The SAGE Development Team at the Laboratory for Advanced Visualization &amp; Applications (LAVA) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago recently received one-year supplemental funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to their SAGE2 award, in the amount of $527,000, to focus on SAGE2 cybersecurity. The diversity and distributed nature of the SAGE2 user base provides a growing set of security concerns. Identity and access management procedures, in particular, provide unique challenges, given the variety of institutions using SAGE2 to collaborate using display walls. 
In July 2018, the SAGE2 Team began working with Trusted CI, the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, to develop an Engagement Plan that outlines the scope of a 6-month timeline for the engagement, followed by 6 months of implementation. Trusted CI is helping outline Identity and Access Management (IAM) procedures appropriate for SAGE2&rsquo;s distributed user base. For example, SAGE2 needs to identify and provide access to local and remote sites involved in a collaboration as well as the users at those sites; such as: who is allowed to collaborate, are they allowed to share information or simply read it, and are they allowed to download information, etc. A secondary goal of the engagement, time permitting, is to determine if there are any unidentified high-priority cybersecurity needs revealed during the fact-finding stage that the SAGE2 Team should pursue; such as: securing the web server, securing documents that are shared, etc. 
<a href="http://blog.trustedci.org/search?updated-max=2018-08-02T11:59:00-04:00&max-results=7">Trusted CI Blog</a>

SAGE2 Team Engaging with the Trusted CI Center on SAGE2 Cybersecurity

JUNE 3, 2020 - While medical personnel and engineers apply their brains to finding cures and vaccines for COVID-19, it&rsquo;s computers that apply their brawn to crunch the numbers and run the simulations that empower researchers&rsquo; insights and discoveries. Given the computing power available at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the Lab recently began providing access to its excess computing capacity to the Folding@home (FAH) project, a crowd-sourced, distributed &ldquo;supercomputer&rdquo; that supports open-science research at labs and startups studying protein folding in structure-based drug design. To date, the FAH website lists &rsquo;Team EVL&rsquo; in the Top 400 of over 250,000 teams (groups of individuals and/or institutions) that support this effort with resources. 
Viruses have proteins that they use to suppress our immune systems and reproduce themselves, so to design therapeutics to stop them, researchers need to understand how these viral proteins work. FAH specializes in computer simulations of protein folding, so researchers can see and understand proteins&rsquo; moving parts, thereby gaining more insight than viewing a static snapshot of a protein&rsquo;s shape. 
With the recent rush to discover COVID-19 treatment therapies, FAH suddenly went from 30,000 users running software applications in February to 400,000 in March - and another 300,000 users in April. FAH&rsquo;s compute engines and data servers became overloaded until March, when chip manufacturer Nvidia began donating processing power and emailing and tweeting others to participate. 
According to an article in the Ars Technica e-zine, by April, FAH&rsquo;s computer processing (CPU) and graphical processing (GPU) power zoomed to a peak performance of 1.5 ExaFLOPs, making it more than seven times faster than the world&rsquo;s fastest supercomputer, Summit, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. FAH partitions massive application and simulation codes into very small jobs that it distributes to individual computers for execution. For individuals and/or teams providing resources, they can specify whether a distributed application runs when their PC is idle or runs in background mode when their PC is being used. 
As of June 3, 2020, &rsquo;Team EVL&rsquo; ranked 337 out of over 253,786 teams who were providing resources and completed over 23,678 work units (the time needed to finish a particular process, which varies based on the algorithms being run). Team EVL was conceived by Arthur Nishimoto, a UIC Computer Science PhD student and EVL research assistant, who initially provided FAH with access to his personal computer at home. However, as most people are now working on their laptops from home to reduce the spread of the disease, EVL&rsquo;s large computer systems have been under-utilized. So, Nishimoto approached EVL research staff member Lance Long about providing FAH with access to the Lab&rsquo;s CAVE2 cluster and COMPaaS Deep Learning & Visualization system. Long agreed, enabling EVL to play a small but significant role in helping scientists tackle the coronavirus while we shelter at home. It&rsquo;s not the first time Long has supported citizen science projects; he also provides access to EVL computing resources to NSF/DOE Open Science Grid researchers to process and analyze data from NSF&rsquo;s IceCube Neutrino Observatory located in Antarctica - but that is another story! 
Life after COVID-19? FAH started almost 20 years ago, but continues today, dedicated to understanding protein folding, the diseases that result from protein misfolding and aggregation (which include Alzheimer&rsquo;s, Huntington&rsquo;s, cystic fibrosis, BSE [Mad Cow disease], an inherited form of emphysema, and many cancers), and novel computational ways to develop new drugs in general. It is is reliant on the simulations run on volunteers&rsquo; personal computers, so a cause EVL will most likely continue to support. 
By <a href="mailto:maxine@uic.edu">Maxine Brown</a>, UIC/EVL 
# # # # 
REFERENCES 
Folding@home: <a href="https://foldingathome.org/">https://foldingathome.org/</a> 
Folding@home Team Statistics: <a href="https://foldingathome.org/statistics/">https://foldingathome.org/statistics/</a> 
Folding@home EVL Team Statistics: <a href="https://stats.foldingathome.org/team/263148">https://stats.foldingathome.org/team/263148</a> 
Nvidia: <a href="https://ngc.nvidia.com/catalog/containers/hpc:foldingathome:fah-gpu?ncid=em-targ-21378">https://ngc.nvidia.com/catalog/containers/hpc:foldingathome:fah-gpu?ncid=em-targ-21378</a> 
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home</a> 
Andy Patrizio, &ldquo;The coronavirus pandemic turned Folding@Home into an exaFLOP supercomputer,&rdquo; Ars Technika, April 14, 2020, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/how-the-pandemic-revived-a-distributed-computing-project-and-made-history/">https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/how-the-pandemic-revived-a-distributed-computing-project-and-made-history/</a>

