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A Newsletter of Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH

July – August 2010 Newsletter

Why anyone interested in education should attend SIGGRAPH 2010
by Bev Standish

When I first heard of SIGGRAPH I pictured wonderful exhibits of software, graphics and animation.
I thought there would be wonderful opportunities to expand my skills in the digital arts and meet
fascinating people who were leaders in the industry.

The fact that SIGGRAPH showcases the best in computer animation, the latest in technology and
research, and hosts talks and panels presented by both up and coming and well established
academia and industry leaders is incredibly exciting. Any one of those elements would be
reason enough to attend SIGGRAPH 2010. But it turns out that's not all SIGGRAPH has
to offer... especially for an educator. SIGGRAPH is a very special gathering of people from
all over the world: people who are outstanding researchers, artists, industry professionals,
representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation,
educators from every level of academia, and government officials, who can come together to
discuss the future of education.

The future of education looks a bit grim these days. A Time Magazine report highlights some
disturbing facts: one million American students drop out of school every year—that's one every
nine seconds!

SIGGRAPH 2010 offers some initiatives that can make a difference to education. This is not just a
conference for people who teach multimedia. It is a conference for those who use multimedia to
teach; who want to invent ways to use it to better education. SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on
Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) 2010 will undoubtedly be the most thrilling place for
an educator, such as myself, to be. The opportunities for collaboration are phenomenal.

The Disney Learning Challenge is offering an exciting initiative based at SIGGRAPH 2010 that takes
my breath away. The goal of this group is to harness the potential of digital technologies and children's
creativity to advance learning. George Leonard's book "Education and Ecstasy," profoundly claims that
learning can and should be fun; the Disney Learning Challenge does likewise, pinpointing my exact interest!

The Challenge will showcase entertaining interactive technology that will impart "Active Knowledge of
Learning Concepts." The group is engaged in using the digital arts to teach different subjects such as
the solar system, coordinate geometry, rhythmic music, vocabulary, fractional quantities, habitats and
ecosystems, geometric transformations, revealing the rock cycle, and the use of simple machines using
the visual arts. The word synnamation has recently been used to describe animations that communicate
complex scientific and technological concepts to a variety of audiences. It sounds similar to what the
Disney Learning Challenge is proposing for ages 7-11. Although this initiative is directed at capturing
the creative potential of all students, imagine the impact that using digital technologies will have on
students who might be hard to reach otherwise. If students were having more fun in the education
system, perhaps the dropout rate would decrease dramatically.

The buzz word in education today is "immersion." Using the visual arts in a way that incorporates
academic themes is right on target. The 3D animator of today must learn artistic principles but must
also learn how to simulate a multitude of real world properties. In short, the world of 3D animation
involves a total immersion into storytelling, math, science, physics, art and music; educators who wish
to inspire their students will delight in these engaging learning concepts. I can't wait to share ideas
with attendees.

If this isn't enough to excite you there also are Birds of a Feather (BOF) events: informal presentations,
discussions, and demonstrations for people who share interests, goals, technologies, environments, or
backgrounds. Birds of a Feather events are made possible through the conference, but are actually proposed and organized by SIGGRAPH 2010 attendees.

For educators looking to reach out into their local communities, Stephen Jacobs who is involved with
SIGKids pointed out a few sessions of interest: “This year we are offering an all day workshop [on] Wednesday for the local Girl Scouts. They have a badge called ‘Games for Life’ and we developed a
one-day workshop at RIT [Rochester Institute of Technology] to let them meet most of the requirements
in a day. We're also running an early Tuesday AM "Train the Trainers" workshop for SIGGRAPH Attendees
or Volunteers who might want to run one in their local communities.”

There is also a Birds of a Feather event "Meeting for Parents and Troop Leaders" as a part of SIGKids.
This session is a Q & A about careers and education in the game industry. As Mr. Jacobs explained to me,
his first involvement with SIGGRAPH was in 1994 where he was “part of SIGKids and had a booth that
demonstrated a program we'd run in Rochester for English as a Second Language students to write ‘Books
Without Words’ on their computers and use a hypermedia authoring package to make an interactive version
as well.” It will be interesting to see what this group is up to this year.

In addition to the above, another BOF event is being presented by California Educators. This session
is for public and private school educators pre kindergarten to post graduate. They will welcome
professionals who currently work with schools or are interested in doing so.

The 20XX.EDU: Grand Challenges in Education (Part 1) panel will focus on the future of education
and how digital technologies can serve it. The discussion topics and questions are:

    • How can educational institutions take advantage of the increasing
    popularity and dissemination of these technologies?
    • How can individuals/institutions benefit from the massive increase
    in participatory and collaborative learning in our society?
    • What are the major challenges in education today, in the sciences
    and the humanities?
    • What are the new educational trends and paradigms for the new,
    coming decades?
    • What kind of new learning contexts can be created outside of the
    traditional institutions?

