The Institute for Computer Graphics and Knowledge Visualization participates since 2012 in the joint PhD programme, with a focus on research in Geometric Modeling, Visualization and Novel Applications in Visual Computing. We here describe our ongoing and future work. For more information, please contact the Principal Investigators:

• Ursula Augsdörfer
• Tobias Schreck

For more general information on the dual degree program, please see here.

This PhD program is a joint collaboration between Graz University of Technology in Austria and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The program offers opportunities to promising scientists and scholars to foster interactions between the two world class universities in the area of interactive digital media. The principal areas of focus are 3D Graphics, Realtime Rendering, Virtual & Augmented Reality, Visual Analytics, Medical Computing, and Human-Computer Interaction.

The program aims to support young promising scientists by offering international career experience as a starting point for a strong research career:

• Your doctoral thesis is supervised by renowned researchers at both universities.
• You are awarded a joint graduation certificate from TU Graz and the Nanyang University of Technology.
• You get the unique opportunity to spend at least 1 year of your doctoral program working in an academic capacity at the world class Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. TU Graz will offer support and arrange with you everything required for living and working in Singapore.
• You are employed full-time as an academic member of staff at TU Graz throughout the three-year degree program.

Program opening

We invite applications for the open PhD position within this program at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Knowledge Visualization:

Topic

You will be working on novel applications in Visual Computing. The topic will be defined in accordance with the applicant's skills and experience. Topics of interest are in the fields of 3D Computer Graphics, Geometry Processing, Information Visualization, Visual Analytics, Digital Libraries, and Virtual Reality Technology.

Requirements

We are seeking excellent and highly motivated PhD students who are interested in Computer Graphics and Knowledge Visualization, including the topics defined above. A master degree in computer science or a closely related field is required. The applicant should have good programming skills, and ideally has previous experience and a good understanding of the fundamental concepts of computer graphics and/or knowledge visualization. 

What we offer

You will be part of a research program, which will provide you with an international research background, conducted at two top ranked universities. 

You will spend your first and third year of research at Graz Technical University (TU Graz), as part of the research team at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Knowledge Visualization (CGV). Our institute is located at the Faculty of Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering, a young and vibrant faculty founded in 2004. The CGV was founded a year later and is part of the Visual Computing research cluster in Graz, presenting an excellent scientific environment at large. You can find details on our current research topic here.

Working at CGV in a nutshell:

• A work environment equipped with the newest hardware and software technology.
• A young and international team of researchers with an excellent working atmosphere.
• Freedom to explore your scientific interests in the course of your work.
• The possibility to present your research results at international top conferences.
• Entry level salary as a PhD researcher is currently 2.929 Euro gross, which is paid 14x per annum. As a PhD researcher at TU Graz you are also entitled to full social benefits.
• Continuing personal and professional education.
• The city of Graz offers exceptional quality of living
  • With around 300.000 inhabitants, Graz is the second largest city of Austria and the capital of the federal state Styria. It is located south of the Alps and offers a vast range of outdoor activities close to the city.
  • The Old City of Graz is a history-charged and stimulating living space, host to a range of annual festivals, buzzing with culture, events and people. The old twon and the castel of Eggenberg belong to the UNESCO World Heritage since 1999. Graz is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Design since 2011. 

The second year of this PhD position will be spent at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore at the Doctoral School of Computer Science. 

Working at NTU in a nutshell

• NTU is one of the best universitis of the world, currently #13 of the QS Wolrd University Rankings.
• The experience of conducting research at a second internationally renown research institution will enable and motivate you to explore new innovative working approaches.
• Working alongside world renown researchers will provide new opportunities. 
• Research is conducted in a lively ad vibrant research environment, which motivates young researchers to be innovative and explorative. You can read more on current research at NTU here. 
• You can experience an internationally strong research environment first hand. Singapore has in the last years invested extensively in research and has become known as a "research nation". 
• Singapore, or Lion City, is a sovereign island city-state in maritime Southeast Asia of about 5.7 million inhabitants. It offers warm weather all year round, many beaches and trails and, owing to its geographic location, has a culturally rich history. Because its contemporary modern culture is a combination of Asian and Europe, Singapore has been dubbed as a country where "East meets West" or "Gateway to Asia". Its diverse cuisine is touted as a reason to visit the country, due to its combination of a range of different styles from many ethnicities.

How to apply

If you have any questions or would like to apply for the open position, please send an email to u.augsdorfernoSpam@cgv.tugraz.at or tobias.schrecknoSpam@cgv.tugraz.at. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Domain Specific Procedural Modeling of 3D Shapes

Because modeling via code can often by quite tedious, simplifications for various modeling domains are of great help. One example is shape grammars. They are formal grammars (often context-free) that generate geometry. For regular and hierarchical structures, like building facades, they provide a much easier way of modeling compared to other procedural techniques. Therefore, finding new domain specific ways for describing 3D models or further developing existing ones, will increase the potential of procedural modeling. This project looks at application areas like roof modeling and advanced shape grammars systems.

Researcher: Johannes Edelsbrunner
TU Graz Supervisor: Sven Havemann
NTU Supervisor: Alexei Sourin

Publications:

• Edelsbrunner, J., Krispel, U., Havemann, S., Sourin, A., & Fellner, D. W. (2014, October). Constructive Roof Geometry. In Cyberworlds (CW), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 63-70).
• Zmugg, R., Thaller, W., Krispel, U., Edelsbrunner, J., Havemann, S., & Fellner, D. W. (2014). Procedural architecture using deformation-aware split grammars. The Visual Computer, 30(9), 1009-1019.
• Zmugg, R., Thaller, W., Krispel, U., Edelsbrunner, J., Havemann, S., & Fellner, D. W. (2013, October). Deformation-aware split grammars for architectural models. In Cyberworlds (CW), 2013 International Conference on (pp. 4-11).

Visual Data Analysis Supported by Interaction Modalities and Machine Learning

Mr Mohammad Chegini was co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Tobias Schreck (TU Graz) and Prof. Dr. Alexei Sourin on the topic 'Visual Analysis of Complex Data Supported by Novel Interaction Modalities'. The scope of the research was on novel techniques for human-centered, visual interactive data analysis techniques, enabling users to find and understand patterns and relationships in large amounts of data. The research stay with NTU took plaec from September 2018 to September 2019. Mohammad Chegini is defending his PhD thesis in December 2020.

Researcher: Mohammad Chegini
TU Graz Supervisor: Tobias Schreck
NTU Supervisor: Alexei Sourin

Selected Publications:

• Mohammad Chegini, Jürgen Bernard, Philip Berger, Alexei Sourin, Keith Andrews, Tobias Schreck: Interactive labelling of a multivariate dataset for supervised machine learning using linked visualisations, clustering, and active learning. Visual Informatics 3(1): 9-17 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visinf.2019.03.002
• M. Chegini, K. Andrews, T. Schreck, and A. Sourin: Multiple Linked-View Exploration on Large Displays Facilitated by a Secondary Handheld Device. SPIE Proceedings Volume 11049, International Workshop on Advanced Image Technology (IWAIT) 2019; 110490H (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2521648
• M. Chegini, J. Bernard, L. Shao, A. Sourin, K. Andrews, and T. Schreck. mVis in the wild: Pre-study of an interactive visual machine learning system for labelling. In Proc. IEEE VIS Workshop on Evaluation of Interactive Visual Machine Learning Systems (EVIVA-ML), 2019. eviva-ml.github.io