UIC EVL Supports Open-Science Folding@home COVID-19 Research with Computing Resources

The Chicago 0,0 Riverwal AR experience provides a novel, interactive way for users to explore historical photographs sourced from museum archives. As users walk along the Chicago River, they are instructed to use their smartphone or tablet to view these photographs alongside the current views of the city. By matching location and view orientation the Riverwalk application creates an illusion of &ldquo;then and now&rdquo; co-extant. This superimposition of the historical photographer&rsquo;s view and the user view is the basis of educational engagement for the user and a key factor in curating the images and the narrative surrounding them, facilitating a meaningful museum experience in a public, outdoor context. 
As such, creating the AR experience involves a complex back-and-forth between 3D and 2D experiences of locations: the historical
images are 2D, taken from specific locations through specific optics and views; the user, present at the real-world 3D location is
orienting their own camera and 2D phone video screen in space in order to achieve the AR experience and illusion; and the ultimate experience of superimposition is one of seeing two integrated views simultaneously: the stream of data taken from a smartphone&rsquo; camera and the historic image. The site-specific nature of the publication makes it necessary to utilize a virtual 3D environment in which to place 2D augmented content that enhances the experience. This content needs to be placed in such a way so that the designer can accurately visualize what the user will see on screen from a particular location. 
The first episode of the Riverwalk AR experience focuses on a single block between N. LaSalle and Clark Streets; the site of
the Eastland Disaster in 1915. The site was selected because of the importance of this historical event - the sinking of the Eastland
cruise ship 100 years ago was the largest single loss of life in Chicago’s history - and because of the abundant media available
in the archive including extensive photographic documentation, newspapers and film reels. Moreover, the site potentially offers
natural way, finding characteristics that are amenable to developing our project, including a newly built pedestrian walkway along
the river with viewing platforms, views from pedestrian walks along the bridges, and historical markers. Additionally, the urban environment offers many features providing sufficient quality for robustly tracking user location based on their cameras from a variety of views and positions. This is a typical scenario in the creation of public outdoor AR experiences; the quality of content and narrative are the primary motivations for their creation.

