Project 1: Research Topic
CS 480 2009, Dr. Lawlor
Project Requirements
The idea for this first project is for you
to read up on some existing simulation technique or application
domain. There are just three deliverables for this project: a
project topic, a presentation, and a set of lecture notes. Note
that "code" is NOT a deliverable for this project--you're not expected
to implement these yet! Everything should be turned in
electronically via Blackboard (links to be provided from the main page).
- A "Topic" paper, about a page long, describes what you plan to
do. It's due on Thursday, February 26th.
- Describe exactly
what you're planning to talk about: what the method is, what it's useful for, and generally how it works.
- Give me a fairly detailed outline of your talk (say, six bullet points).
- Reference at least three similar projects or reference works you think will be useful.
- I prefer documents in HTML ("Save As... HTML" from any decent word processor) or PDF, if possible.
- A 15-minute in-class presentation on Tuesday, March 17th and
Thursday, March 19th (the week after spring break). Here's your
chance to give us a super-compressed talk on a topic of your choice!
- Lecture
notes, turned in by midnight on Thursday, March 19th. These
should be about a page or two long, in HTML, and suitable for posting
to the course webpage. This can be similar to your topic paper,
but should be more detailed and fully polished.
Possible Topics (or pick your own!)
Choose any one of these topics, or pick your own topic. Remember
you've got under a month to finish everything, so keep it
simple! If these
seem too big, feel free to simplify them in your "topic" paper.
The general form of this project is: Research a method for simulating...
- Many independent agents, like people fleeing a fire or a freeway traffic jam.
- Plant growth, such as L systems.
- Waves, such as wave particles or FFT ocean synthesis.
- Rigid bodies rotating and colliding in space. There are lots of good libraries for this, including Newton and ODE.
- Non-rigid bodies, such as cloth, clay, or rubber.
- Hair simulation, like mass-spring models or multilevel simulation.
- Fluid dynamics, usually on a regular 2D or 3D grid.
- Simple cellular automata (e.g., Conway's Game of Life). These are especially fun to write on the graphics card using a pixel shader!
- Reaction-diffusion textures (of any type), on the graphics card or off.
- Or pick some other simulation you're interested in, and can find useful data on!
Note that the above links are chosen purely on the basis of visual
coolness; better links explaining the above techniques undoubtably
exist!