From 23 to 27 October 2023, Justus Chlupka, Luka Condric, Noemi Finckh and Domenic Zöllner completed their BOGY internship at the Visualization Institute of the University of Stuttgart (VISUS). They got an insight into the everyday life of a computer scientist and the world of programming. They were able to try out different technologies and work on their own projects. The internship was carried out as a cooperation between VISUS, the SFB-TRR 161 and the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC.
We – that is Domenic, Justus, Luka and Noemi – had our BOGY week at the VISUS (Visualization Institute) at the University of Stuttgart. In the following, we would like to report on the experiences we gained there and the insights we gained, in order to provide an understanding and hopefully inspire others to do a BOGY in visualisation research. Each day is written from the perspective of one of the four of us. Enjoy reading!
On Monday, we were first given a brief overview of the upcoming internship and the University of Stuttgart. Then we were allowed to go into a computer room (also called a “pool” there) and of course we were always allowed to ask all our questions (although there weren't always too many). Apart from that, we started with the basics of the C# programming language in preparation for the coming days and had our first experience of finding our way around the gigantic campus and between the many buildings of the University of Stuttgart.
On Tuesday, we attended a lecture on data visualisation in English. The lecture was very informative and interesting. We learned how to visualise data in an appealing and understandable way. Afterwards, we walked through the VISUS building and saw the Powerwall and the technology behind it. The Powerwall is a large projection screen that can display about 88 million pixels on an area of about six by two metres. We also saw other technologies such as servers, 3D printers and laser cutters. It was very interesting to see how these technologies are used at VISUS.
On Wednesday, we first attended a lecture on computer graphics, an introduction to the C++ programming language. Then we were introduced to a project for visualising music. For example, how VR glasses can be used to show which notes have been played correctly and which have not, or how a piece of music can be displayed in such a way that you can see whether it might sound good without having to listen to it. We were also told a lot about the opportunities at the University of Stuttgart, especially with a degree in computer science. After a visit to the Mensa, we were then given an introduction to Blender, a program for modelling 3D objects. We had a lot to do here, as Blender is quite a complex program with many functions and possibilities, be it for modelling, texturing or animating objects.
Thursday started with an introduction to the Unity game development software. We were given the task of using Unity to create the game TicTacToe. In order to be able to do this, we were given a sheet of paper with useful hints and tips. Of course, there was also a supervisor present who was familiar with Unity and whom we could turn to if we had any questions. We worked on this task for about three hours until it was 12 o'clock and we went to the Mensa for lunch. After about an hour's lunch break, we went straight back to Unity and continued programming TicTacToe. Although we hadn't used Unity before that day, we still managed to finish the game with the help of the supervisor and the task sheet. On this day we mainly learned the basics of programming with Unity and were very happy with our final result and we were amazed at how easy Unity can be.
On Friday we arrived at the VISUS building at 9:30 as usual and immediately started working on our program for a TicTacToe game. After working on it for about two hours and partly finished it, we went to the cafeteria. Then we were shown a demo of the HoloLens 1 from Microsoft. These are augmented reality glasses that you can see through, but also show you additional virtual information and things. This was very fascinating as we had never seen anything like it before. You could place molecules freely in space and walk around them without them moving.
Conclusion
In summary, we all really enjoyed the BOGY at the University of Stuttgart. We would generally recommend the internship to anyone who enjoys and is interested in programming, as this was the biggest part of the internship, but of course you should also have some interest in the insights into AR. In the course of the internship, we all managed to gain a lot of experience in programming and to expand our programming skills.
Justus Chlupka, Luka Condric, Noemi Finckh and Domenic Zöllner
More information (in German) can be found here.