The University of Washington's Department of Computer Science & Engineering has one of the nation's preeminent research and education programs in computer graphics, headed by Professors Brian Curless and David Salesin. This program has recently been complemented by a multidisciplinary education program in computer animation, taught in conjunction with industry professionals from companies such as Pixar, Pacific Data Images, and Rainsound, in a lab co-established with Professors Shawn Brixey from the School of Art and Richard Karpen from the School of Music.
The computing landscape for graphics is undergoing an enormous transformation. Just a few years ago, the only machines that offered sizeable computing power and polygon throughput were costly workstations. Today, Intel architecture machines coupled with low-cost, high performance 3D graphics cards are lowering the barriers to doing world-class teaching and research in computer graphics.
At the University of Washington Graphics and Imaging Laboratory (GRAIL), we have undertaken this transformation. With Intel's help, we are replacing our largely Silicon Graphics infrastructure (SGI has donated $800,000 in equipment outright, and has provided substantial allowances on a great deal more) with the Intel Architecture. This migration is being aided and abetted by our close colleagues in the outstanding computer graphics group at Microsoft Research.
Our primary goals are to:
Conversion of the computer animation laboratory -- the Laboratory for Animation Arts -- is being separately conducted under the leadership of our colleagues Shawn Brixey from the School of Art and Richard Karpen from the School of Music. This lab has supported the highly successful computer animation sequence taught over the course of two quarters as CSE/458 and CSE/490. The Intel conversion is described here.