Lead the way to the next age of computer graphics.
Welcome to SIGGRAPH 2024
Keynote Presentations
SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Presentations are where industry experts discuss the most dynamic computer graphics topics leading us toward our desirable technological future. Get to know the speakers below.
Beyond the Illusion of Life
SIGGRAPH 2024 KeynoteMark Sagar
Double-Academy Award winner Dr. Mark Sagar is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Soul Machines and Director of the Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. Mark and his team are bringing technology to life, pioneering the creation of autonomously animated virtual humans with virtual brains and nervous systems — capable of highly expressive face-to-face interaction and real-time learning and emotional response — to create the next generation of human interaction with biologically inspired artificial intelligence. Mark has a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Auckland and was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. He previously worked as the special projects supervisor at Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks and developed technology for the digital characters in blockbusters such “Avatar,” “King Kong,” and “Spiderman 2.” His pioneering work in computer-generated faces was recognized with two consecutive Scientific and Engineering Oscars in 2010 and 2011. Mark was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2019 and was named New Zealand Innovator of the Year in 2022.
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The essence of animation is creating the illusion of life, convincing the audience that a character is alive and has its own feelings and thoughts. Is it possible to bring an interactive digital character to “life” who can “think,” “feel,” have experiences, and act with volition? What is it, exactly, to think, to feel, to experience? In this keynote, Dr. Mark Sagar will discuss his team’s biologically based approach, where they are developing a virtual nervous system analogous to our own, combining computational models of sensory, cognitive and emotional processes, language, behavior, and motor systems. These systems activate virtual muscles to animate a virtual face and body, sensing, learning, acting, and reacting in real time. The interoperation of these systems in face-to-face and shared interactions is exemplified in projects like BabyX, a simulated toddler which aims to enhance our comprehension of social learning and behavior — but it can also serve as groundwork for achieving human-like cooperation with future artificial intelligence. Dr. Sagar will elaborate how creating the inner life of a character is strongly linked with the “body,” one of the central thematic focuses of the conference.
The Microscopic
SIGGRAPH 2024 KeynoteManu Prakash
Manu Prakash is an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, a Pew Scholar, and the co-inventor of the Foldscope and co-founder of Foldscope Instruments. At Stanford, Manu runs a curiosity-driven science lab focused on using highly interdisciplinary approaches to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. His lab is dedicated to inventing, building, and scaling up “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science, including the discovery of the Foldscope, a foldable microscope made mostly of paper. Manu has a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Presentation, Manu will take you on a “microscopic” journey of the often unseen world — a delight of creatures most beautiful and marvelous with dazzling graphical feats. Come for the science, and stay for the community-enabled discoveries made around the world.
Session details coming soon.
Image credit: Linda A. Cicero/Stanford News Service (main photo); courtesy Foldscope Instruments, Inc. (insets)
