If you know b-splines well, you also nnow NURBS!

ABSTRACT

This paper presents our attempt in designing intuitive and interesting materials for teaching NURBS in an undergraduate course with the help of our tool DesignMentor. This approach does not require tedious mathematics and is based on learning-by-doing and visualization. Our approach was classroom tested and used world-wide in the last seven years.

REFERENCES

• 1: John Lowther , Ching-Kuang Shene, Teaching B-splines is not difficult!, Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, February 19-23, 2003, Reno, Navada, USA
• 2: John L. Lowther , Ching-Kuang Shene, Computing with geometry as an undergraduate course: a three-year experience, Proceedings of the thirty-second SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer Science Education, p.119-123, February 2001, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
• 3: C.-K. Shene, Introduction to Computing with Geometry Notes, available at www.cs.mtu.edu/~|shene/COURSES/cs3621/NOTES/
• 4: Rosalee Wolfe, Education: a syllabus survey: examining the state of current practice in introductory computer graphics courses, ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, v.33 n.1, February 1999 [doi>10.1145/563666.563675]
• 5: Y. Zhao, Y. Zhou, J. L. Lowther and C.-K. Shene, Cross-Sectional Design: A Tool for Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design Courses, 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education, Vol. II (1999), pp. (12b3-1)--(12b3-6).

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.5 Computational Geometry and Object Modeling
          Subjects: Curve, surface, solid, and object representations

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Languages

Keywords:
NURBS, b-splines, curves and surfaces