News

The ACM SIGGRAPH Officer Selection Advisory Group (OSAG) provided their recommendations to the Executive Committee and the following directors were elected to serve as Chair and Treasurer–elect for 2024-2025. Their term as Chair and Treasurer will commence 1 September 2025.

• EC Chair-Elect: Darin Grant
• Treasurer-Elect: David Spoelstra

Introducing the 2024 – 2023 ACM SIGGRAPH Officers

 ACM SIGGRAPH would like to thank Mona Kasra and David Spoelstra for serving as the Chair and Treasurer for 2023 – 2024. Their leadership and guidance was invaluable.

Chair – Eakta Jain, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering at the University of Florida. Dr. Jain is interested in the safety, privacy and security of data gathered for user modeling, particularly eye tracking data. She is advancing the EC Chair role in her third year on the EC.  We look forward to her leadership in the governance of ACM SIGGRAPH.

Chair – elect – Darin Grant was elected by the EC to serve as Chair-Elect in the upcoming year. Darin’s wealth of experience and expertise as CTO of Animal Logic makes him an excellent addition to the EC.  We look forward to the contributions Darin will make as his role on the EC and as Chair-Elect.

Treasurer – Brad Lawrence is the Imagery Engineering Lead at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He began his career in the Navy and went on to various Engineering duties for ITT and Texas Instruments before joining the Space Shuttle team in 1985. Brad was ACM SIGGRAPH Treasurer from 2018-2020 and was re-elected Treasurer in 2022, so he brings a wealth of experience to this position.  We welcome his continued leadership in this area.

Treasurer – elect – David Spoelstrahas served in executive and senior engineering management roles responsible for multi-million-dollar budgets at both startups and Fortune 500 companies for the last 20 years. David got his start at SIGGRAPH as an early employee of Truevision. David was Treasurer last year, and has been reappointed to Treasurer-Elect.

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-run organization that hosts a set of conferences and year-round activities for its members. More than a thousand volunteers help create vibrant conferences and an effective organization each year.

The 2024 ACM SIGGRAPH Village Theater showcased the yearlong educational, professional development and artistic expressions from the ACM SIGGRAPH Standing Committees. Held as part of the ACM SIGGRAPH conference, the Theater offers a platform for presenting high-quality, innovative content that pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling and technology.

The kickoff of the 2024 SIGGRAPH Educators Program will include an overview of activities and opportunities with, and sponsored by, the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee. Additionally, the winning entries from the SpaceTime competition will be shown along with a screening of the show reel for the 2024 double-curated Faculty Submitted Student Work (FSSW) exhibit. Designed as a way for educators to share their project ideas across schools and disciplines, FSSW is an online archive of assignment and project briefs as well as a curated video emphasizing the variety of student work and schools submitted. The reel was featured in the ACM SIGGRAPH Village throughout the week.

The Digital Arts Community (DAC) presented 8 art sessions during the Conference. These sessions showcased a variety of creative works, including innovative digital art, interactive installations, and experimental projects. They highlighted the intersection of art and technology, providing a platform for artists to present their work and engage with the SIGGRAPH community.  Some included:

• Digital Arts Community and SIGGRAPH’24 Creative Content Overview started their program at the annual SIGGRAPH Conference by showing the latest work of the DAC,  which included a description of the activities throughout the year through their online exhibitions, initiatives undertaken by DAC with other communities, and they highlighted the SPARKS Lightning talks series.
• Exploring Ephemeral Spaces: Melding Technology and Performance was a panel discussion which explored the interdisciplinary approaches to experimental performance using computing, sound, and media.  Panel members discussed performance, as a contemporary art practice that thrives beyond institutional spaces.  Their conclusion is that experimental performance promotes lively discussions and provide an avenue for exchange with audiences.
• Journey to Animating a Solo Feature Film… Twice Denver Jackson, a seasoned filmmaker, dedicated the past five years to crafting solo features. He has been deeply involved in every aspect of production, including writing, character design, art direction, storyboarding, animation, background painting, compositing, and editing. His unwavering commitment to enhancing the production process while maintaining the highest quality in his final works is truly commendable. Jackson discussed his creative process and workflow with the audience. It provided insight into the mind of a filmmaker committed to delivering outstanding cinematic experiences single-handedly.

Several other sessions focused on the work of our professional chapters, work of our DEI Community, History Community, Pioneers Community and Practitioners Committee.

• From ACM: The Nature of Future Conferences and ACM Open ACM President, Dr. Yannis Ioannidis, discussed his model for the future of ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH through the lens of his initiative ACM 4.0. He also discussed the open access model, publication tiering structures, the status of the transition to open access, the impact on ACM Digital Library, and the implications and benefits of Article Processing Charges (APC) for ACM SIGGRAPH authors and contributors.
• ACM SIGGRAPH’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Townhall/Culture for Inclusion This session talked about the issues and opportunities facing diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals today, and bring together ACM SIGGRAPH members from the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee to discuss how the organization is taking the matter seriously. The panel members provided insight into how a global selection of industry experts are addressing these challenges in real-time at the organization.
• ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneers 2024 Featured Speakers Panel This year’s session starred Mary Whitton and Nick England, who co-created the Ikonas Graphics Processor in 1978. Ikonas was the world’s first General-Purpose Graphics Processor Unit, which was crucial in almost every pioneering application of computer graphics. Nick talked about those early programmable graphics processor developments, which originally came out of North Carolina State, and Mary spoke about the development of Virtual Reality technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• SIGGRAPH Thesis Fast Forward The Thesis Fast Forward showed a high level overview of nine graduating Ph.D. researchers’ work.  Each candidate had the challenge of providing a synopsis of their work in the form of 3 minutes presentations. It was an opportunity to get an overview of the open challenges in the field and interact with graduating students.
• ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioners Session: Changes and Opportunities in the Workplace, in your Career, and What it Means for You The SIGGRAPH Practitioners Session gave practitioners at the conference to have discussions, with like-minded peers, on professional development in our industries. Some of the topics included different approaches to creating and scoping engineering projects, developing tech stacks, and identifying opportunities for taking research to practice and the productization journey of a product.
• Chapters: How to Join or Start an ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter Current Chapters leaders talked about how to join or start an ACM SIGGRAPH professional or student chapter, how to make the most of your chapters experience, and to network with current chapter members.

