Before the internship, I never expected computer graphics to be so heavily intertwined with complex mathematical algorithms and concepts. I was unaware of the different file formats and how they translated into images, and also didn’t know about different methods of rendering, such as rasterization and ray tracing. In the next 5-10 years, I expect real time ray tracing to become the standard in modern AAA video game titles, as newer and faster cards will be created and more companies and game developers will integrate this technology into their products. I also foresee new accelerating structures being conceptualized and used in newer programs. I believe that computer graphics is a vast field that has many interesting job and graduate thesis prospects. I have already seen and heard about a variety of PhD theses from the students I worked alongside in the graphics lab, and I would be interested in pursuing any of those projects.

My knowledge of computer graphics and image rendering prior to the internship was limited. I saw computer graphics/rendering as simply creating images on a computer. What I did not realize was that one can use code to do so and that there were different methods of rendering that I had never heard of. I think ray tracing will be widely used in the next 5-10 years. As newer and faster graphics cards become more accessible, ray tracing will become more applicable and useful in many different fields. As far as what I want to do following this internship, I have a couple ideas. I have considered going to many colleges, both in state and out of state. For my major and what I want to study I take an interest in both computer science/graphics and pharmaceutical research and development. I have not made up my mind yet about which one exactly I want to pursue or if I want to pursue both. The path I take at this point is still, to some degree, up in the air. But in the future, I would like to work as either a researcher in the development of new medicines or a software developer.