator and featured in the award-winning Comical Sense animation series shown on PBS affiliate stations around the United States. Today, he has sold over a million copies of his books and published in 22 languages. Previously, Trevor served as the past president of the American Childhood Cancer Organization and known for his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the United Nations, UNICEF and the USO. 

“The ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion committee is truly honored to have Trevor Romain to keynote the 3rd annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit for SIGGRAPH 2020. In honor of this year’s ‘Think Beyond’ theme, we are excited to engage into Trevor’s fresh perspective from South Africa, and spotlight the importance to inclusive storytelling from his life, career and how it’s essential moving forward.” said ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion Chair Tony Baylis, of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  

For the keynote session, Romain will share his upbringing in South Africa, intentions from behind the scenes of creating Comical Sense and the importance of inclusive storytelling to give virtual attendees insight to a hopeful future today. Romain will also do a fireside conversation with Daniel Ramamoorthy on Exploring Empathy & Creativity to Tell Inclusive Stories on 23 August at 9:45 a.m. PDT. 

Romain shared, “I am honored to present at ACM SIGGRAPH’s Diversity & Inclusion Summit at SIGGRAPH 2020 to discuss the importance of inclusive storytelling. The Trevor Romain Company creates materials designed to help kids to become happier, healthier and more confident through a variety of resources. We are excited to share our work and the thinking behind our interactive communication strategies at the 3rd Annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit.” – Trevor Romain, President at The Trevor Romain Company 

The 2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion Summit keynote session will be streamed virtually on Saturday, 22 August at 12 p.m. CDT (1 p.m. EDT, 10 a.m. PDT). Access to this keynote is available to the public and available through the ACM SIGGRAPH Facebook page. This event is open to all, but registration for SIGGRAPH 2020 is highly encouraged at s2020.SIGGRAPH.org/register. The Summit’s diverse programming also includes presentations from Buzzfeed Animation, Women in Animation, Google, Industrial Light & Magic as well as discussions on the topics of Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, Unconscious Bias, Homelessness, Deafness and Working from Home.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Conferences 

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH Conferences, held in North America and Asia, are the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experiences showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Media Contact: 

Alex Bryant

alex@trevorromain.com

512-480-8818

Tony Baylis 

ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion Chair 

tebalis@gmail.com 

925-699-4530

Call for Nominations for ACM SIGGRAPH External Relations Chair

Jul 22, 2020 |

The ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee is recruiting for a Chair of their External Relations Committee. In concert with the Executive Committee, the External Relations Chair coordinates and oversees the efforts to build stronger alliances and partnerships with organizations, conferences and institutions in fields related to SIGGRAPH.

The main responsibilities and tasks of the Chair are

  • Set the priorities on topics and fields to explore and grow the SIGGRAPH community and keep it vibrant and novel.
  • Coordinate a team of volunteers, who will help identify potential partners, intersecting and new fields. This includes email communication, bi-weekly (or monthly) calls, individual calls depending on the areas to explore.
  • Start negotiation processes with potential partners with the aim to achieve mutual benefit.
  • Draft agreements and elevate them to the EC for approval. 
  • Communicate with other standing committees and groups (e.g. Communications, Education, Chapters, Diversity and Inclusion, Computer Animation Festival Advisory Board) to establish common goals, collaborations, and partnerships with 3rd parties. 
  • Communicate with strategy groups (New Communities, 21st Century Digital Presence, Nurturing Communities)
  • Maintain a good and healthy relationship with our partners. 
  • Propose space for exchange and new ideas within SIGGRAPH (e.g. “Meet the Partners” session).

The Chair must put in a budget request to the EC every January and submit an annual report in June. The Chair can expect to spend 5 or more hours/week on the chair activities. 

For those interested in applying for this position, please contact Rebecca Strzelec, Chair of the Nominations Committee. Provide a CV and vision statement (why you’re interested in being chair and what you hope to accomplish in that role). The Nominations Committee will review all the candidates and make recommendations to the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee.

