July 19th 2021, the long anticipated day that SGI 2021 begins. I woke up nervous and excited. I reviewed the first 4 exercises, ate breakfast and then logged into Zoom from my bedroom in Winchester, VA. I joined the other fellows, professors, and invited guests who all logged in from their respective time zones all over the world. My nervousness faded when Oded Stein, before he began his lecture, said “If you’re here, you already fulfill the prerequisites”. It made me feel at ease and realize that we were all picked to be here for a reason and while some people have different strengths than me, I was chosen and I should be here too.
Oded Stein began his course on basic techniques in geometry processing by first explaining what geometry processing is. This was very helpful as I could now understand what it is from a few different perspectives as well as have a good answer for when people ask me what I am doing this summer. The course was a great introduction as I had never been introduced to any topics in geometry processing and the exercises helped greatly. My favorite exercise was on Shading and Perspective. I was able to take my new friend Spot the cow and give him multiple makeovers. I changed him from ombre, to blue, to red (my friend who is a ginger specifically asked for this one). I added different lighting and even gave him a shadow. I learned how to change the perspective so his proportions would look more realistic, and take away the axis so there was less distraction.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the talk from Ryan Schmidt, from Epic Games. The part I found particularly interesting in his talk was how geometry processing is used all over, especially in the medical field; to make prosthetics, help doctors 3D print arteries and organs to visualize before surgery, and even dentists use it to scan and model teeth.
The First Day was awesome and I can’t wait to continue to learn and research more in this area in the weeks to come. 🙂