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Pioneers of Computer Graphics Education

Feb 27, 2023 |

Next in the ongoing series of panels from the SIGGRAPH Pioneers comes a discussion with some of the pioneering educators of the art and science of Computer Graphics. Moderator William Joel hosts a distinguished panel of long-time scholars of CGI and Interactive Techniques, including Edward Angel, Glenn Goldman, Don Greenberg, Barbara Mones, and Scott Owen.


Join us March 8, 2023 at 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) for a webinar you won’t want to miss. Registration is required for attendance.

Register Now

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Call for 2023 Candidates for the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee

Feb 15, 2023 |

SIGGRAPH’s mission is to nurture, champion, and connect researchers and practitioners of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. Members of the EC are primarily responsible for oversight and strategic planning for ACM SIGGRAPH. EC members also serve as liaisons to the ACM SIGGRAPH Standing Committees, lead strategy teams, and serve as representatives to the conference advisory groups for the SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia conferences. They attend 2 physical meetings per year, including the annual SIGGRAPH Conference as well as regularly scheduled (on average two to three per week) teleconference meetings for the Executive Committee and various sub-committees. The average workload is around 6-10 hours per week. 

An ACM SIGGRAPH Director is a voting member of the Executive Committee who helps make decisions on behalf of ACM SIGGRAPH. All ACM SIGGRAPH Directors must be members of both ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH.

Expectations for all ACM SIGGRAPH EC members:

  • Set the strategic direction for the organization to best support the community of researchers, practitioners, and artists working in computer and graphics and interactive techniques
  • Promote technical and creative excellence, through taking an active role in the community as individuals
  • Adhere to the cultural expectations of the organization
  • Supervise the operational activities of the organization which include:
    • Provide benefits for ACM SIGGRAPH members within the scope and financial resources of the organization
    • Provide high-quality resources and programs (conferences, newsletters, etc.) within the scope of ACM SIGGRAPH’s mission statement
    • Promote communication and interaction both within ACM SIGGRAPH and between ACM SIGGRAPH and the broader community
    • Oversee conferences, symposia and workshops, both for quality and fiscal soundness
    • Promote and publicize ACM SIGGRAPH achievements

Specific duties of Directors include:

  • Take on two of the following jobs:
    • Lead or actively participate in one of the teams which are collectively responsible for the strategic work of the Executive Committee
    • Act as a liaison to a group of 3-6 of the ACM SIGGRAPH Standing Committees
    • Act as a liaison to one of the conference advisory groups (SIGGRAPH or SIGGRAPH Asia)
  • Lead or actively participate in two calls/month for each of the groups selected from the above list
  • Vote on important decisions affecting ACM SIGGRAPH strategy and operations
  • Attend ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee meetings (both 2 in-person meetings per year and two hour-long calls/month)
  • Some directors will also serve as Chair and Treasurer for one year during their term (see below for details).

More information about the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee can be found in Section 2 and about the Standing Committees and Strategy Groups in Section 6 of the ACM SIGGRAPH Policy Guidelines.

There are nine elected Directors and the Officers will be selected from the Directors by the Executive Committee, with duties shown below.  This means that new Directors may be asked to serve as one of the Officers.

Duties of the Officers: from the ACM SIGGRAPH Bylaws:

Article 5. Duties of the Officers

The EC shall select, from among its directors, a Chair, Chair-elect, Treasurer, and Treasurer-elect who will fulfill the duties outlined below.

5.1 Chair. The duties of the Chair are:

  • Leading and managing ACM SIGGRAPH;
  • calling and presiding at EC meetings; and
  • conducting ACM SIGGRAPH’s activities in accordance with the policies of the ACM;

5.2 Chair-elect. The duties of the Chair-elect are:

  • Assisting the Chair in leading and managing ACM SIGGRAPH; and
  • residing at meetings when the Chair is absent.

5.3 Treasurer. The duties of the Treasurer are:

  • Managing ACM SIGGRAPH’s finances according to the Financial Accountability Policy of the ACM.
  •  Reporting ACM SIGGRAPH’s finances to members at least once a year in ACM SIGGRAPH’s regular publications.

5.4 Treasurer-elect. The duties of the Treasurer-elect are:

  • To shadow and assist the Treasurer in managing ACM SIGGRAPH’s finances.

