Scientific Visualization

Rüdiger Westermann

Scientific Visualization & Imaging Group, Aachen University of Technology

email: westermann[at]sc.rwth-aachen.de

homepage of author: http://www.vis.rwth-aachen.de/westermann/

homepage of course: http://www.vis.rwth-aachen.de/Teaching/Lectures/VIS/vis.html

general homepage: http://www.vis.rwth-aachen.de

• Title of visualization course: Scientific Visualization

• Aimed at what category of students: Students of Computer Science

• Objectives of the course:
  • This introductory course is at the very core of the teaching module ("Vertiefungsfach") "Visualization & Imaging". The focus is on discussing efficient techniques that allow one to visually represent large-scale data sets from simulation and measurement. Physiological aspects of human recognition will be addressed as well as the visualization pipeline and special rendering techniques for scientific data. This course is regularly held by Prof. Westermann.

• List topics of course:
• Introduction
• Perception
• Vispipeline
• Domain
• Vector Calculus
• Differentiation and Interpolation
• 2D Scalar Fields
• 2D Vector Fields
• 2D Vector Fields
• 3D Vector Fields
• Volume Visualization
• Direct Volume Rendering
• Tetrahedral Grids

• Other courses within the teaching module "Visualization and Imaging" are:
  • Interactive Image Synthesis
    • This lecture deals with the fundamentals of 3D computer graphics and Virtual Reality, and with techniques to achieve interactive frame rates for the realistic rendering of complex models and scenes. Selected graphics algorithms and their efficient implementation exploiting state-of-the-art graphics hardware through OpenGL will be demonstrated. The course is held by Prof. Westermann and Dr. Torsten Kuhlen.
  • Visual Simulation
    • This course concentrates on the formulation and computational solution of selected 2D and 3D problems, and the efficient visualization of the results. Mainly the topics to be discussed include techniques for the visual simulation of natural phenomena, e.g. fluids, gases, plants, landscapes, snow etc. Particular algorithms as they are used in computer graphics and visualization will be outlined. The course is taught by Prof. Westermann.
  • Special Visualization Techniques
    • Hierachical approaches and approaches that efficiently exploit dedicated graphics hardware are often used in scientific applications in order to visualize large-scale data sets. This course covers such algorithms in diverse applications ranging from computational fluid dynamics to medical imaging. It is taught by Prof. Westermann.
  • Game Programming
    • In this course we discuss computer game techniques that incorporate many of the computer graphics techniques but also techniques from Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy Logic and Object Oriented Programming. This course covers dedicated algorithms that are heavily used in games industries to achieve realistic 3D animations in real-time. This course accompanies the course on Interactive Image Synthesis and it is taught by Prof. Westermann.

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