Riverwalk: Incorporating Historical Photographs in Public Outdoor Augmented Reality Experiences

Alessandro Febretti presents his PhD research in developing a model of an operating system for Hybrid Reality Environments, called Omegalib. 
Friday, March 3, 2017, 2pm 
EVL Cybercommons - 2068 ERF 
Committee: Andrew E. Johnson (Chair), Robert B. Kenyon, Luc Renambot, Leilah B. Lyons, Michael E. Papka (Argonne National Lab) 
Abstract: 
In the domain of large-scale visualization instruments, Hybrid Reality Environments (HREs) are a recent innovation that combines the best-in-class capabilities of immersive environments, with the best-in-class capabilities of ultra-high-resolution display walls. HREs create a seamless 2D/3D environment that supports both information-rich analysis as well as virtual-reality simulation exploration at a resolution matching human visual acuity. Collaborative research groups in HREs tend to work on a variety of tasks during a research session (sometimes in parallel), and these tasks require 2D data views, 3D views, linking between them, and the ability to bring in (or hide) data quickly as needed. Addressing these needs requires a matching software infrastructure that fully leverages the technological affordances offered by these new instruments. 
In this dissertation, I detail the requirements of such infrastructure and outline the model of an operating system for Hybrid Reality Environments. I present an implementation of core components of this model, called Omegalib. I show how this implementation has been successfully used to create HRE visualizations for research, education and outreach. One key feature of Omegalib is its ability to support multiple applications running simultaneously on an HRE. This is a significant improvement compared to classic immersive systems, which normally support a single application at a time. HREs (and large displays in general) are ideal systems to support co-located collaboration, and the ability to run and control multi-application workspaces is key to effective work in this setting. However, enabling multiple immersive applications on a large display presents several challenges. I discuss my solution to these challenges and present an extension of Omegalib that supports fully dynamic, multi-view, multi-user immersion. I evaluate this new system, which I call Multiview Immersion (MVI) in a formal user study: two-user groups are asked to compare 3D sonar scans using MVI, single-view immersion and multiple views without immersion (simulating a standard display wall). My objective is understanding the effect of MVI on analysis effectiveness, view usage and collaboration patterns compared to alternatives. MVI appears to reduce analysis error rates for our sample task and makes it more likely for both users to remain engaged with the analysis task.

PhD Defense Announcement: &ldquo;Multiview Immersion in Hybrid Reality Environments&rdquo;