Those interested in applying for any of these positions please contact Thierry Frey.

Remembering Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

Remembering Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

Nov 26, 2022 | ,

Fred Brooks, April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022

It is with great sorrow that ACM SIGGRAPH marks the loss of Dr. Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., a pioneer in the field of computer science, a recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, an inaugural recipient of the US National Medal of Technology, and member of the SIGGRAPH Academy.

Fred Brooks grew up in North Carolina, graduated summa cum laude in physics from Duke University, and earned his PhD in applied mathematics at Harvard University. He joined IBM upon graduation. In the broader computer science community, Brooks is best known for his role as project manager for the IBM System/360 family of computers which were notable as all, largest to smallest, could run the same software.  When the development of the Operating Systems/360 software was behind schedule, Brooks assumed management of that project.  For his work on the System/360 hardware and software, Brooks shared the first National Medal of Technology with Bob Evans and Erich Bloch. 

Brooks recorded his experiences and lessons learned on the OS/360 project in his best-known book, The Mythical Man Month: Essays in Software Engineering.  This book is a standard reference for practical software engineering and is where he coined Brooks’ Law that adding personnel to a software project that is behind schedule delays it even more.  He also coined the term computer architecture and, by choosing it for the System/360 family, he established the 8-bit byte as standard in the computing industry.

Dr. Brooks joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1964, where he founded the Department of Computer Science, the second free-standing CS department in the United States.  He served as department chair for 20 years and continued teaching and research for another 31 years. His research focussed on 3D interactive computer graphics, human-computer interaction, virtual reality, computer architecture, and the design process.  Brooks’ promoted the idea of computer scientists as toolsmiths, encouraging his students and colleagues to develop computer technology that could be applied to help other people solve their problems.

Dr. Brooks was honored with dozens of academic and scientific awards.  More than 40 students completed their doctorates under his supervision and he was recognized as an extraordinary role model and mentor for his academic and research colleagues and many members of the SIGGRAPH community.

Fred Brooks’ substantial contributions to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques, the influence of that work through the development of new research and innovations, and his role as an active member of the SIGGRAPH community were recognized by his induction as a member of the SIGGRAPH Academy in 2019.

Dr. Brooks, a committed Christian, will be remembered for his humility, generosity, and kindness. The SIGGRAPH community will miss his smile and good humor, his research contributions, and his wisdom.

Note:  Dr. Brooks always used the Oxford comma because he liked that it eliminated potential ambiguity.  Even though it goes against the SIGGRAPH style guide, we have, in his honor, used the Oxford comma in this memorial.

Online Town Hall Meeting “DESIGN @ ACM SIGGRAPH”

Oct 22, 2022 |

DATE: November 15th, 2022
TIME: 5pm EST / 10pm CET / 7am(Nov16) JST

The Design Task Force at ACM SIGGRAPH invites you to a virtual town hall meeting to discuss the role of design disciplines in shaping the future of graphic and interactive technologies. 

Join this online event to share your ideas and meet the committee and other practitioners and researchers from a broad range of design disciplines.

We will begin the town hall with an overview of the newly established design initiative and its goals and then delve into discussing, exploring, and envisioning opportunities to foster a community at ACM SIGGRAPH for emerging and future types of design research and practice.

Design with technology results in innovative artifacts such as smart product design (i.e. Internet of Things), wearable product design (i.e. smart glasses), fashion design (i.e. smart clothes and shoes), and architectural design and engineering (i.e. responsive buildings and structures). Recent development of machine intelligence suggests challenges and opportunities for redefining the role of designers.

New types of designers are searching for a community to join, in order to learn, share, and present innovative design results, both academically and commercially.

We invite you to join the session, share your ideas with the committee, and be a part of the future of design at ACM SIGGRAPH.

The mandate of Design Task Force is to explore opportunities for ACM SIGGRAPH to build a community for new types of designers.

Areas of Interest

Smart object design: product design, fashion, architecture, urbanism
Centering the human: the human body, but also attributes such as pleasure,
aesthetics, wellness, gender, equity, inclusion, and diversity
Environmental issues: climate change, living creatures, and the post human
Multi-sensory design: experiences and artifacts that engage in many ways, subtle
and obvious, consciously and unconsciously.
Methodologies: design thinking, design futures/fiction, speculative design, other
methods for innovation

The Founding Team