MTSU Animation Students Attend SIGGRAPH in Vancouver, British Columbia
ACM SIGGRAPH had its annual convention this summer, and MTSU Animation students were able to attend for a sixth year. ACM is the the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. Within the organization are SIGS (Special Interest Groups), such as SIGGRAPH, which specializes in computer graphics and interactive techniques.
Animation Professor Kevin McNulty speaking at the Chapters Workshop.
MTSU is very well known in the ACM SIGGRAPH community. The school has had an official SIGGRAPH chapter on campus since 2012, and is one of only 15 in the world. Animation professor Kevin McNulty is the advisor for the MTSU student chapter and is the Communications Director for the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee. McNulty was the keynote speaker for the Chapters Workshop, where he discussed how to generate excitement and involvement among students to attend the SIGGRAPH conference. Animation Professor Rick Lewis was also accepted as a keynote speaker and presented his 3D printing assignment at the Groovy Graphics Assignments presentation.
The convention itself showcases brand new things in software that will be used in a couple of years, such as: new algorithms and ways to do graphics, computer animation, AR/MR/VR/XR and more. The event is a great networking and learning opportunity.
Another major perk from the convention is that students can apply to be volunteers at the event. Volunteers get to do everything at the conference, including helping out the exhibitors show attendees their new technology. Volunteers are also given access to exclusive talks and panels by companies such as Disney and DreamWorks. Volunteers can also get their demo reels reviewed by industry professionals.
Only a limited number of volunteers are accepted. About 400 applications are accepted out of the 1,000+ they receive. And MTSU had 21 students accepted this year, which makes us the second largest school in terms of acceptance. Two of our students were even selected as Team Leaders, which is the rare opportunity to manage other volunteers. Team leaders had to have attended a conference before to be considered.
This year’s conference took place in Vancouver and next year’s will be in Washington DC. MTSU’s SIGGRAPH chapter looks forward to giving more students the opportunity to attend this one of a kind event.