September 14, 2017 - This year, UIC Computer Science (CS) PhD student and Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) research assistant Arthur Nishimoto received Honorable Mention for his &ldquo;Under the Virtual Ice&rdquo; image in the campus&rsquo;s 2017 Image of Research competition. This is the 10th anniversary of the interdisciplinary exhibit competition, and is organized by the UIC Graduate College and University Library to showcase the breadth and diversity of research at UIC. 
&ldquo;Under the Virtual Ice&rdquo; demonstrates how Nishimoto&rsquo;s research, under the supervision of CS associate professor and EVL director for research Andy Johnson, enables scientists to use a virtual-reality head-mounted display to visually and interactively explore data that has been collected under the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Funded by NASA, the SIMPLE project (Sub-ice Investigation of Marine and Planetary-analog Ecosystems) deployed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) whose sensors collected biogeochemical data of the water&rsquo;s composition and photographed the underside the ice surface, and used sonar data to map the underside of the ice surface. More specifically, this photo shows the user holding a wand controller that enables him to virtually swim through the Ross Sea, follow the yellow path of the AUV, and view salinity, pressure, conductivity, and oxygen concentrations. The goal is to compare measurements of the ice shelf taken from under the ice with measurements taken from above the ice, to improve future mapping missions to Jupiter&rsquo;s ice-covered moon Europa, and eventually send an AUV under that ice to search for life. SIMPLE is a collaboration of UIC, Stone Aerospace, Georgia Tech, Louisiana State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, San Jose State, University of Texas at Austin, and Montana State University. 
An awards reception featuring the winners and the finalists for this year&rsquo;s 10th Anniversary exhibition will take place at the UIC Gallery 400 on October 24, 2017, from 4:00 - 6:00pm. Some of the winning entries from the past decade will also be on display. 
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/ior10">RSVP</a> 
All winning entries will be on exhibit at the UIC Daley Library (October 11, 2017 - January 31, 2018) and in the Library of Health Sciences, and will be featured on light pole banners around campus. Winners, finalists and a wide selection of other entries received for each year&rsquo;s competition will also be posted to an online gallery run by the <a href="http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/uic_ior">Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI).</a> 
For information on the 2017 awards, as well as a list of all exhibition winners and finalists from the competition&rsquo;s inception, see: 
<a href="http://grad.uic.edu/image-research-exhibit">General information and list of winners over the years</a> 
<a href="http://grad.uic.edu/ior-results/2017">2017 winning entries</a> 
It should be noted that Image of Research judges used EVL&rsquo;s largest tiled display system, the CAVE2 hybrid reality environment, and EVL&rsquo;s windowing software SAGE2, to display all the submissions at once for easy comparison and grouping. 
# # # 
EVL students have participated in and received recognition in previous Image of Research competitions. Here is a summary of all EVL accomplishments to date: 
2016: 1st Place - &ldquo;SpiderSense,&rdquo; Victor Mateevitsi; Honorable Mention - &ldquo;Into the (Virtual) Jungle,&rdquo; Jillian Aurisano and James Hwang 
2014: Honorable Mention - &ldquo;Getting in Touch with the Data,&rdquo; Arthur Nishimoto 
2013: 1st Place - &ldquo;Threshold,&rdquo; Joshua Albers; 2nd place - &ldquo;A Nanoscale Forest Seen Through a Big Lens,&rdquo; Khairi Reda; Finalist - &ldquo;SpiderSense,&rdquo; Victor Mateevitsi, Brad Haggadone, Brian Kunzer 
2012: 1st Place - &ldquo;Artificially created cortical functional blood unit,&rdquo; Thomas Marrinan, Ian Gould 
2011: Honorable Mention - &ldquo;20 Foot Canvas&rdquo;, JD Pirtle, Arthur Nishimoto, Karan Chakrapani, Todd Silvia, and Philip Pilosi; Finalist - &ldquo;Cli-Mate,&rdquo; Ed Kahler 
2010: 1st Place - &ldquo;Avatar - A Virtual Human,&rdquo; Sangyoon Lee 
2009: Honorable Mention - &ldquo;The Viewer,&rdquo; Julio Obelleiro; Finalist - &ldquo;The Tight Room,&rdquo; Heejoo Kim 
2008: 1st Place - &ldquo;Infinity Gliders,&rdquo; AnnMarie Cernoch; 3rd Place - &ldquo;Rain on Mars,&rdquo; Dmitri Svistula

