Name: Matt Yan

Major: Bachelors of Science in Computer Science in Real-time Interactive Simulation

Noteable Projects: "Shipped" 4 custom games during my 4 years at school. Game engines were built from scratch. Team sizes ranged from 4 to 15 people.

Things you got involved in at school:
    -Mentoring underclassmen
    -head of graphics-engine club

Internships/Jobs:
    -Taught as programming instructor for junior-high/high-school for 5 years
    -Interned at Blizzard as graphics engineer on the engine-team for WoW

What I learned in my sparetime:
    -Graphics APIs
        -OpenGL
        -DirectX 11
        -DirectX 12

    -Graphics techniques
        -Ambient occlusion
        -depth of field
        -cel-shading
        -edge detection
        -post-processing
        -high-dynamic range with tone-mapping
        -Physically-based rendering

    -Studying other graphics stuff
        -Reading research whitepapers on graphics techniques
        -Watch GDC talks on graphics stuff
        -Read graphics blogs
        -Talking to other graphics programmers at DigiPen

    -ALL THE GRAPHICS IN THE WORLD

    -Programming in general! I worked with a ton of topics; some examples...
        -multi-threading
        -networking with TCP/UDP
        -Writing a compiler
        -other languages
            -C#
            -Java
            -Python

What I found most challenging:
    -About being a graphics engineer
        -Debugging black screens... When nothing is working at all, you feel like you're going crazy sometimes!
        -Math! For graphics, we take from physics, probability, calculus, number theory, linear algebra, the list goes on and on. Math isn't my strongest point overall, took a lot of work to get proficient.

    -School
        -balance! trying to balance relationships, classes, homework, and game when I'm taking 20 credits at a time was insanity. Very, very glad I'm done.

What I think is most important to learn to do what you do:
    -You HAVE to know linear algebra really well
    -Good understanding of pretty much all math is important for understanding some of the more complicated graphics features.
    -Understanding how the CPU/GPU works at the hardware level helps with implementing features, understanding performance problems, debugging issues, identifying problems, the list goes on and on.

Something you wish you had known when you were a freshman:
    -Don't be so serious! I was super uptight and nervous about creating a super high-polished, fun game. The whole thing is a learning process, take the time to learn things properly, don't just rush to finish stuff.

Best advice to everyone:
    -To people interested in graphics:
        -Find a mentor. Someone who knows what they're doing. It can be an incredibly hard path to get started on, being able to just get help starting out will make it so much easier! (it initially took me over 14 hours to get a single triangle to render on the screen)

    -To anyone who wants to get into video games:
        -Find your niche. Find the thing that gets you excited. Assuming you reach the point when you want to start applying to places, you need to make yourself stand out. Anyone can be sort-of good at something, it takes skill, practice, and dedication to become proficient.

    -TO EVERYONE EVER: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NETWORK. NETWORK YOUR LITTLE HEARTS OUT. It is much, much, much, MUCH easier to get into the industry if you know someone.

Bonus question: Why did I pick graphics?
    -I looked at several different fields, physics programming, network programming, but graphics is always brought up first, so I wanted credit for making games look pretty ;)

    The more I learned about graphics, the more I was interested in the logic, algorithms, techniques, and now I enjoy it for much less narcissistic reasons :D