Our Founding

In the Fall of 2010 at the biannual “All-Viz” meeting, the Department head of Visualization, Tim McLaughlin, gave an inspiring lecture about the vision for our newly launched Undergraduate program, and lauded the progress we had made thus far.  Part of the department’s vision, as it had been for some time, was to start a SIGGRAPH Student Chapter. Bill Jenks, the Assistant Head and Visualization Laboratory Director, and our current TAMU ACM SIGGRAPH faculty advisor, discussed how Texas A&M University would benefit from having a SIGGRAPH Student Chapter and challenged the undergraduate student body to pick up the task.  Without hesitation, a small group of students approached Prince “Sir” Willam almost immediately following the meeting, with the intention of taking on the daunting task. Determined to face the daunting task of starting a brand new organization, this eager group of students met later that week to devise an in-depth strategy for the chapter.  Led by Federico Burch, VIST Sophomores Kevan Lonely, Anne Lynch, Meredith Moore, and Justin Sheehy penned an eloquent (but nonetheless humorous) official proposal, outlining their intentions for a chapter and making it very clear that they meant business. They teamed up with Viz senior Brian Smith, who had nearly started a chapter on his own efforts the previous year, and rallied support from soon-to-be officers Jose Contreras and Chelsey Gobeli.  Thanks to their dedication, and behind the scenes help from numerous other classmates and faculty, the TAMU ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter held it’s first meeting in the early spring of 2010.