UIC/EVL Student Recognized in 2017 UIC Image of Research Competition

This year, UIC Computer Science (CS) PhD student and Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) research assistant Victor Mateevitsi received 1st Place for his &ldquo;SpiderSense&rdquo; image in the campus&rsquo;s 2016 Image of Research competition. In addition, an Honorable Mention was earned by CS PhD student and EVL research assistant Jillian Aurisano and CS undergraduate and EVL Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) student James Hwang for their &ldquo;Into the (Virtual) Jungle&rdquo; image. 
&ldquo;SpiderSense&rdquo; explores how technologies can augment and enhance humans and human interactions, an area of research termed Human Augmentics. The winning image shows Victor assembling SpiderSense, a wearable haptic jacket that allows wearers to feel the environment on their own body. The jacket consists of 12 sensors that scan the environment using echolocation; as the wearer approaches an obstacle, the intensity of the haptic vibration increases and/or decreases as he gets closer or further away. Victor, who is completing his PhD with CS associate professor Andrew Johnson, had to learn to sew, combining textiles with electronics, and to study how to communicate messages through the skin. This technology can be life changing for the blind, as they could now &ldquo;see&rdquo; through their own skin. Future applications include firefighters, policemen and soldiers. 
&ldquo;Into the (Virtual) Jungle&rdquo; transforms maps, aerial photography, LIDAR data and elevation data of Barro Colorado Island, a research habitat in Panama, into a virtual world, on which it superimposes tracked animal movements, enabling anthropologist Meg Crofoot (UCDavis) and computer scientist Tanya Berger-Wolf (UIC CS) to explore how virtual reality might help animal behavior researchers view, explore and step inside their data. This technology will enable collaborators to stand on the ground, leap through the trees or fly above the canopy to observe how tracked animals forage for food. This winning image shows the GPS locations of one capuchin monkey, visualized as spheres colored on a blue-orange gradient by time of day, to show how often he visits pink-hued fruit trees in the canopy. REU support for Hwang is provided by the NSF Award SENSEI (Sensor Environment Imaging Instrument), EVL director Maxine Brown, principal investigator. 
Winning entries will be displayed in the lobby of the Daley Library from October 11 through January 31. The winning entries will also be on exhibit at the Library of Health Sciences and on banners around campus. For information on the 2016 awards as well as a list of all exhibition winners and finalists from the competition&rsquo;s inception, see: 
<a href="http://grad.uic.edu/image-research-exhibit">http://grad.uic.edu/image-research-exhibit</a> 
<a href="http://grad.uic.edu/ior-results/2016">http://grad.uic.edu/ior-results/2016 (2016 Winners and Finalists)</a> 
It should be noted that Image of Research judges used EVL&rsquo;s largest tiled display system, the CAVE2 hybrid reality environment, to display all the submissions at once in high resolution for easy comparison and grouping. 
# # # 
EVL students have participated in and received recognition in previous Image of Research competitions. Here is a summary of all EVL accomplishments to date: 
2014: Honorable Mention - &ldquo;Getting in Touch with the Data,&rdquo; Arthur Nishimoto 
2013: 1st Place - &ldquo;Threshold,&rdquo; Joshua Albers; 2nd place - &ldquo;A Nanoscale Forest Seen Through a Big Lens,&rdquo; Khairi Reda; Finalist - &ldquo;SpiderSense,&rdquo; Victor Mateevitsi, Brad Haggadone, Brian Kunzer 
2012: 1st Place - &ldquo;Artificially created cortical functional blood unit,&rdquo; Thomas Marrinan, Ian Gould 
2011: Honorable Mention - &ldquo;20 Foot Canvas,&rdquo; JD Pirtle, Arthur Nishimoto, Karan Chakrapani, Todd Silvia, and Philip Pilosi; Finalist - &ldquo;Cli-Mate,&rdquo; Ed Kahler 
2010: 1st Place - &ldquo;Avatar - A Virtual Human,&rdquo; Sangyoon Lee 
2009: Honorable Mention - &ldquo;The Viewer,&rdquo; Julio Obelleiro; Finalist - &ldquo;The Tight Room,&rdquo; Heejoo Kim 
2008: 1st Place - &ldquo;Infinity Gliders,&rdquo; AnnMarie Cernoch; 3rd Place - &ldquo;Rain on Mars,&rdquo; Dmitri Svistula 
# # #

UIC/EVL Students Recognized in 2016 UIC Image of Research Competition

Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project is a 3D narrative experience made for the effective sensory environment of the EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2&trade; that gives voice to stories of violence and the post-traumatic stress experienced by ordinary American soldiers who became torturers in the course of serving their country. During the American-led counterinsurgency and counterterrorism campaigns in Iraq in the years after September 11, 2001, the torture and abuse of detainees was a commonplace tactic. Hearts and Minds: the Interrogations Project is based on interviews of American soldiers conducted by Dr. John Tsukayama. Viewers travel through the domestic spaces and surreal interior landscapes of soldiers who have come home transformed by these experiences, triggering their testimonies by interacting with objects laden with loss. 
Hearts and Minds is developed by a team including filmmaker Roderick Coover, writer Scott Rettberg, artist and visualization researcher Daria Tsoupikova, computer scientist Arthur Nishimoto, sound designer Mark Partridge, production assistant Mark Baratta, and senior research programmer Lance Long. Dr. Jeffrey Stevenson Murer of St. Andrews University, Scotland also contributed as a consultant on the project. EVL, the UIC Department of Art and Design, Temple University, and the Norwegian Research Council supported the development of the project. 
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/274777151" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Video documentation excerpt from Hearts and Minds performance in the CAVE2 virtual environment at the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project

