The spring conference on computer graphics – known as SCCG (www.sccg.sk), stays still the oldest annual meeting of scientific community in the field of computer graphics in Central Europe for the conventional noble donations made by sponsors. The 26th spring conference is held in Budmerice in May 2010. Before the conference opening, on Monday, May 10, a unique student seminar – 14th CESCG – is held that gathers best students from many European universities. Both the conference and the seminar celebrate together 40th anniversary and they are along with an art exhibition titled as Central European Computer Graphics Fest.

The aim of the SCCG conference is to make an opportunity for meeting best students and young research workers with tops of world-famous specialists and to contribute to fruitful discussion between East and West. Commissioner of the exhibition Analog versus Digital is Head of the Photography and New Media of Academy of Fine Arts and Design – Mgr.art. Jana HOJSTRICOVA, ArtD. and Head of Photography Atelier – Mgr. art. Silvia Saparova who opens the exhibition on Monday, May 10, at 16.00 h. The best pieces of students who study photography meet symbolically the best ideas of “Science of Images”.

Peter CIBAK, Veronika MARKOVICOVA, Jakub CAJKO, Peter BERKO, Martina SIMKOVICOVA, Tomas MANINA, and Anton KARPITA exhibit their pieces. CESCG was set up under the auspices of His Excellency Dr. Helmut WESSELY. Several years lasting process of organization of double student seminars in Central Europe became finally an imposing international conference. This year is the general sponsor Autodesk from England. The Seminar is organized by Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics Bratislava in cooperation with TU Wien, Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, Austrian Cultural Forum, and Slovenska informaticka spolocnost (Slovak Informatics Company).

General medial partner is the PC REVUE – a computer magazine. To invite stars of modern science is at least so difficult as to invite sport or show-business stars. It is possible to manage it yearly only because of generosity of sponsors and partners. This time the general sponsor of the conference is the Slovak IT company – SOFTEC – designer of software solutions for insurance, banking, public administration, and telecommunication. Another partners are namely: JSMF (Union of Slovak Mathematicians and Physicists), CSA Systems, EEA, Fibamo, Sfera, Topsoft, and VIS GRAVIS, PACI, Lions Club Bratislava – EXPATRIATE, Fibamo, and MJCH.

Just because of them the conference has sound among scientific community around the world and it has been attended by authors from Chine or USA. For remember – in previous years Chairmen of the SCCG conference were these professors: Karol MYSZKOWSKI from Saarbrucken, Mateu SBERT from Spain, Pavel SLAVIK from Prague, Bert JUTTLER from Linz, Alexander PASKO from Tokyo, Ken JOY from California, Alan CHALMERS from England, Tosiyasu L. KUNII from Japan, she professor Bianca FALCIDIENO from Italy, and professors Jiri ZARA from Prague, Laszlo SZIRMAY-KALOS from Budapest, Wolfgang STRASSER from Tubingen, and Werner PURGATHOFER from Wien.

SCCG 2010, which organization is managed by Dr. Matej NOVOTNY, was set up under the auspices of the Dean of Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics of Comenius University – Doc. Jan BODA – who opens the 3-day marathon of invited lectures, papers, discussions, video projection, poster presentations, and social events in a beautiful surrounding on Thursday, May 13 in the afternoon.

The scientific program was composed by professors: Helwig HAUSER from Norway and Reinhard KLEIN from Bonn. Prof. HAUSER is a world-famous specialist in information visualization and Prof. KLEIN is a specialist in optimization, among others in a most accurate simulation of material design e.g. of interiors of luxury cars. Members of the international program committee are many experts of repute. Conference proceedings are selected from registered papers from twenty countries by representative international program committee that guarantees a top check of quality.

After the conference the book will be published in one of the most prestigious publishers – ACM SIGGRAPH – in a world-observed digital library. It is difficult to compare such a level in Central European measure in that field with any other one. The conference proceedings with more than 200 pages, a unique “spring” front page, designed by Matej NOVOTNY, and color illustrations start to be a sought after publication having high scientific quality. The publication is enriched with invited lectures of three significant specialists, who came to Budmerice. They belong to best experts in their specialization in “the edge of technology for the future”.

• Prof. Alfred INSELBERG from Israel interprets his discovery book about parallel coordinates in information visualization.
• Prof. Michael GOESELE from Germany is the world tops in computer photography and he speaks about use of community collections of photographs for reconstruction, rendering, and other applications.
• Prof. Milos SRAMEK from Austrian Academy of Sciences introduces the latest available findings in the field of practical use of volume graphics in medical diagnostic.

Such a unique group of “great” professors and brilliant ideas gather an elite of graphics from all the world at SCCG – and unique inspirations can originate. For more detailed program see www.sccg.sk.

Every year the best student of computer graphics compete for attendance at the Spring Conference on Computer Graphics in competition of Slovenska informaticka spolocnost (Slovak Informatics Company). The best students from more than 15 European universities meet at the unique student seminar CESCG, which has been an occasion of UNESCO for 2 years because of initiative of Doc. Ftacnik. After several years a selection of the best papers from conference proceedings is published by the Austrian publisher OCG.

The seminar is organized in cooperation of Comenius University and TU Wien. Ten of the best Slovak students come to Budmerice through the Competition of Slovak Informatics Company – Prof. KUNII Award. The competition originated when the living legend of computer graphics – Prof. Tosiyasu Lawrence KUNII – from Tokyo gave his royalties to Slovak students in order to support them. The new winners – Peter KAN, Zuzana HALADOVA, Martin MADARAS, and Michal CHLADEK – interpret their original findings in creation of 3D modeling of head, original recognition of image, variable accuracy of areas of virtual objects, and simulation of liquid flow. Invited lectures are presented by three guests of honor:

• Steve STOTT (Autodesk, UK) is a specialist in computer support for creativity and speaking on his lecture the audience is amazed and sends Koestler’s quality signals – Uh-huh…, Ah! Right! Ha! Ha! to him.
• Prof. Horst BISCHOF from TU Graz explains the newest findings in computer vision on the GPU.
• Associate Professor Roman DURIKOVIC from Comenius University Bratislava is famous for his modeling soap bubbles, which were also applied in SHREK 2 movie. But his lecture is focused on complicated simulation of liquid dynamics.

Spring Conference on Computer Graphics and the world unique student seminar CESCG celebrate together the 40th “anniversary” with approximately 60 premieres of author performances. The great kindness of Slovak hospitality – words of Prof. Markus GROSS from Switzerland – makes really a pleasant time and the art and scientific program enrich that time with amazing newest findings in art photography, directions in computer graphics research and use, indeed a common discussion how to see and humanize information technology as much as possible.