SIGGRAPH 2021 Announces First Wave of Featured Speakers for Virtual Conference

CHICAGO, June 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — SIGGRAPH 2021 is announcing the first wave of its featured speaker lineup for this summer’s virtual conference, which includes Grant Sanderson, Dr. Kate Darling, and Hany Farid. For its 48th year, the conference’s live events and “can’t miss” scheduled sessions will take place throughout the week of 9–13 August, with on-demand content available from 2 August through 29 October.

Featured speaker sessions at SIGGRAPH 2021 will offer a chance for industry experts to discuss some of the most prominent topics in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

“I am excited to be welcoming such an incredible group of experts to speak at SIGGRAPH,” shared SIGGRAPH 2021 Conference Chair Pol Jeremias-Vila, of Pixar Animation Studios. “Our goal with each featured session is to offer varied perspectives across multiple disciplines in a way that best represents our community — Grant, Kate, and Hany embody this to the fullest.”

Grant Sanderson, author of YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown, has made a name for himself teaching higher mathematics with a distinct visual perspective to more than 3.5 million subscribers. During his session, Sanderson will discuss some of the more interesting examples of mathematical nuances that have come up when illustrating 3Blue1Brown content.

“Having spent so much of my time using computer graphics to help teach math, I’m excited to engage more with the graphics community itself,” said Sanderson.

Dr. Kate Darling, research specialist at the MIT Media Lab, is a leading expert in human-robot interaction and robot ethics. Her session will focus on how a different analogy for human-robot interaction has the power to illuminate new paths for our relationships with machines through the lens of her latest book “The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots”, released 20 April.

“My favorite thing about SIGGRAPH is the interdisciplinarity,” shared Darling. “I can’t wait to talk to everyone about robots!”

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a known authority on the dangers and opportunities of deepfake technology, with numerous appearances discussing the subject, including, most recently, an episode of ABC News’ “Nightline” in March. For his session, Farid will cover “Creating, Weaponizing, and Detecting Deepfakes”, with an emphasis on how rapid advances in machine learning play a role.

Farid commented, “The computer graphics community is at the forefront of developing powerful tools for the creation of highly realistic, synthetic content, and are in the best position to think about the implications and mitigations of these technologies.”

For full bios on each featured speaker, visit our website. News about additional featured speakers will be shared as it is available, including forthcoming announcements from conference sponsors NVIDIA, Unity, Intel, and Amazon Web Services.

Featured speaker sessions will be streamed virtually throughout the week of 9–13 August. Access to the sessions is open to all virtual pass levels. Register for SIGGRAPH 2021 at s2021.SIGGRAPH.org/register.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2021
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2021, the 48th annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place virtually with live events 9–13 August and on-demand content available starting 2 August through 29 October. Click here for news from the conference and its partners.

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SOURCE SIGGRAPH