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. All applications received by August 15 will receive full consideration.

The position will begin September 1 and run for a three-year term with the possibility of renewal for an additional three years.

The 25th International ACM Conference on Web3D Technology

The 25th International ACM Conference on Web3D Technology

Jul 21, 2020 |

The 25th International ACM Conference on Web3D Technology

November 9-13, 2020, Virtual Conference, Seoul, Korea

Supported by ACM SIGGRAPH: In Cooperation with The Web3D Consortium and Korea Computer Graphics Society

  • Paper and poster submission: August 3, 2020
  • Demonstration submission: September 26, 2020
  • Industrial use cases submission: September 19, 2020
  • Tutorial&Workshop submission: September 12, 2020
  • Standards session submission: September 19, 2020
  • Paper and poster acceptance: September 7, 2020
  • Tutorial/workshop/demonstration/industrial use case
  • acceptance: October 12, 2020
  • Camera-ready paper/poster/demo: September 21, 2020
  • HAnim competition subission: October 12, 2020

The 25th International ACM Conference on Web3D Technology (Web3D 2020), organized by ACM SIGGRAPH in cooperation with Web3D Consortium and Korea Computer Graphics Society, will address an extensive range of research, development, and practices related to Web-based interactive 3D applications. Web3D 2020 will be held as a virtual conference in Korea University, Seoul, Korea on November 9-13, 2020.

The goal of the conference is to share innovative and creative ideas that enable development of 3D applications for a wide range of 3D environments, including the web, mobile as well as virtual and augmented reality (XR) setups. Works related to various application domains, including education, healthcare, e-commerce, informatics, cultural heritage/tourism, entertainment, mass media, military, and construction (and many others) are welcome. This year’s theme “3D for Hyperconnected World , which emphasizes the increasingly global scope and wide impact of current and future high quality 3D content over high speed network. The Web3D community seeks to foster and support the increasing development, use, and utility of 3D content over high speed network by application developers, domain experts, as well as for end users. This includes the creation of interactive 3D content, robust and versatile 3D content representation and delivery standards, as well as presentation and interaction techniques enabling the development of user-friendly 3D applications on the Web.

Use the following list of the topic areas as a reference rather than a limitation. We welcome all topics related to Web/mobile 3D content creation, 3D printing, publishing technology, tools, and related studies.

For Web3D application developers

  • Novel technologies, tools, middleware
  • VR/AR/MR/XR
  • 3D content creation and modelling, 3D content scanning/re
    construction/printing
  • Novel APIs, toolkits, and frameworks for Web3D and
    associated application domains
  • AI on Web 3D
  • Human modeling on Web3D
  • Cloud-based rendering and services for large-scale models,
    animations, and virtual worlds
  • Streaming, compression, and transmission of 3D content
  • Virtual humans, avatars, and complex reactive characters
  • Motion capture for composition and streaming of behaviors
    and expressions
  • HTML5 3D, WebGL, glTF, and other languages that support the
    3D Web

For Domain experts

  • Algorithms for shape modeling, compression, optimization,
    analysis, and processing
  • Novel APIs, toolkits, and frameworks for Web3D and associated
  • application domains
  • Semantic Web for 3D objects and scenes
  • X3D application examples

For Web3D users

  • Multi-modal 3D interaction paradigms including spatial UI,
  • gesture and voice
  • Visual analytics based on Web3D technologies
  • Diffusion and adoption of Web3D technologies, comparative
  • studies, historical perspectives, WWW integration
  • Novel interactive 3D web applications in all areas and sectors
  • such as entertainment, education, training, cultural heritage,
  • digital twin, medicine, military, smart-manufacturing / industry
  • 4.0, information & data visualization, science, geographic
  • information systems (GIS), digital globes, subsurface exploration
  • and mining, integrated marine data management and visualization, building information modeling(BIM), and architecture.ilding
  • information modeling (BIM), and architecture
  • Web3D/Mobile 3D applications and usability studies, navigation
  • performance, immersion impact

