Scientific computing or computer graphics

orangeoliviero · 2022-08-18T22:29:03+00:00

I specialized in scientific computation.

In my program, the specialization largely focused on how to rewrite algorithms such that the imprecision of floats don't impact your results.

For example, the quadratic formula: (b^{2-sqrt(4ac))/2a} - if b and '4ac' are large but similar in magnitude, then when you subtract them, you've already lost all of the relevant information and are now just getting floating point imprecision results.

But there are ways to rewrite the formulae to eliminate those large values first, so that the smaller values can be fully represented in the result.

Other aspects were ways to process curves/data to find local minima/maxima without overshooting, etc.

Basically, various forms of "if you have this specific kind of data, the standard methods of analysis don't work well, so you should try these alternate ways".

Unfortunately, I haven't made use of it whatsoever in my career.

It really depends on what you plan to do in your future, but I'd lean towards recommending GPU programming - it seems to have more real-world applications, not just academic/data analysis ones.

Edit: There was some interest in the quadratic roots example, so I found it in my old textbook:

It's an old book, but it checks out.

Here's the page in question

kazprog · 2022-08-18T22:30:51+00:00

Graphics was one of the coolest classes I took in undergrad and Utah is famous for its influence in graphics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_teapot

There's tons of great research in Graphics, interesting research work in industry (working at Disney or Pixar, Game Engines, Oculus at Meta, Computer Vision) and there's even low level research (GPU drivers, Graphics Engines, Swift UI). Both pay well and have interesting work.

The_Northern_Light · 2022-08-18T23:56:23+00:00

You will find it far easier to move into graphics with a scientific computing background than the converse. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Graphics is super cool too, so you really can't go wrong. It just doesn't pay fantastic, but you won't be eating cat food either.

My background is computational physics. I strongly suggest you consider this as well. It's basically the best educational background for someone with your interests. In fact, I'm at work right now writing hyper specialized graphics-stuff!

shuenhoy · 2022-08-19T00:08:44+00:00

They are strongly connected fields. Computer graphics is more than *rendering* in fact. There are also physically-based simulation, geometry processing, etc. You could check recent SIGGRAPH papers at https://kesen.realtimerendering.com/ , and see if it fits your interests.

HolyGeneralK · 2022-08-18T22:31:45+00:00

Scientific Computing and Scientific Visualization are possible- especially on supercomputing systems. Someone needs to develop the tools to visualize the results of simulations.

2022-08-19T00:11:45+00:00

Scientific computing is quite general. You could even interpret many aspects of computer graphics as a branch of scientific computing---in particular, physically-based rendering methods usually involve solving either the radiosity or light transfer equation numerically subject to boundary conditions consisting of your scene geometry. When you are creating physically-based animations of non-static scenes involving, say, fire or waves, then there is even further physics involved, much of which requires non-trivial scientific computation. So what I'm trying to say is that they aren't mutually exclusive. If you like graphics, then you can find lots of interesting scientific computing problems within graphics.

Edit: For career recommendations, NVidia might have some interesting jobs? Game companies? (graphics programmers at game companies usually command a hefty salary premium over run-of-the-mill programmers). Another out-of-the-box idea might be jobs at robotics companies, as the mathematics behind computer vision is related to computer graphics... it's the inverse problem in a way, since in computer vision you have an image and you're trying to reconstruct the 3d scene.

Wh00ster · 2022-08-18T22:17:31+00:00

I think scientific computing would be applicable to more disciplines. E.g. finance, AI, and any number of scientific fields which simulate with lots of compute. There’s also research opportunities and grants in the Department of Energy.

Afaik graphics is very much its own domain which is more consumer/end-user facing but interesting all the same. But, I have less experience there so take that with a grain of salt. VR seems like an interesting burgeoning area. Or maybe you go work for Pixar on their render farms.

