1. Crowd Simulation (INFOMCRWS) - Course Introduction
Wouter van Toll
November 13, 2017

2. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Course website
Latest news
Schedule
Literature downloads
Assignment details
Secret page
November 16, 2018
INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

3. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
In this presentation
Lecturers
Course motivation
Course overview
Assignments
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

4. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Lecturers
Who do we think we are?
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

5. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
About us
dr. Wouter van Toll
Lecturer
Geometric algorithms
Game programming
Did PhD research on this topic
Supervised by Marc van Kreveld and...
dr. Roland Geraerts
Assistant Professor
Taught this course often
Supervised many students
Did PhD research on motion planning
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

6. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
About you
Who’s following the GMT master?
Who’s about to choose a thesis project?
What do you expect from this course?
Who has exciting hobbies?
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

7. Course motivation Why does this course exist? November 16, 2018
INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

8. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Why this topic?
Path planning / Crowd simulation
Many open questions
Touches many disciplines of computer science
Computational geometry, AI, Animation, Software architecture, ...
Important research topic in this department
PhD and MSc projects
Software
Demo!
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

9. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Why this topic?
Interest from the industry
Real-world questions lead to research
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

10. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Learning goals
Become an expert on path planning and crowd simulation
Know about history + state of the art
Know where the remaining “gaps” are
Analyze / solve difficult problems in a game context
Further improve your academic skills
Become a critical reader
Give good presentations
Participate in discussions
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

11. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Course Overview
What are you going to do?
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

12. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Main components
Read and discuss state-of-the-art research papers
Prepare abstracts before every session
Give a presentation about 1 paper
Other assignments to get hands-on experience
Find errors in games
Implement a crowd simulation game
No exam, but mandatory attendance
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

13. Schedule (simplified)
Week 46: Introduction lectures
Path planning / Crowd simulation
Week 47: Workshops
Crowd simulation software / Giving presentations
Week 48: Presentations of Assignment 1 by you
Weeks and 2-4: Paper presentations by you
Exception: Workshop on A* Search
Week 4: Presentations of Assignment 2 by you
Week 5: Nothing! (Exam week)
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

14. Presentation and abstracts
Main component of the course
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

15. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Paper presentation
We’ve chosen 20 papers on various subtopics
They will be presented by you (in the given order)
2 per day, starting in December
Each presentation takes half a session
You can choose your favourite paper (1-20)
First come, first serve
Papers 1-($nrStudents-20): Teams of 2
Other papers: Individual
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

16. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Paper presentation
Guidelines
Summarize the paper’s contents (10’)
Give a critical review of the pros/cons (15’)
Lead a group discussion, answer questions (15’)
Grading criteria
Thoroughness, accuracy, criticality
Ability to answer questions & lead discussion
Overall presentation quality
15% of your final grade
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17. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Abstracts
Before each presentation session:
Read both papers
Write an abstract for one* of them
Write 3 critical questions for both of them
Components of an abstract
Short summary
Critical assessment
Limitations
Surprising elements
Mistakes / Pitfalls?
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

18. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Abstracts
Hand in (1-page PDF) via Blackboard
Deadline: the corresponding morning, 9.00h
Graded (0-5) on accuracy / criticality
10 of these assignments in total (1 per session)
40% of your final grade
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

19. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Assignment 1
Find errors in games
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

20. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Assignment 1
Study crowd simulation in a modern game
Look for problems, or try to trigger them yourself
Poor collision avoidance
Poor group coherence
Bad handling of dynamic changes
Make videos of the problem(s)
Show your results in a presentation (Week 48)
3 slides: Game info, Problem description, Analysis
Around 5 minutes per presentation, including videos
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

21. Assignment 1: Examples https://youtu.be/ABJjdpxeMtE
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22. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Assignment 1
Learning goals
Be critical about the state of the art
Analyze problems, think about possible solutions
It doesn’t matter that you’re not an expert yet :)
In teams of 2
10% of your final grade
Deadline: November 24, 17.00h
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23. Assignment 2 Implement a crowd simulation game November 16, 2018
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24. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Assignment 2
Create your own computer game that contains (crowds of) navigating characters
Should solve at least 1 problem from Assignment 1
Use Unity and the UU Crowd Simulation plug-in
Demo/Workshop next week, to get you started
Weekly support hour
The rest is up to you!
You can use third-party assets etc. if you credit them
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

25. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Assignment 2: Examples
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26. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Assignment 2
Learning goals
Solve difficult problems
Experience the complexity yourself
It’s difficult to simulate the behavior you want
In teams of 4
35% of your final grade
Presentation: January 24
Deadline (game + report): January 26, 17.00h
...but start early!
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

27. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Grade overview
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28. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Bonus assignment
Organize a well-conducted flash mob
Replay a game situation from Assignment 1
Film the event and people’s reactions
Hand in a movie and a small document
You’re encouraged to work together
Can earn all participants 0.5 bonus points
Deadline: February 1
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

29. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Closing comments */
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30. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
Blackboard
All deliverables are assignments on Blackboard
Hand in digitally before the deadline
You can view your grades there as well
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

31. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
How not to fail
You pass the course if you have:
a final grade of >= 5.5
handed in Assignments 1 and 2
handed in at least 8 of the 10 abstracts
successfully given your paper presentation
missed at most 4 sessions from the schedule
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32. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
How not to fail
In short: active participation
Mandatory attendance
4 papers / 2 abstracts per week
Mandatory assignments
It’s hard work, but (hopefully) fun!
Room for creativity
Room for improving your academic skills
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization

33. INFOMCRWS: Course Organization
The final slide
Questions so far? ?
Contact info
Wouter van Toll Office: BBG 4.19 (Mon-Thu)
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INFOMCRWS: Course Organization