Read the full press release on the Calit2 website.

New Saudi University Opens Its Doors -- and Stunning Visualization Facilities

Display and VR Systems Developed at Calit2 UC San Diego Get High Marks

San Diego and Jeddah, Sept. 25, 2009 -- In inaugural ceremonies webcast around the world, Saudi Arabia inaugurated the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) on Sept. 23. The campus on the Red Sea was built in just 24 months, and its world-class facilities and programs are funded by the King's $10 billion endowment -- one of the largest in the world, and enough to fund the university for years to come.

Those facilities include Shaheen, the region's fastest supercomputer, as well as what is being billed as the world's most advanced facilities for scientific visualization.

The display systems for the Visualization Laboratory Showcase were developed and fully prototyped earlier this year in the KAUST-funded VirtuLab at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California, San Diego and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago . A 10-person team from Calit2 and EVL spent much of the last two months in Saudi Arabia working with the KAUST visualization team as the facilities were constructed, tested and finally displayed to the media and guests this week.

Read the full press release on the Calit2 website.