Dartmouth Events

Abstract:

After a brief tour of fundamental filtering problems in computer graphics, I will focus on recent developments that are helping us solve some of the longest-standing challenges in realistic image synthesis. I will motivate the importance of moving away from standard single-scale, “pixel centric” views of rendering, towards multi-scale representations of appearance and light transport. We will see how many problems in realistic image synthesis can be framed as filtering operations in different domains, and how this interpretation opens up opportunities to apply powerful mathematical and numerical tools well suited to solving these problems.

Moving forward, I will discuss the role that deep learning techniques may play in the context of graphics filtering problems, as well as advocating for artist-centric tools to drive more realistic content creation.

Biography:

Derek Nowrouzezahrai is an Associate Professor at McGill University and Director of McGill's Graphics and Imaging Lab. Prior to joining McGill, Derek was an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair at the Université de Montréal, a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Disney Research Zurich (also lecturing at ETH Zurich), and he worked at Microsoft Research, Amazon.com, Electronic Arts, and Research in Motion.

He obtained his Ph.D. (2010) and M.Sc. (2006) in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and his B.A.Sc. (2005) in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Derek is broadly interested in realistic and art-directable image synthesis, devising new mathematical models of global illumination on surfaces and in participating media, as well as developing accurate and efficient numerical approaches for solving these complex multi-dimensional integration problems. Derek also works on problems in fluid simulation and control, augmented reality, digital manufacturing, computationally-augmented optics, and geometry processing. Several of Derek's works have been adopted in feature films, games, amusement parks, and consumer products. Derek served as technical co-chair for the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, the premier venue for rendering-focused research, and is an Associate Editor for the ACM Transaction on Graphics journal. For more information on Derek and his work, please refer to his website at http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~derek/