BP Center for Visualization to Open in June 2001, continued

The Immersive Visualization Environment (IVE) transforms numeric data into colorful three-dimensional images.

The Departments of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Computer Science are co-hosting the new center to develop visualization technology for a variety of research and educational applications. While the initial priority will be to extend the technology even further for oil and gas uses, the aerospace faculty are interested in using the IVE to further understand air flow dynamics over the body of an airplane and to envision on-orbit space vehicle assembly and spacecraft repair. Computer scientists are interested in 3-D user interfaces and large visualization environments and want to apply 3-D visualization to liberal arts and sciences use through CU's Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society program.

Immersive visualization technology has the potential to be applied to a wide variety of disciplines, including agriculture and forestry, health sciences, military strategy, atmospheric and environmental sciences, and even lunar and Mars exploration.

The BP gift also provided for a 10x10x10-foot, fixed-wall IVE to be installed at CU's Health Sciences Center at Fitzsimons. Researchers at the Center for Human Simulation have developed related technology allowing medical students to work on virtual cadavers. Medical faculty at the Health Sciences Center envision the training (and certifying) of medical students in medical procedures and emergency room training scenarios using the IVE as a virtual reality simulator.

A workbench-size immersive visualization system will be set up in the engineering college's new Discovery Learning Center to introduce faculty, students, and visitors to the possibilities of this new research, education, and application tool.

Engineering Professor George Morgenthaler, who was the principal investigator on the university's proposal for the center, and Dr. Geoffrey Dorn are leading the center's establishment. Dr. Dorn was the guiding expert who developed ARCO's immersive visualization equipment, and he has brought to CU most of ARCO's leading visualization experts.