CS 6204 Advanced Topics in Systems: Distributed Virtual Environments

Fall 2003

Thursday, 7:00pm-9:45pm, NVC Room 322

CRN 95291

The course web site is available on the Virginia Tech Blackboard server at http://www.learn.vt.edu/. Once you log on using your Virginia Tech PID and password, in the section My Courses follow (after August 24, 2003) the link Advanced Topics in Systems Fall-2003. The link is present only if you are registered for the course. This page contains overall information about the course, as follows:

Course Description
Instructor
Textbook and other materials
Grading
Graduate Honor System
Lecture Schedule

Course Description:

This course treats a specific advanced topic of current research interest in the area of systems, namely distributed virtual environments.Distributed virtual environments (DVEs) allow multiple users to interact in real-time even though those users may be located around the world. These environments usually aim to provide a sense of realism and an immersive experience by incorporating realistic 3D graphics and stereo sound. DVEs are used for military and industrial team training, collaborative design and engineering, and multiplayer games. Papers from the current literature or research monographs will be used in addition to the textbook. Student participation in a seminar style format is expected.

Instructor:

Denis Gracanin, Ph.D., P.E.

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Virginia Tech
Northern Virginia Center, Room 310
7054 Haycock Road
Falls Church, VA 22043

Phone: (703) 538-8378
Fax: (703) 538-8348
Email: gracanin@vt.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2-4pm

Textbook:

Sandeep Singhal, Michael Zyda, Networked Virtual Environments: Design and Implementation, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1999, ISBN 0-201-32557-8.

Other materials:

Course web site (Blackboard): http://www.learn.vt.edu/
Course web page: http://www.cs.vt.edu/~gracanin/course/cs6204/

Grading:

Midterm exam (closed book): 30% (October 16, 2003, 7-10pm)
Final exam (closed book): 30% (December 18, 2003, 7-10pm)
Project 40% (November 30, 2003, by 11:59pm)

Graduate Honor System:

Please review Virginia Tech’s Graduate Honor System, for more information see:
http://filebox.vt.edu/studentinfo/gradhonor/
All assignments are individual, no collaboration is allowed. You are not allowed to receive help from others. You are not allowed to provide help to others.
You can discuss course topics and related issues as long they do not relate to homeworks or project specifics.
When in doubt, consult with the instructor first.
All code will be checked by a tool that detects similarities and warns about possible plagiarism.

Lecture Schedule:

Week	Date	Topic	Textbook
1	August 28, 2003	Lecture 1: Introduction to Virtual Reality	Chapters 1, 2
2	September 4, 2003	Lecture 2: Communication Infrastructure	Chapters 3, 4
3	September 11, 2003	Lecture 3: Managing Dynamic Shared State	Chapter 5
4	September 18, 2003	Lecture 4: Systems Design	Chapter 6
5	September 25, 2003	Lecture 5: Resource Management for Scalability and Performance	Chapter 7
6	October 2, 2003	Lecture 6: Internet Networked Virtual Environments	Chapters 8, 9
7	October 9, 2003	Lecture 7: Distributed Simulation	papers
8	October 16, 2003	Midterm Exam	Chapters 1-9
9	October 23, 2003	Lecture 8: User Interfaces and Interactions	papers
10	October 30, 2003	Lecture 9: Quality of Service, Presence and Performance	papers
11	November 6, 2003	Lecture 10: 3D Gaming	papers
12	November 13, 2003	Lecture 11: Collaborative Virtual Environments	papers
13	November 20, 2003	Lecture 12: Next Generation Applications	papers
14	November 27, 2003	THANKSGIVING	N/A
15	December 4, 2003	Project Presentations	N/A
16	December 11, 2003	Project Presentations	N/A
17	December 18, 2003	Final Exam	Chapters 1-9, papers