Five Principles for Choosing Research Problems in …funk/award_talk.pdfWhy this Topic? Possible...

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Five Principles for Choosing Research Problems in Computer Graphics Thomas Funkhouser Princeton University

Transcript of Five Principles for Choosing Research Problems in …funk/award_talk.pdfWhy this Topic? Possible...

Five Principles for

Choosing Research Problems

in Computer Graphics

Thomas Funkhouser

Princeton University

Why this Topic?

Possible alternative topics I did this, then I did that, then …. zzz

What are the five biggest open problems … ???

My talk is somewhere in the middle Suggest five principles for choosing research problems

Explain how I’ve used these principles in my own choices

Five Principles

1. Consider non-traditional problems

2. Anticipate disruptive technologies

3. Think beyond algorithms

4. Work on real applications

5. Work with good collaborators

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

ImproveExistingMethods

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

ImproveExistingMethods

Parallel Radiosity

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

ImproveExistingMethods

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

ImproveExistingMethods

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

Modeling by Example

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous WorkDefine new problems

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

ImproveExistingMethods

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous WorkDefine new problems

ImproveExistingMethods

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

Shape Retrieval & Analysis

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

Expand the field

ImproveExistingMethods

Define new problems

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

Expand the field

ImproveExistingMethods

Define new problems

Simulating Sound

Propagation

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

Simulating Sound

Propagation

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

Expand the field

ImproveExistingMethods

Define new problems

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

1. Consider Non-Traditional Problems

Computer GraphicsResearch Problems

Previous Work

Expand the field

Define new problems

Develop New Approaches

to Existing Problems

ImproveExistingMethods

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Fast GraphicsProcessors

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

Fast GraphicsProcessors

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

BuildingWalkthroughs

“Soda Hall Walkthrough”SGI PowerSeries with VGX Graphics64MB, 30K polygons/second~$200,0001992

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

Fast GraphicsProcessors

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Fast GraphicsProcessors

BuildingWalkthroughs

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Fast GraphicsProcessors

BuildingWalkthroughs

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Massively MultiplayerOnline Worlds

“RING”SGI Origin ServerHome: 28.8kb modem1994

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Fast GraphicsProcessors

BuildingWalkthroughs

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Massively MultiplayerOnline Worlds

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

Repositoriesof 3D Models

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Fast GraphicsProcessors

BuildingWalkthroughs

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Massively MultiplayerOnline Worlds

“Shape Distributions”133 models25 categories2001

Shape Retrieval& Analysis

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

Repositoriesof 3D Models

2. Anticipate Disruptive Technologies

Time (in years)

Res

ea

rch

Pro

gre

ss

Fast GraphicsProcessors

Repositoriesof 3D Models

Massively MultiplayerOnline Worlds

Shape Retrieval& Analysis

???

???

BuildingWalkthroughs

Clayton M. Christensen, 1995

Server-BasedNetworking

???

???

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

There are many ways to contribute to research: Develop algorithms

Design systems

Collect data sets

Develop benchmarks

Formulate problems

Prove theorems

Write surveys

etc.

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

There are many ways to contribute to research: Develop algorithms

Design systems

Collect data sets

Develop benchmarks

Formulate problems

Prove theorems

Write surveys

etc.

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

There are many ways to contribute to research: Develop algorithms

Design systems

Collect data sets

Develop benchmarks

Formulate problems

Prove theorems

Write surveys

etc.

www.cvpapers.com/datasets.html

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Some of my projects focused on collecting data sets:

Schelling Points[Chen12]

Shape Retrieval[Shilane04]

Line Drawing[Cole08]

Mesh Segmentation[Chen09]

Sound Propagation[Tsingos02]

Shape Perception[Cole09]

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Some projects focused on collecting data sets:

Surface Salience[Chen12]

Shape Retrieval[Shilane04]

Line Drawing[Cole08]

Mesh Segmentation[Chen09]

Sound Propagation[Tsingos2]

Shape Perception[Cole09]

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Example: “Where Do People Draw Lines?”

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Example: “Where Do People Draw Lines?”

Collect data while people

perform a task

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Example: “Where Do People Draw Lines?”

Collect data while people

perform a task

Analyze data

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Example: “Where Do People Draw Lines?”

Collect data while people

perform a task

Analyze data Evaluate existing algorithms

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Example: “Where Do People Draw Lines?”