Just as NSF cyberinfrastructure produces greater volumes and varieties of data from data storage systems, online instrumentation and major computational resources like XSEDE and Blue Waters, advanced visualization instruments serve as the &ldquo;lenses&rdquo; of these data generators (similar to the telescopes and microscopes of yore), enabling researchers to peer into cyberspace to manage, access and analyze big data. 
Continuum is a cyberinfrastructure instrument that unifies high-resolution computer-enhanced group collaboration workspaces with arrays of ambient sensors, enabling users to collaborate with local and remote colleagues and their data more effectively by giving the room itself the ability to anticipate their needs, improve their interaction, and focus their time on discovery rather than the technology. Continuum is a digital assistant, benefiting global scientific collaboratories and providing a foundation for new computer science research. War rooms benefit collaboration because they support continuous interaction and awareness of team members, enable persistent information sharing, and encourage mobility among team members and information. A computer-enhanced war room, such as Continuum, which (1) connects distributed teams with their data, whether stored in the cloud or streamed from major computational resources over high-speed networks, (2) supports persistent digital artifacts, (3) enables ultra-high-resolution 2D and 3D stereoscopic digital media to be simultaneously viewed, and (4) supports ubiquitous and intuitive interaction, creates a powerful and easy-to-use information-rich environment in support of scientific discovery. 
Continuum is the culmination of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) 20+ years experience developing interactive instruments, from the original CAVE in 1992, to the ultra-high-resolution LambdaVision tiled LCD wall in 2004, and the hybrid-reality CAVE2 in 2012. Each new generation of visualization instrumentation provided scientific communities with more advanced features Continuum development focuses on three areas: (1) transforming passive display walls that respond to user commands into attentive display walls that monitor the users in a room and anticipate their needs to improve their experience; (2) providing an alternative approach to constructing high-resolution visualization display walls using thin-border 4K passive stereo OLED displays that have impressive brightness, contrast, uniformity, off-axis viewing, and low reflectivity in brightly lit rooms; and (3) utilizing cloud computing to prototype future Continuum spaces that don’t require local high-end compute and display resources. Twelve funded research projects from local institutions, in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biology,
Combustion, Geophysics, Neuroscience, Pathology, Physics, Psychiatry, and High Performance Computing, are poised to use Continuum for their data visualization needs. Continuum will open up new opportunities in computer science research at the intersection of large-scale data visualization, human-computer interaction, and high-speed networking. Continuum will also directly support 10 classes taught in the UIC Computer Science, Art and Design, and Biomedical Science departments.

MRI - Development of Continuum: A Virtualized Attentive Environment for Amplified Collaboration

The University of Illinois System&rsquo;s YouTube channel posted the video &ldquo;Altogether Extraordinary&rdquo; to promote its &ldquo;one system, three universities, endless possibilities&rdquo; in November 2017, as part of the University&rsquo;s Ignite campaign. The video was created by the U of I President&rsquo;s Office and features some of the areas of excellence that its three campuses have to offer. 
Three segments highlighting the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) briefly feature the Computer Science department&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), which is part of the UIC College of Engineering. The segments show Computer Science PhD graduate student Arthur Nishimoto and undergraduate student Isabel Lindmae in EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2 Hybrid Reality Environment, navigating through connectome data provided by the UIC Psychiatry department. 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MDHMTl0gMcM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

U of I System&rsquo;s &ldquo;Altogether Extraordinary&rdquo; Video Highlights UIC and EVL

This application uses EVL&rsquo;s SAGE&trade; software to display both 2D and 3D data in the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment. In a collaborative session, participants can compare and contrast a variety of digital media sources towards better understanding and discovery. The NASA-funded ENDURANCE project (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer) analyzes biogeochemical information captured by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the extreme environment of West Lake Bonney, a perennially ice-covered Antarctic dry valley lake in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica to apply what is learned to planetary science, such as capturing and analyzing information about the water ice surface of Jupiter&rsquo;s moon, Europa. Using the expansive CAVE2 display environment coupled with the ability to simultaneously mash-up a wide range of visual resources using SAGE significantly enhances the collaborative experience.

ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer) (SAGE&trade; Collaboration)

OCTOBER 26, 2017 - Maxine Brown, director of the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), participated in The Higher Education Campus Alliance for Advanced Visualization (THE CAAV) 2nd annual conference, held on the campus of University of Wyoming in Laramie. Brown was invited to give the keynote presentation &ldquo;Insight through Images: Visualization and Collaboration Technologies for Exploring Big Data,&rdquo; which presented an overview of EVL&rsquo;s work with Big Data researchers to develop advanced visualization and collaboration cyberinfrastructure that has Big Displays connected to Big Data Generators (supercomputers, data stores, and sensors) via Big Networks. 
THE CAAV is a volunteer-driven organization and has received support from Mechdyne Corporation. Its purpose is to act as an information resource to worldwide higher education focusing on immersive visualization platforms, advanced video screen formats, advanced visualization software and issues of sustainability and operation for high-tech visualization facilities. Founded in 2015, it currently has 150 members worldwide, represented by a wide variety of teaching and research-oriented higher education institutions, national labs, and colleges. 
More information on the <a href="https://thecaav.wordpress.com/">CAAV organization.</a> 
<a href="https://thecaav.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/the-caav-2017-program.pdf">The CAAV 2017 Conference Program</a>

THE CAAV 2017 Conference Featured Keynote on EVL’&rsquo;s Visualization and Collaboration Technologies

Individuals standing in the CAVE2&trade; System interactively fly through Earth&rsquo;s galaxy to observe constellations from different viewpoints. Data is from the European Space Agency&rsquo;s Tycho-2 catalog, which contains the positions and magnitudes of more than 2.5 million of the brightest stars collected by the star mapper of the Hipparcos satellite. EVL graduate Robert Kooima created this application; his Electro software is being used to display it in the CAVE2.

Constellations

Thursday, June 9, 2016 
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM 
Woman Made Gallery 
685 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 
UIC Computer Science Ph.D. candidate and EVL graduate research assistant, Jillian Aurisano describes her work with bacterial genomics researchers to develop new approaches to visualizing neighborhoods around genes of interest in hundreds of complete bacterial genome sequences. The application she developed, BactoGeNIE aims to be both visually scalable for large collections of genome sequences and to take advantage of large, high-resolution display environments, like tiled-display walls. 
The challenges of bringing a visual perspective to big data problems in science and the new opportunities presented by advanced graphics environments for data visualization in science will be discussed. 
This presentation is part of a seminar series organized by <a href="https://womanmade.org/">Woman Made Gallery</a>, held in conjunction with Woman Made Gallery's CODE/SWITCH + CODE/MIX & Quest exhibitions. 
For more information see <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/141501569586801/">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.meetup.com/chicago-science-field-trips-club/events/231332558/">meetup.com</a>.

