This course will focus on fundamentals. We will make extensive use of basic linear algebra and geometry. A sound understanding of using matrices to represent transformations will be very helpful. You should be comfortable thinking about problems such as: Given a point, is it in the plane of a polygon? If so, and if the polygon is convex, is the point inside the polygon? I will go over the requisite math as it arises, but if you are not confident with your background, you may wish to contact the instructor to discuss it.
This course will have a heavy programming component. Assignments must be written in either C or C++ and must compile and run on linux.
This course will have both graduate and undergraduate students (including honors students). Graduate students will have additional requirements for assignments and on exams. It is possible for grad students to negotiate exchanging research oriented project work for assignments. In this case, depending on what it is that you wish to do, the requirements might resemble those from the Fall 2005 version of the course .
If you want to see more details about what the course is like, you may wish to look at the slides from last year . We will likely cover the topics in a slightly different order this term, and there will be some modifications, but there will be perhaps 90% overlap with the material covered last term.
Assignments: 70%
Quizzes: 10% (best 2 out of 3)
Final: 20%
A cumulative percentage of 90% guarantees an A, 80% guarantees a B, 70% a C, and
60% a D. Depending on overall class performance, these lines may be lowered a
bit (possibly differently for 433 and 533).
Assignments will be handed in electronically, and thus will be time stamped. Material to be submitted will include source code, a makefile, an executable, and likely other files as explained in the instructions for each given assignment.
The programming assignments are designed to both provide experience in writing interactive graphics software, and to help students learn specific theoretical material.
The programs must build and on Linux. The installations available on the CS graphics machines (gr01-gr08) will be used as reference systems for submitted material. If programs are developed elsewhere, or on other OS's, they should be checked on these machines before being handed in.
Exams must be attended at their appointed time unless you have permission in advance to do otherwise. Since one quiz will be discounted, make up quizzes will not be given except under extraordinary circumstances.
Assignment late policy: Late assignments will be accepted with penalty until five days late. From that point onwards, assignments will not be accepted. This is a matter of courtesy to your TA. The late penalty is 10% per day.
Some attempt will be made to detect violations of the University of Arizona's academic integrity policy. Specifically, exams and written assignment must be the sole work of the student. Students may help each other with the problem analysis and general strategies relevant to the programing assignments, but detailed help or code sharing is not permitted. All code in programming assignments will be assumed to have been written by the student (or student team) unless attribution is given. An obvious exception to this rule is sample code which has been provided by the instructor for this course through the course web page tree. Such code does not require attribution (we know where it came from). It is also permissible to include with attribution code from external sources provided that the code is published, has not been solicited, and was not written for course requirement for this or a similar course given elsewhere.