The ACM SIGGRAPH Theater emphasizesd both technical achievements and creative storytelling, providing a platform for professionals and enthusiasts to experience the year round efforts of the ACM SIGGRAPH organization in graphics technology and digital artistry.

ACM has released the results of the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee election. The following members of our community will be joining the Executive Committee for a three-year term effective 1 September, 2024. 

Hugues Hoppe

Hugues first attended SIGGRAPH in 1991 as a young grad student and has returned every year since. Hugues has been a researcher at both Google and Microsoft Research. His research has focused on advancements in geometry processing and image/video editing. His technical interests range from surface reconstruction and mesh simplification to texture synthesis, vector graphics, video looping, and telepresence. He received the SIGGRAPH 2004 Computer Graphics Achievement Award and has volunteered to the organization and conference in many different ways, including as a frequent Papers Committee member for both SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia, Technical Papers chair for SIGGRAPH 2011, and the SIGGRAPH Academy Selection Committee. 

June Kim
Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Sydney

June Kim is a lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Media Arts and Interaction Design. With more than a decade working in the animation and digital media industry, coupled with her multicultural upbringing, she explores and implements interactive and immersive technologies within human culture. Her scope of interest encompasses established and evolving media technologies and interaction design forms, including historical precedents and innovations. She has served SIGGRAPH in roles such as SIGGRAPH 2024 Frontiers chair, SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 conference chair, Art gallery co-chair for SIGGRAPH Asia 2019, and as the International Resources Committee chair.

Darin Kyoichi Grant
CTO, Animal Logic

Darin Grant is the Chief Technology Officer at Animal Logic where he has served since 2018. Before that, he held similar roles at VFX and animation studios such as Digital Domain, DreamWorks Animation, and Method VFX. His previous SIGGRAPH service has included chairing the Computer Animation Festival in 2003, Electronic Theater Director in 2022, and SIGGRAPH Asia Business Symposium chair in 2014. In addition to his lengthy SIGGRAPH volunteer career, he has been an active volunteer for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Academy Software Foundation, and the Visual Effects Society. Check out his keynote about the benefits of serial volunteerism from this year’s Open Source Days 2024.

The Nominations Committee sincerely thanks all the candidates in the 2024 election for their willingness to serve our community. 

Learn more about the SIGGRAPH Executive Committee

If you are an ACM SIGGRAPH member and are interested in serving ACM SIGGRAPH in a leadership role, please reach out to the ACM SIGGRAPH Nominations Committee.

The SIGGRAPH Pioneers group is proud to announce our Featured Speakers for 2024.

This year for the first time, the Pioneers Featured Speakers presentation is open to all conference attendees! Our 2024 Featured Speakers are Mary Whitton and Nick England, who co-created the Ikonas Graphics Processor in 1978. Ikonas was the world’s first General-Purpose Graphics Processor Unit, which was crucial in almost every pioneering application of computer graphics. Nick will talk about those early programmable graphics processor developments, which originally came out of North Carolina State, and Mary will talk about the development of Virtual Reality technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

If you are interested in becoming a Pioneer, and have at least 20 years of professional experience in the field, please click on the Pioneers webpage link below to learn how to become a member. Click the “Online Contents” link to watch any of the videos created by the SIGGRAPH Pioneers, including panels on important historical topics and interviews with many of the pioneers themselves!

https://www.siggraph.org/siggraph-365/pioneers/

-Ed Kramer

 Chair, SIGGRAPH Pioneers

Panelist Bios:

Nick England

I got introduced to interactive 3D graphics in 1972 in John Staudhammer’s lab at NC State. Designed a programmable graphics processor which was the foundation for Ikonas Graphics Systems in 1978. Later co-founded Trancept Systems. Both companies were acquired by larger companies but engineering stayed in NC – I got my Delta Airlines million-miler award thanks to Sun Microsystems. Worked on PixelFlow project at UNC-CH starting in 1993, then in 2000 founded 3rdTech Inc to commercialize several technologies developed there. Now retired to restoring vintage Navy radio and teletype equipment. Still located in NC.

Mary Whitton

Mary Whitton studied at both Duke and NC State and had a distinguished 25-year career as a research professor at UNC Chapel Hill.  She got involved with interactive computer graphics in 1976, in John Staudhammer’s lab at NC State. She was a co-founder of Ikonas Graphics Systems (1978) and Trancept Systems (1987). These companies’ products were high-end user-programmable hardware with software libraries for graphics, image processing, volume rendering, and visualization. At UNC she co-led the Effective Virtual Environments research group, and she received the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Community (VGTC) Virtual Reality Career Award in 2021.  She was Chair of the ACM SIGGRAPH organization 1993-1995 and received the ACM SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award in 2013.