Submission Link : http://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=web3d2020

Submission Guidelines

Full or Short Papers presenting original work in Web3D research and applications may be submitted in long or short form (up to 9 or 4 pages, EXCLUSIVE of the page(s) devoted to bibliographic references and short appendices). Do include a full citation list. Submissions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be included in the ACM Digital Library and submitted to major indexing services, such as Web of Science, DBLP, and Scopus. (Instructions for Authors: https://www.siggraph.org/learn/instructions-authors/)

Posters present results of ongoing or recently completed work in 3D web research and application. The poster format offers the opportunity to interactively present and discuss interesting results to the Web3D community. Posters should be submitted in the form of abstracts (2 pages). Posters must be formatted using the document templates for conferences supported by ACM SIGGRAPH. Upon acceptance, the final revised poster is required in paper and electronic format.

Tutorials are an opportunity to present introductory and advanced applications of Web3D technologies to students and to experienced practitioners. Tutorial subjects can include practices for authoring interactive 3D scenes and using 3D graphics in diverse application areas. Especially welcome are tutorials in the use of open-source software and Web applications which can be presented in hands-on sessions at the conference.

Workshops provide a forum for researchers and practitioners from both the Web and 3D multimedia communities to discuss and exchange positions on current and emergent Web3D topics. Workshops may take the form of presentation sessions moderated by workshop organizers or open discussions of new knowledge on a specific topic of interest. Each session will last 90 minutes with presentations and discussions.

Demonstrations enable artists, content designers, and developers to share their innovative 3D work at the conference. Artwork and applications developed for various platforms, including the Web, desktop, mobile, and VR/AR systems, are welcome.

Industrial use case enable practitioners to demonstrate how Web3D technologies may be used in industrial applications. A special track during Web3D 2020 will be devoted to industrial use cases to share best practices, and requirements of using 3D in various application domains. Each presentation will last 20 minutes with 5-10 minutes for discussions.

Standard Sessions provide a meeting for researchers and practitioners from both the Web and 3D multimedia communities to discuss and exchange standardization issues on current and emergent Web3D topics.

Competition(HAnim) is an annual competition dedicated to showing how HAnim and X3D graphics standards can be used for creating animated music videos. The competition is organized by the Korean Standards Association (KSA) and Web3D Consortium. For competitors, attendance at the conference is no tmandatory but is encouraged. (https://www.web3d.org/2020-hanim-3d-animated-music-video-competition)

※ The accepted papers and poster summaries will be published in the Web3D 2020 Conference Proceedings, available in the ACM Digital Library, Journal of Computational Design and engineering (JCDE) and Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds(CAVW). All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference.
※ Registration to the Web3D 2020 conference is free for everyone including authors
※ Questions about the CFP, program and conference should be emailed to program2020@web3dconference.org

Submission Link : http://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=web3d202

Slate of Candidates for the ACM SIGGRAPH Director Positions Announced

Slate of Candidates for the ACM SIGGRAPH Director Positions Announced

Jul 1, 2020 |

ACM SIGGRAPH Candidates:


Left: Director A—Corinne Price and Elizabeth Baron.
Middle: Director B—Jesse Barker and Makai Smith.
Right: Director C—Hanspeter Pfister and Tomasz Bednarz.

The ACM SIGGRAPH election window is now open and will remain open until at 16:00 UTC, 14 August 2020. In accordance with the ACM SIGGRAPH bylaws three races are being held, all are Director positions, and one person from each Director position will be elected.  Those elected will start their terms 1 September 2020.

Each candidate has created a position paper based on their vision of what they hope to accomplish in their term of office. Please read about the position, the candidates’ position statements and bios and their member profile. These documents will be useful for making an informed decision.  Learn about the candidates and cast your vote!