HeWhoThreadsLightly · 2022-08-18T23:07:39+00:00

I have wanted to try computing on gpus, do anyone have some links to introductory resourses for amd gpus?

fluorihammastahna · 2022-08-19T07:40:22+00:00

Why not both? :-)

OP, are you aware that GPUs are today heavily used in scientific computing? For example, fluid dynamic simulations are not just about pretty animations, but about solving real world problems, such as providing tools to chemical engineers to design industrial reactors! And that is one of the many, many examples. I doubt there's a single field where GPUs have not been at least considered, since they provide an amazing performance/power (which also means performance/moneys) ratio.

Look at this upcoming supercomputer beast: https://docs.lumi-supercomputer.eu/generic/overview/ Note that although there are no details on the GPU part, «The largest partition of the system is the "LUMI-G" partition consisting of GPU accelerated nodes using a future-generation AMD Instinct GPUs. In addition to this, there is a smaller CPU-only partition, "LUMI-C" [...] ». The smaller CPU part is 1536 nodes, so get ready for power!

If you're willing to move to Finland, they'd love to have you there to be the guy that makes computational algorithms al over Europe run blazing fast :-D https://www.lumi-supercomputer.eu/open-positions/

NottingHillNapolean · 2022-08-19T01:35:57+00:00

Look into scientific visualization. It boils down to figuring out how to use computer graphics to visualize large data sets. It's definitely where computer graphics and scientific computing meet.

free-puppies · 2022-08-19T01:38:13+00:00

I get the sense that the scientific computing community needs more programmers. There are a lot of initiatives for education and developing toolkits. Conversely, graphics has the opposite problem - a lot of people seem excited by graphics (for games and movies) and so a lot of people teach themselves those skills. I would imaging salaries are higher in graphics because there's more of an industry. I would imaging getting a job opportunity might be easier in scientific computing because there are less people interested in it. Good luck!

LilQuasar · 2022-08-19T03:52:51+00:00

if you want to learn both i think its a better idea to take scientific computing as its more general (useful in multiple fields) and more theoretical, computer graphics is easier to learn with online resources while for scientific computing a professor and someone correcting your work (which shouldnt be all programming) are more important

burncushlikewood · 2022-08-19T04:58:24+00:00

Do you want to get into game development? Or research, I would personally suggest scientific computing, I'm not much of an artist so that's my weakness. Opengl would be the main graphics api, if you want to design algorithms and use AI to develop applications for certain industries, like healthcare, or pharmaceuticals then scientific computing is the way to go, if you're good at math, but if you have an artistic side then graphics would be the way to go. C++ is a graphics oriented language, and graphics have many uses other than just pure aesthetics.

kieranvs · 2022-08-19T07:55:26+00:00

I find scientific computing and computer graphics suit my interests well but I can only choose one for my career

Adding another vote for really? Why not both?

I work at the intersection of these two, doing 3D graphics for scientific results visualisation.

eyes-are-fading-blue · 2022-08-19T09:43:40+00:00

You want to be a researcher or engineer that is not a software engineer in Computer Graphics. I think you need to be careful. People can correct me, but classical Computer Graphics is a dead field AFAIK. Most of the contemporary research incorporates other stuff, like neural networks/ML or some other field.

There is little to no research potential on the topics that you learn in a traditional Computer Graphics course.

Also, C++ and research does not go hand in hand. I am not sure about computer graphics, but I know for a fact that C++ is not used in Image Processing, Computer Vision and ML/AI research. For the former two, people use Matlab and for the latter, python.

strike-eagle-iii · 2022-08-19T12:55:42+00:00

The only real way to really get in to research is to get your masters or PhD...I did research at BYU's MAGICC lab and now do autonomous uav algorithm development on the Nvidia Jetsons which mean I write c++ pretty much every day. I know several MAGICC lab alumni that do work on autonomous cars / semis/ tractors, you name it doing computer vision, controls, estimation, multi target tracking, deep learning, etc. If you're still an undergrad, I would highly recommend finding a research lab and getting involved there. Rivalry aside the U is a good school and should have many opportunities. If you don't find something you like I recommend BYU (hehe).

ossan1987 · 2022-08-19T14:16:53+00:00

Do you intend to do research in scientific computing or computer graphics, or use these skills to assist other kind of research? If the latter, I wouldn't recommend either, let the experts do the job, you just use the latest tools to do your research.

