Visualization & Research Computing
Recent intiatives through Virginia Tech IT and Research Computing
are focusing on adoption of supercomputing and visual analysis tools.
Through educational and support services, The Visual Computing Group
will boost access and adoption of cutting-edge tools that integrate with
researchers' data, questions, and workflows. Access to data is
paramount for an effective coupling of centralized resources such as
System X and distributed researchers. Therefore, the group is also
focusing on the development of software infrastructures that support a
variety of domains and use-cases. This includes webservices tools for
data translation, manipulation, and visualization.
From the desktop to stereo walls to the CAVE, integrated information
spaces can aid scientists' discovery and communication - interactive
visual analysis enables users to apprehend non-obvious information and
relationships. For example in many dynamic systems, structure and
function are related. In order to understand these systems then,
spatial, abstract, and temporal information must be available
concurrently and on demand. Information-Rich Virtual Environments
(IRVEs) address this problem of effectively delivering heterogeneous
information to multiple platforms.
Still, the visualizations chosen and value of immersion also varies
to the research question being asked; the Visual Computing Group
provides the necessary expertise to leverage the latest technolgies and
University resources. Members of the Visual Computing Group actively
participate in the development of International Standards for networked
3D graphics and visualization systems (e.g. Web3D Consortium, ISO, W3C,
DICOM, Open Geospatial Consortium).
Visual Computing Group connects researchers and their data through:
- Deployment of visualization tools for various domains
- Development of software suites and tools
- Consulting and HCI evaluation
- Development of grant proposals
Visualization Systems & Resources
The VT ARC Conference Room in Room 119 for the Andrews Information Systems building
has been outfitted with a high-powered
stereo graphics wall, which will
give researchers and visitors unique views and insight into their data.
The stereo wall is a high-resolution polarized projection system - the
the viz3D system by CyViz. The Linux/Windows workstation will drive it
and through its software suite will provide interactive large-scale
visualization to Research Computing users.
An SGI Prism, named Spectra, will serve as a web portal to the high performance computing systems, and provide both data
transformation and rendering capabilities. The service can run interactive rendering services, as well as transform data for
downloading to render on a local system. The goal of this service is to lower the barriers to adoption and so increase the use of
modern visualization science tools.
Visualization Links
Here are some links describing visualization resources:
Visualization Documentation
Here are some documents to help you get started using the visualization resources available at Virginia Tech:
Visualization Events
Jan-Apr, 2008 in Blacksburg, VA
FDI Visualization Training
Spring Track W - Visualization and Research Computing: Deep Media for Research and Education (Seven short Courses)
March 8-12, 2008 in Reno, Nevada
IEEE VR
Summer, 2008 in Blacksburg, VA
FDI Visualization Training
Summer Track W - Visualization and Research Computing: Deep Media for Research and Education
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