DEFENSE

The LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, will host a booth at SIGGRAPH: International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Technologies, the premier conference to showcase new developments in digital media. CCT staff will exhibit during the conference in Los Angeles Aug. 12-15 to display projects in digital art, electro-acoustic music, animation, video game design, scientific visualization and more. CCT staff will advertise opportunities with the University’s Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research, or AVATAR, multidisciplinary hiring initiative. AVATAR establishes a university-wide faculty focus on the intersections among art, technology and computation, creating new research areas. The AVATAR initiative will bring six new faculty to LSU to conduct research primarily in intelligent and responsive systems -- video games, training systems and simulation visualizations -- and collaborative digital media arts. CCT will screen “Best of the Fest” winners from the 2008 Red Stick International Animation Festival, and will announce submission categories for the 2009 festival, which will take place April 22—25. Red Stick will begin accepting entries for the 2009 film competition on Sept. 1, 2008 in eight categories: • Animated Short Film (student and professional) • Music Video • Scientific Visualization • Animation for Commercials • Animation for Games • Animation for Young Audiences • Experimental Animation/Visual Music (student and professional) • Storyboard Competition In addition to Red Stick, CCT will showcase LSU’s video game design course, which the University offers through the University of Illinois-Chicago. Students take the class, in which they work in teams as companies to create original video games, at LSU via HDTV streamed across high-speed networks from Chicago. LSU will offer the course for the third time in the Fall 2008 semester. The Baton Rouge Area Digital Industries Consortium (BRADIC) will have an adjoining exhibit at SIGGRAPH to promote economic development opportunities for digital media in the city and state. The consortium, led by CCT and the LSU Office for Research & Economic Development, is a partnership among LSU, the Mayor-President’s Office, Baton Rouge Area Foundation and Baton Rouge Area Chamber.