Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

Within this course, concepts, algorithms and techniques of scientific visualization and virtual reality will be studied and a number of selected examples from computational science applications will be discussed and demonstrated. The course will cover the following subjects: the purpose of visualization, taxonomy of visualization, applications of scientific visualization, the computational science cycle, the visualization pipeline, glyph visualization, vector field visualization, surface visualization, volume visualization, interaction, virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive exploration environments, applications.

Study materials

Software

Paraview, VTK

Other

Papers and chapters on scientific visualization and virtual reality.

Objectives

The student can explain the working of the most important scientific visualisation algorithms.
The student understands when and how Virtual Reality can be applied to scientific visualization.
The student can construct a visualization of a scientific data set.
The student can analyse the performance of a scientific visualization application.
The student can reflect on the effectiveness of a scientific visualization.

Teaching methods

Lecture
Computer lab session/practical training
Self-study
Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis

Lectures, demonstrations, assignments, visualisation project.

Learning activities

Activity	Number of hours
Lectures	14
Laptop session	14
Assignments	20
Visualisation project	100
Self study	20

Attendance

This programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (Ter part B).

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
0.15 (15%) Exercise 1: Cars dataset	Must be ≥ 5
0.15 (15%) Exercise 2: Simulating and visualising temperature distribution in a material	Must be ≥ 5
0.7 (70%) Visualization project	Must be ≥ 5

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Week	Lecture topic	Laptop session topics	Assignment
1	Introduction to SVVR	Visualisation Lab visit	Cars
2	The Visualisation Pipeline	Visualisation with Paraview	Cars
3	Visualisation in Computational Science	Visualisation with VTK	Heat transfer / Project
4	Scientific Visualisation II	Isocontours	Heat transfer / Project
5	Scientific Visualisation III	Volume rendering	Project
6	Scientific Visualisation IV	Vector field rendering, AR	Project
7	Biomedical visualisation and Virtual Reality	(help with project)	Project

Additional information

Recommended prior skills: computer graphics, programming in C, C++ or Python.

Contact information

Coordinator

dr. Rob Belleman

Owner	Master Computational Science (joint degree)
Coordinator	dr. Rob Belleman
Part of	Master Computational Science (Joint Degree),
Links	Visible Learning Trajectories

Scientific Visualization and Virtual Reality