In a significant move toward supporting a creative, advanced technology community for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)—following the initiative in part by CWRU—has formally chartered Northeast Ohio SIGGRAPH, a chapter for the region.

CWRU worked with the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art to coordinate efforts leading to the charter.

A kickoff event for Northeast Ohio SIGGRAPH will be from 5-10 p.m. February 24 at art museum. It will feature technology demonstrations; peer discussions; speakers; and the screening of the Electronic Theater, an animation festival organized each year by SIGGRAPH to present the best digital animations, visualizations, simulations, visual effects demonstrations and technical presentations from around the world.

The keynote speaker for the will be Mike Travers from Blue Sky Studios. Travers has been involved in many of the top Visual Effects movies over the last five years including "Ice Age," "Stuart Little" and "Starship Troopers."

"Northeast Ohio SIGGRAPH will play a vital role in the creation of a vibrant Digital Cleveland by providing a forum not only for the exploration of the intersection of advanced visualization, biomedicine and the arts but also for the creation of new networks among students, researchers, artists and technology professionals," said Lev S. Gonick, CWRU vice president and chief information officer.

Digital Cleveland is a potential derivative of CWRU's agreement with American Fiber Systems Inc. of Rochester, N.Y.-which owns unused fiber networks in Cleveland, Kansas City, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Nashville and Salt Lake City-to provide unlimited bandwidth to 11 institutions in University Circle. The agreement includes the option to acquire additional bandwidth for Greater Cleveland, dubbed the Digital Cleveland project.

Establishing Northeast Ohio SIGGRAPH gives technology professionals, students and the general public a forum for sharing experiences and information. It ensures that Cleveland-area contributions to the field of computer graphics, visualization and interactive techniques are readily recognized within the national and worldwide professional communities. These technologies and techniques are playing increasingly vital roles in design, health care, biotechnology, medical research and the arts. Northeast Ohio is working on developing its strength in these areas.

The Northeast Ohio SIGGRAPH chapter is organized and led by local professionals and students. All meetings and events are open to the public. Organizational support has been provided by public and private sources including CWRU, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

For more information about the Northeast Ohio SIGGRAPH chapter and its events, visit http://gate.cia.edu/neohio/ or e-mail neosiggraph@po.cwru.edu.