“Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
Thomas Alva Edison
CSE 373, Spring 2008
Belaid Moa
Email : Belaid.Moa@qu.edu.qa
Phone: 556-1852
Office : CSE 115

 First things first
 How to study
 My philosophy of teaching
 Course Description, objectives, and tools
 Course materials
 Your feedback
 Your Participation
 More on Computer Graphics tools

 There are no such things as
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“I am stupid. I can never understand this material”
“The others are smarter than me. I am just a loser.”
“My capacity is limited, and my brain can’t handle it.”
 Everyone of us is capable of achieving anything given
 Enthusiasm
 Perseverance, especially in CG
 Patience, especially in CG
 Time organization
 Suitable style of learning

 The killer of them all: Procrastination
 Excuses for not studying and doing your homework:
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“I can’t study now because I have to get a haircut.”
“I can’t do the project because I have other projects.”
“I can’t review the CS373 lectures because I have to review only for this coming exam.”
“It is Okay to leave things until the day of exam.”
 The cure:
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“Do not leave the work of today until tomorrow for tomorrow has its own work.”
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Reward yourself: “After I am done with this, I should get a nice haircut.”
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Start with things that you feel good at.

 How to be a good student
 People think and learn differently:
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Eyes: Visual learner
Ears: Auditory learner
Order: sequential learner
Images: global learner
Doing: kinesthetic learner
Find your own style of learning
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Write sequential notes
Use mind-map technique
Draw images
Explain loudly the lecture to yourself
The read the lecture while walking
Write and run the code to see how things work

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Find your optimal style of learning
Do not miss a single lecture
Be active during the lecture:
 Write notes
 Ask questions
Study your notes
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Just after the lecture
At least three times during the week of the lecture
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Once after two weeks
Once after three weeks and so on
Organize your time
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Do not over-study for a course at the expense of the other courses
Try to give each course an amount of time every day
Do not leave the review and the project until one day before the deadline
Do not procrastinate!
Use office hours as much as possible
Take time to sharpen your axe

 Teach by following different styles:
 Images and mind-maps
 Analogies
 Hands-on things
 Asking questions: why, how, what, when, who
 The theory behind things to achieve deep understanding of things
 Be close to my students
 Any student who does his best (see the previous slide) will pass

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Computer graphics is used in diverse applications:
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Medical Imaging
Scientific Visualization of Complex data
Special effects in movies
Games
The main objective of this course is to introduce the programming principles of computer graphics,
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Mathematical and theoretical foundations
Fundamental data-structures and algorithms for rendering and modeling.
Pipeline rendering and ray tracing
Game designing and programming
Software for Computer graphics:
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OpenGL with C++
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OpenGL with Java
Java 3D and VRML
DirectX with C#
Pov-Ray
Lightwave

 Demo using POV-Ray
 Demo using Lightwave
 Demo using VRML

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Computer Graphics using OpenGL, F.S. Hill and
S.M. Keelly ( required textbook )
Interaction Computer Graphics A Top-Down
Approach with OpenGL, E. Angel
OpenGL : A Primer, E. Angle http://fly.cc.fer.hr/~unreal/theredbook/ http://nehe.gamedev.net/
Foundations of 3D Graphics Programming, J.X.
Chen and E.J. Wegman
Course Webpage: everything will be available in here: http://faculty.qu.edu.qa/belaid.moa/

 Teaching/learning is interactive
 two-way communications
 Let me know
 what you think about lectures, projects, labs, exams, topics, …
 What you want to know or probe further
 You can reach me
 in class, during office hours, by email/phone

Midterm
Quizzes and class participation
Lab
Final Exam
Total
15%
5%
40% (Project 60%)
40%
100%

 The theory and practice projects were combined to produce only one project
 Each project is composed of at most two students
 In the case of two students, both of them are responsible for implementing and understanding the code.
 The project has three milestones:
 Shapes and colors
 Texture and light
 Animation and interaction

 The students can choose any subset from the following tools:
 OpenGL with C++
 JOGL (OpenGL with Java)
 DirectX with C# or VB
 POV-Ray
 Java3D or VRML
 In the lab, however , the instructor will only use
OpenGL with a very small subset of C++