NVISION 08 Day 2 kicked off with an opening keynote by NVIDIA's Rob Csongor who is their Corporate Marketing Director. Rob welcomed the audience to the second day of NVIDIA's Visual Computing Show.
NVIDIA Corporate Marketing Director Rob Csongor
Rob announced that the Day 2 keynote would be hosted by local Bay Area Tech Reporter and celebrity Scott Budman of NBC 11. Scott has been hosting a Tech show in the Bay Area for eleven years and has received several journalism awards.
Scott Budman of NBC 11
The first guest of the day was former NASA Astronaut and Commander Eileen Collins. Eileen has logged over 872 hours in space as well as and became the first female astronaut to command a space mission. She still works for NASA, but in a reduced capacity since her retirement from space exploration in 2005. Eileen stated that without the advancement of technology and the graphical programs associated with exploring space, it would be extremely difficult to achieve what the space program has accomplished today.
NASA Astronaut Eileen Collins
Some of the programs that allowed NASA to explore Mars were introduced along with how NASA was able to discover ice on Mars. Eileen also encouraged everyone in the audience, from developers to gamers, to keep up the good work because technology is always needed - especially if we are hopeful for a return to the Moon within the next decade.
The next speaker was Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systems, which is a company that is dedicated to empowering users to create, share and experience in 3D. Bernard offered his analysis on the current state of visual computing technology as well as what might be in store for the future.
Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systèmes
He also described how the Internet will become host to the next wave of 3D visualization and demonstrated how future designs are changing to become more collaborative.
Scott then introduced Lorne Lanning, Film Director and Founder of Oddworld. Lorne discussed several of his upcoming movie and TV projects and offered his opinion on the state of visual computing.
Lorne Lanning, Film Director and Founder of Oddworld
Lorne foresees visual computing technology as a way to give individuals the ability to create their own art and entertainment. He also noted that video game engines are being used to create films and thus making them more relevant to our lives.
The final speaker of the Day 2 keynote was NASCAR driver sensation Kyle Busch. Just to get the opportunity to meet him made the tip to NVISION 08 a worthwhile event. It was interesting to see that most of the crowd was international and who are we kidding as NASCAR for the most part is a popular American sport. This is not to say that Kyle didn't receive a large ovation, but when autograph signing came around, DaveC and myself got to the San Jose Convention Center right around the time the session started and were first in line!
NASCAR's Kyle Busch
The reason I noted this was because during Day 3 when the Mythbusters were signing autographs, we rolled up 15 minutes early and were around 75th in line. Go figure.
Kyle Busch Races
Nonetheless, Kyle Busch's take on visual computing was interesting as the keynote ended with him playing a total NASCAR simulation game on the stage. After the keynote, DaveC and I rushed over to the Convention Center to get Kyle's autograph. It was nothing more than a shake of the hand and autograph, but it was still an awesome experience. After taking a few pictures, we were ready to check out the vendor booths.
EVGA's Jacob Freeman
Our first visit was to the EVGA booth, where none other than Jacob Freeman was hanging out. EVGA happened to be using refrigerated liquid nitrogen to cool the CPU on their test system, which was demonstrating a variety of applications. EVGA gave away some slick prizes and they also conducted a game, in which the player had to guess the 3D Mark score.
SteveC with XFX Girls
Other vendors we visited included Albatron, ASUS, ELSA, Foxconn, GIGABYTE, MSI, PNY, and XFX. Of course I had to get a picture with the beautiful XFX girls. We missed out on visiting Palit and Zotac and I'm still kicking myself for not visiting the Zotac girls and snapping a picture with them!
DaveC at Albatron's Booth
We also sat in on several CUDA and PhysX conferences while absorbing as much info as possible, because let's be honest, CUDA and PhysX technologies are here to stay. Other highlights included a visit to the case mod competition.
Custom Cases
If you did not see the pics of the cases, you definitely missed out as there were some awesome designs! With so much going on it was hard to hit up everything we wanted too. And that concludes our summary of Day 2 of NVISION 08.
The official web site for NVISION 08 can be found here.
