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Assigned Readings

For each lecture we will have a selection of one or more relevant papers and articles on computer graphics (posted on the Calendar). All students should download and read one of the assigned papers and post a detailed question or comment on the assigned reading before 10am on the day the paper will be discussed in class. The post should be well-written and approximately 100-200 words in length.

It's "ok" if you don't understand all of the details (we will often be reading recent technical research results), but you should be able to put that paper in the wider context of graphics research and learn more about the technical background related to that paper (using other reference material as needed). Perhaps the paper will serve as a jumping off point that leads to other reading, possibly specialized to your area of interest.

Your post should demonstrate that you did a careful and thoughtful reading of the paper. Avoid superficial statements such as: "There was alot of math in the paper. Math is hard. I didn't understand the math." or "This paper was published in the dark ages using slow computers. I wonder how fast it would be with a GPU." or "The pictures were pretty. I liked watching the video."

Your post can respond to another student's comment/question. Multiple posts, following up on the discussion are encouraged. Including links to other sources of related background material and a summary of how that material is related are encouraged as well. You must contribute to at least 20 of the assigned reading discussions in order to pass the course.

In-class Reading Discussions

For each lecture, one or two students will volunteer/be designated as discussants for the day's assigned paper reading(s). Note: This is not a traditional presentation of a research paper. Don't prepare slides, but do organize notes for yourself before class. Note: Each student will be a discussant for one or two lectures.

The discussant(s) will first give a 1-2 minute overview of the paper -- remember that the other students in the class will have already read the paper in detail (or at least one of the papers if we had multiple assigned for that day). The discussant(s) should summarize the points made by classmates in the Submitty Discussion Forum; in particular, the in-class discussion should cover:

  • the important contributions of the paper(s) to the community,
  • what was interesting about the paper(s) or topic, and
  • any questions or confusions that arose in the online Submitty discussion.

As time permits, we will open up for additional input from the whole class, moderated by the student discussants.

Note: It is important that everyone have posted their comment/question before 10am, so the students leading the discussion have time to review the posts in preparation for class.

More information...

Many academic conferences assign "discussants" for each paper. Here's a detailed guide to being a paper discussant at an academic conference:
     Tips for Discussants, by Prof Alexopoulos, University of Toronto