Candidates for Director A

Candidates for Director B

Candidates for Director C

Members of ACM SIGGRAPH who are in good standing as of 31 May 2020 were sent voting information in an email message from Election Services Corporation (ESC). To cast your vote, follow the link in the email. If ACM does not have an email address on file, members will receive voting information via postal mail. Members also have the option of requesting a paper ballot. If you do not receive an email from ESC, have any questions or would like to request a paper ballot, please email:  acmsighelp@electionservicescorp.com or call toll-free 1-866-720-4357.

The 25th International Web3D Conference: CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS

The 25th International Web3D Conference: CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS

Jun 26, 2020 |

The Web3D 2020 Conference is exploring 3D in a Hyperconnected World!  Web3D is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year.  As we see an explosion of interactive 3D content on the Web with WebGL now widely supported by browsers, tools such as X3D, X3DOM, X_ITE, three.js, glTF, and A-Frame are widely being adopted. Anyone can create Web3D content for virtually any domain or application, including commercial game engines such as Unity, Unreal, and Castle Game Engine as they offer ways to integrate open specifications and Standard formats in their applications.

This year’s conference has been organized by Web3D Consortium and Korea Computer Graphics Society, and they decided early in 2020 as the pandemic gripped the world to move the conference to a virtual setting and with the goal of pioneering connectedness in the new normal.  The team believes the Conference can provide the entire 3D computer graphics community with a quality program and offer exposure to this discipline when we work together as a community to collaborate and innovate on Web3D initiatives. The Conference is working and reaching out to connect to every SIGGRAPH community and enabling them to expose 3D, via the Web.   Information about the Call for Papers and Posters can be found at: http://2020.web3dconference.org and http://www.web3d.or.kr.

Important Dates:

  • 27 July 2020: Deadline for authors’ submission of papers (manuscripts for review, not just abstracts) to EasyChair; with no extensions. The paper review process starts immediately
  • 07 September 2020: Final decision on acceptance/rejection of papers and posters, with notification of authors.
  • 21 September 2020: Deadline for authors of accepted papers and posters to submit final ‘camera-ready’ manuscripts.
  • 13- 17 November: The 25th International Web3D Virtual Conference

For Web3D application developers: novel technologies, tools, middleware:

  • VR/AR/MR/XR
  •  3D content creation and modelling, 3D content scanning/reconstruction/printing
  • Novel APIs, toolkits, and frameworks for 3D Web and associated application domains
  • AI on Web 3D
  • Human modeling on Web 3D
  • Cloud-based rendering and services for large-scale models, animations, and virtual worlds
  • Streaming, compression, and transmission of 3D content
  • Virtual humans, avatars, and complex reactive characters
  • Motion capture for composition and streaming of behaviors and expressions
  • HTML5 3D, WebGL, glTF, and other languages that support the 3D Web

For domain experts: new platforms, standards, capabilities:

  • Algorithms for shape modeling, compression, optimization, analysis, and processing
  • Novel APIs, toolkits, and frameworks for 3D Web and associated application domains
  • Semantic Web for 3D objects and scenes
  • X3D application examples

For Web3D users:

  • Multi-modal 3D interaction paradigms including spatial UI, gesture and voice
  • Visual analytics based on 3D Web technologies
  • Diffusion and adoption of 3D Web technologies, comparative studies, historical perspectives, WWW integration
  • Novel interactive 3D Web applications in all areas and sectors such as entertainment, education, training, cultural heritage, medicine, military, smart-manufacturing / industry 4.0, information and data visualization, science, geographic information systems (GIS), digital globes, subsurface exploration and mining, integrated marine data management and visualization, Smart city building information modeling (BIM), and architecture
  • Web3D/Mobile 3D applications and usability studies, navigation performance, immersion impact

The accepted papers and poster summaries will be published in the Web3D 2020 Conference Proceedings, available in the ACM Digital Library , and submitted for indexing in Thomson Reuters/ISI Web of Science, DBLP and Scopus.