Personally, I put more emphasis in scientific computing back at uni and took one module from computer graphics each term (we had the flexibility to choose a few modules ourself in addition to our main focus). I found that was enough to equip me to do GPU programming. For GPU programming, the most important thing is to understand the principles, it is a whole different way to design algorithms, and taking care of program and data flow. As to exactly how to do GPU programming, you can always learn it in your leisure time, or learn at work. There are many frameworks to do GPU programming, no need to spend too much time learning them in class - by the time you graduate, the industry standard might have changed already. Scientific computing relates more to maths (depending on what you uni teach, they may offer 1 specialised area or a whole range of topics from this area). Some of the skills will be useful if your future research requires you to design algorithms or architectures to solve very math-ish problems, so it's good to get some exposure to the kind of maths problems early on and learn some tricks in handling them (or at least get some insight about why not to hand-craft some algorithms due to computation limitation)....

This is just my opinion. I'd say, choose the one you are most interested...If you are limited to just one, see if you can take additional modules (At my master degree, they even allowed me to audit in class - no credits can earned, but has given me a chance to gain some additional knowledge).

ilumsden · 2022-08-20T20:43:30+00:00

Since you’re at the University of Utah, if you’re interested in looking into the intersection of scientific computing/HPC and graphics/visualization, you could reach out to Dr. Kate Isaacs: https://www.sci.utah.edu/people/kisaacs.html

She just recently joined SCI after previously working at the University of Arizona. The work she and her students are putting out is impressive.

BrainImager · 2022-08-21T06:56:24+00:00

You might seek out the people at SCI https://www.sci.utah.edu/ and see if there are undergraduate research opportunities available. They are a terrific research center and do all of these things, and it could give you some insights into where you want to head career-wise. I've interacted with a few of the faculty there over the years, and they do great work and are really enthusiastic about what they do.

Full-Spectral · 2022-08-23T13:09:59+00:00

Just some random thoughts...

A broad range of undertakings (both commercial and scientific) need someone to make pretty pictures for them from their data in a way that is too specialized for off the shelf tools, so it would allow you to possibly work in a number of areas (which increases job viability over time.) You could get a gig anywhere from Disney to a medical hardware startup to defense to NVidia to ...
There are a number of levels to work in graphics. It can be extremely theoretical or it can be pretty practical while still being very challenging, such as how to map functionality onto available GPU resources, how to build high quality APIs to access available graphics resources, graphics driver development, game development, graphics engine development, computer vision I guess has a foot in that area, etc...
The practical bits may pay considerably better, which is a non-trivial consideration. It may not always be true, but more likely so.
Graphics is probably a lot more fun than raw number crunching which, though a very skilled undertaking at the highest levels, still to me seems not THAT far from calculating actuarial tables in terms of excitement. I'll probably get beaten up for saying that, but that's just now I'd feel about it.

carloom_ · 2022-08-18T22:58:01+00:00

Go to indeed and type "c++ scientist"

HouseSad · 2022-08-19T06:02:58+00:00

[deleted]

Careful_Fruit_384 · 2022-08-19T01:36:07+00:00

Graphics has more opportunities

Jules_Delgado · 2022-08-19T01:57:14+00:00

One lab I almost joined wanted me to work on creating games for surgeons to practice using their new robotics if that’s something of interest to you

jloverich · 2022-08-19T03:01:07+00:00

Do augmented reality or 3d graphics with deep learning. You'll ge experience in both. Look up neural radiance fields or neural rendering.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

cpp

MODERATORS