Collect data while people

perform a task

Analyze data Evaluate existing algorithms Learn to perform task

3. Think Beyond Algorithms

Example: “Where Do People Draw Lines?”

Analyze data Evaluate existing algorithms Learn to perform task

Collect data while people

perform a task

4. Work on Real Applications

4. Work on Real Applications

Core Computer Graphics

Technologies

Applications

4. Work on Real Applications

Core Computer Graphics

Cameras

Displays

Processors

Scanners

Sensors

Trackers

Printers

4. Work on Real Applications

Core Computer Graphics

Cameras

Displays

Processors

Scanners

Sensors

Trackers

Printers

Biology?

Psychology?Archaeology?

Paleontology?

Product Design? Education?

Neuroscience?

Civil Engineering?

Geology? Medicine?

4. Work on Real Applications

Core Computer Graphics

Cameras

Displays

Processors

Scanners

Sensors

Trackers

Printers

“The Computer Scientist as a Toolsmith”Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

ACM Allen Newell Award PresentationSIGGRAPH 1994

Biology?

Psychology?Archaeology?

Paleontology?

Product Design? Education?

Neuroscience?

Civil Engineering?

Geology? Medicine?

4. Work on Real Applications

Some projects focused on applications:

Molecular Biology[Capra09] Archaeology

[Shin12]

Paleontology[Boyer11]

4. Work on Real Applications

Some projects focused on applications:

Molecular Biology[Capra09] Archaeology

[Shin12]

Paleontology[Boyer11]

Using partial shape matching to help find proteins with similar functions

DistinctiveRegions

Spherical HarmonicShape Descriptors

4. Work on Real Applications

Some projects focused on applications:

Molecular Biology[Capra09] Archaeology

[Shin12]

Paleontology[Boyer11]

Using a surface dissimilarity metric to help classify scans of fossils

4. Work on Real Applications

Some projects focused on applications:

Molecular Biology[Capra09] Archaeology

[Shin12]

Paleontology[Boyer11]

Using shape matching to help reconstruct fractured wall paintings

4. Work on Real Applications

Some projects focused on applications:

Molecular Biology[Capra09] Archaeology

[Shin12]

Paleontology[Boyer11]

5. Work With Good Collaborators

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Postdocs: Daniel Aliaga

Jian Sun

Sid Chaudhuri

Yaron Lipman

Ph.D. students: Aleksey Boyko

Aleksey Golovinskiy

Elena Sizikova

Fisher Yu

Maciej Halber

Michael Kazhdan

Patrick Min

Paul Calamia

Philip Shilane

Rudrajit Samanta

Tianqiang Liu

Vladimir Kim

Xiaobai Chen

Undergrad students: Abulhair Saparov

Addy Ngan

Alex Halderman

Alex Limpaecher

Angela Dai

Bill Pang

Carolyn Chen

Celeste Fowler

Hijung Shin

Jeehyung Lee

Joyce Chen

William Kiefer

Wilmot Li

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Diego Nehab

Emil Praun

Forrester Cole

Huiwen Chang

Jason Lawerence

Jingwan Lu

Joshua Podolak

Linjie Liu

Ohad Fried

Michael Burns

Sema Berkiten

Thiago Pereira

Wagner Correa

Xinyi Fan

Yiming Liu

Zhiyan Liu

Postdocs: Pierre Bénard David Bourgiuignon Martin Fuchs

Lee Markosian Tim Weyrich

Adam Finkelstein

SzymonRusinkiewicz

DavidDobkin

Ph.D. Students: Allison Klein

Benedict Brown

Chris DeCoro

Connelly Barnes

Corey Toler-Franklin

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Other Disciplines: Andreas Vlachopoulos

Ben Shedd

Christos Doumas

Doug Boyer

Gary Elko

Heather Barros

James West

Janet Thornton

Jukka Jernvall

Manish Singh

Mohan Sondhi

Otto J Anshus

Peter Svensson

Roman Laskowski

UC Berkeley: Carlo Séquin

Seth Teller

Bell Labs: Ingrid Carlbom

Alex Biliris

Gopal Pingali

Nicolas Tsingos

T.M. Murali

Stanford: Daniel Ritchie

Manolis Savva

Matthew Fisher

Pat Hanrahan

Qixing Huang

Other Institutions: Aaron Hertzmann

Ayellet Tal

Dan Goldman

David Jacobs

Doug DeCarlo

Eli Schechtman

Evangelos Kalogerakis

Hanspeter Pfister

Jim McCann

Leonidas Guibas

Niloy Mitra

Raif Rustamov

Stephen DiVerdi

Wilmot Li

Wojciech Matusik

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Other Disciplines: Andreas Vlachopoulos