The panel that is asking these questions is made up of a diverse group of outstanding researchers
and artists, academy and industry professionals, educators, and government officials. This group
meets Wednesday July 28th from 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM. Fortunately, there is also the 20XX.EDU:
Grand Challenges in Education (Part 2) which meets from 10:30 to 12:15pm to continue this
important conversation.

Hopefully educators can come together with these exciting SIGGRAPH groups to explore the future
of education, share ideas and learn from different perspectives. Hope to see you there!

May – June 2010 Newsletter

Portland 3D Modeler presents “Escape of Middle C” Movie
by Bev Standish

On Sunday May 23rd Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH presented a movie created by Bev Standish called “The Escape Of Middle C.” This movie took eight years to make, with all animation and music done entirely by Standish. Eighty-eight people attended the event which began with an introduction by the Portland movie maker on her motivation and the process and the adventure of making a 3D animated/live action fantasy adventure-mystery movie. It was designed to motivate children to read music and to introduce basic music reading skills.

Standish described how the movie was made with Autodesk 3ds Max, how long it took to produce the 77-minute animated movie, and introduced members of the cast and crew who were in the audience. Also shown were opening animations, done by two of Standish’s students.

The storyline featured a child from another planet who could be healed only through music. The young alien’s father used his authority to ban music. Sheet music was burned and walking, talking instruments were hunted down and thrown in jail. The note Middle C escaped to earth with other criminals and the alien authorities followed. The notes had personalities that made them unforgettable, including their position on the music staff. They warned children on earth of impending danger by spelling words on the music staff using their letter name. The children in the movie and in the audience were compelled to decode the words (name the notes) in order to solve the clues and save the day.

Following the movie, there was a question and answer period and a reception with food and cake.
See link to Digital Elf Studios.

SIGGRAPH 2010 Conference News

Coming June 21, 2010
On June 21, 2010 news on the upcoming 37th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Los Angeles will be posted here.
Two officers from our chapter are attending the Conference and if you are going, we are having a pre-conference meeting in Portland to coordinate and compare schedules.

Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH Elections
We are nearing the beginning of the 2010-2011 season and elections are upcoming. The Vice Chair officer position is open on the board. If you or anyone you know is interested in running for that position, let us know.
Here is the SCHEDULE FOR ELECTIONS:
    May 28 through June 7 — send “chair at cascade siggraph dot org” your name or nomination, phone, the position, and bio of 200 words or less. Descriptions of the board positions follow.
    June 8 through June 13 — members vote in the elections (by email). Membership must be current. Contact “secretary at cascade siggraph dot org” if you are wondering about the status of your membership.
    June 14 through June 20 — vote tally
    July 1 — election results announced
    July 21 — a casual evening meeting to meet the new 2010-2011 season officers

BOARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS
More detailed and in-depth job descriptions can be found under the About Us section at the cascade siggraph website.
    Chair – elected officer, manages and oversees the organization Vice Chair – elected officer, manages and oversees events Secretary – elected officer, manages and oversees membership and registration, website content
    Treasurer – elected officer, manages and oversees finances and all accounts
    Public Relations Director – elected, writes press releases, media communications
    Board Members at Large – elected, advises officers, acts in a general pool of board members as previous officer (support), potential future officer (development), or committee leadership Communications Director – appointed, oversees website, (migration), newsletter, program brochure, other communications to members
    Web Master – appointed, works with committee to design and migrate website this year; content management
    Volunteer Coordinator – appointed, coordinates volunteers at events.

BENEFITS and REQUIREMENTS of Board Members Serving on the board is career-enhancing with leadership, technical experience and development, educational growth, networking, contacts, and professional development. Activities on the board may compliment your personal goals: builds your resume, gratifying interaction with the local computer graphics community, act as a representative of SIGGRAPH.
All officers are required to be ACM SIGGRAPH members as they are covered by the organization's insurance and umbrella policies. To offset that cost and in gratitude for the hours given to Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH, officers receive their membership on a complimentary basis. Also, those that make outstanding contributions to the chapter may have their annual membership "comped" by voting officers.
Usually there are two complimentary passes to the International SIGGRAPH Conference available to the board, per year, in exchange for nominal services, such as writing articles to appear in publications or reporting on attended events.

Articles and CG Links (alphabetical)

ACM MemberNet
http://membernet.acm.org

ACM SIGGRAPH
http://www.siggraph.org

CHIFOO
http://chifoo.org

Digital Elf Studios
http://www.digitalelfstudios.com

SIGGRAPH2010 Conference
http://www.siggraph.org/s2010

If you have an article to submit to CG News, contact chair@cascadesiggraph.org. We reserve the right to edit articles and priority is given to members and supporters.