Ben Shedd

Christos Doumas

Doug Boyer

Gary Elko

Heather Barros

James West

Janet Thornton

Jukka Jernvall

Manish Singh

Mohan Sondhi

Otto J Anshus

Peter Svensson

Roman Laskowski

UC Berkeley:Carlo Séquin

Seth Teller

Bell Labs: Alex Biliris

Ingrid Carlbom

Gopal Pingali

Nicolas Tsingos

T.M. Murali

Stanford: Daniel Ritchie

Manolis Savva

Matthew Fisher

Pat Hanrahan

Qixing Huang

Other Institutions: Aaron Hertzmann

Ayellet Tal

Dan Goldman

David Jacobs

Doug DeCarlo

Eli Schechtman

Evangelos Kalogerakis

Hanspeter Pfister

Jim McCann

Leonidas Guibas

Niloy Mitra

Raif Rustamov

Stephen DiVerdi

Wilmot Li

Wojciech Matusik

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Other Disciplines: Andreas Vlachopoulos

Ben Shedd

Christos Doumas

Doug Boyer

Gary Elko

Heather Barros

James West

Janet Thornton

Jukka Jernvall

Manish Singh

Mohan Sondhi

Otto J Anshus

Peter Svensson

Roman Laskowski

UC Berkeley: Carlo Séquin

Seth Teller

Bell Labs: Alex Biliris

Ingrid Carlbom

Gopal Pingali

Michael Potmesil

Nicolas Tsingos

Stanford: Daniel Ritchie

Manolis Savva

Matthew Fisher

Pat Hanrahan

Qixing Huang

Other Institutions: Aaron Hertzmann

Ayellet Tal

Dan Goldman

David Jacobs

Doug DeCarlo

Eli Schechtman

Evangelos Kalogerakis

Hanspeter Pfister

Jim McCann

Leonidas Guibas

Niloy Mitra

Raif Rustamov

Stephen DiVerdi

Wilmot Li

Wojciech Matusik

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Other Disciplines: Andreas Vlachopoulos

Ben Shedd

Christos Doumas

Doug Boyer

Gary Elko

Heather Barros

James West

Janet Thornton

Jukka Jernvall

Manish Singh

Mohan Sondhi

Otto J Anshus

Peter Svensson

Roman Laskowski

UC Berkeley: Carlo Séquin

Seth Teller

Bell Labs: Ingrid Carlbom

Alex Biliris

Gopal Pingali

Nicolas Tsingos

T.M. Murali

Stanford: Daniel Ritchie

Manolis Savva

Matthew Fisher

Pat Hanrahan

Qixing Huang

Other Institutions: Aaron Hertzmann

Ayellet Tal

Dan Goldman

David Jacobs

Doug DeCarlo

Eli Schechtman

Evangelos Kalogerakis

Hanspeter Pfister

Jim McCann

Leonidas Guibas

Niloy Mitra

Raif Rustamov

Stephen DiVerdi

Wilmot Li

Wojciech Matusik

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Other Disciplines: Andreas Vlachopoulos

Ben Shedd

Christos Doumas

Doug Boyer

Gary Elko

Heather Barros

James West

Janet Thornton

Jukka Jernvall

Manish Singh

Mohan Sondhi

Otto J Anshus

Peter Svensson

Roman Laskowski

UC Berkeley: Carlo Séquin

Seth Teller

Bell Labs: Ingrid Carlbom

Alex Biliris

Gopal Pingali

Nicolas Tsingos

T.M. Murali

Stanford: Daniel Ritchie

Manolis Savva

Matthew Fisher

Pat Hanrahan

Qixing Huang

Other Institutions: Aaron Hertzmann

Ayellet Tal

Dan Goldman

David Jacobs

Doug DeCarlo

Eli Schechtman

Evangelos Kalogerakis

Hanspeter Pfister

Jim McCann

Leonidas Guibas

Niloy Mitra

Raif Rustamov

Stephen DiVerdi

Wilmot Li

Wojciech Matusik

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Family:

5. Work With Good Collaborators

Thank You!