Art of Science: Comparative Genomics, Visualization and Big Displays

The growing onslaught of astronomical data available presents a great challenge. Astronomy lacks an easy-to-use and scalable way to collect and distribute expert information about objects from datasets of tens of thousands to billions of individual events and objects. Over the next decade, the amount of information available to the typical astronomer will grow by two orders of magnitude both in raw data size and in the number of objects. This project pursues three research directions, each of which has the potential to transform how astronomers interface with large datasets: 
1) a visual scalable annotation framework to enable linking of observations to specific experiments, models, or other observations; 
(2) a continuous workflow enactment system that would support automated reasoning in the presence of uncertainty; and > 
(3) a computational framework for interactively analyzing astronomical datasets, allowing the construction and testing of hypotheses. 
Project plans include the design and development of a prototype system (AstroShelf) and its evaluation using two timely science programs: 
(a) Using multi-wavelength data from the DEEP3 and AEGIS surveys, develop methods to incorporate images and catalogs from disparate datasets, allowing us to study how the demographics of galaxies have changed over the last 8 billion years. 
(b) Using properties of time-variable events found by the Pan-STARRS survey, develop techniques for rapid classification of transient phenomena, dissemination of their properties, and incorporation of feedback from follow-up observations. 
AstroShelf will include a publicly accessible, flexible annotation system for public datasets, which will also lend itself to outreach efforts involving annotations by the general public. This project\'s significant impact is the ability to share information and expert opinions quickly and widely, about each new observation or event, fundamentally changing our ability to learn about the Universe; such functionality can also be applied in support of other scientific domains.

Astroshelf: Panning and Zooming the Observable Universe

September 2016 - Since graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 1992, Lewis Siegel, a Computer Science (CS) Master of Science student and Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Research Assistant, has amassed an impressive list of technical achievements and film credits in computer graphics techniques, innovations and technologies. 
Siegel appreciates the skills he acquired as a UIC graduate student, and EVL&rsquo;s unique collaborative environment, which prepared him for his career in industry. &ldquo;At EVL,&rdquo; Siegel says, &ldquo;artists and engineers worked together, and what they could accomplish together was far greater than what each discipline could achieve alone. The skills I learned there have served me for the past two and a half decades, including my career at the Walt Disney Animation Studios.&rdquo; 
Upon graduating from UIC, Siegel spent two years as a personal assistant to Dr. Benoit B. Mandelbrot, a mathematician and pioneer of fractal geometry. Mandelbrot, who coined the word &ldquo;fractal&rdquo; and developed a theory of &ldquo;roughness and self-similarity&rdquo; in nature, had already worked with several EVL/CS students, and hired Siegel to assist with his research involving the study and visualization of fractal forms and images. 
Siegel then decided to go back to school, attending the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinema-Television where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree and honed his expertise in computer animation and visual effects (VFX). 
Putting his computer graphics and VFX skills to use, Siegel joined Walt Disney Animation Studios. Now a Technical Director at the studio, he creates computer graphics effects for feature films and theme park rides, and has helped to develop new technology now patented by the studio. 
&ldquo;The Matrix&rdquo; (1999), as well as Walt Disney Animation Studios features &ldquo;Frozen&rdquo; (2013) and &ldquo;Big Hero 6&rdquo; (2014), (both of which won the Oscar&reg; for Best Animated Feature), are several of his most notable film credits. Siegel is also working on Disney Animation’s &ldquo;Moana,&rdquo; which will be in theaters this Thanksgiving. 
He contributed to the production of the original &ldquo;Soarin&rsquo; Over California&rdquo; ride at Disney&rsquo;s California Adventure Theme Park (2000), which takes visitors on a simulated hang-glider tour over California&rsquo;s sensational landscapes to experience a variety of recreation opportunities. 
Many of the skills and techniques Siegel used to develop this ride were acquired at EVL, where he learned to create real-time interactive applications for EVL&rsquo;s CAVE&trade; virtual-reality environment. 
Siegel also presents and publishes his cutting-edge algorithm research and development work, on behalf of Walt Disney Animation Studios, at the annual ACM SIGGRAPH conference. SIGGRAPH is an international professional society focused on computer graphics and interactive techniques. His papers have covered such topics as refraction for fur and other complex objects for the movie &ldquo;Bolt,&rdquo; rendering hair for &ldquo;Tangled&rdquo;, and rendering frost and ice for &ldquo;Frozen.&rdquo; 
He and his Disney team of developers have won many awards. Most recently, Siegel and his colleagues were honored with the Visual Effects Society 2014 Award for &ldquo;Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture&rdquo; (for &ldquo;Frozen&rdquo;). 
He has also received five Disney Inventor Awards, and is the main author on the &ldquo;Rendering of Shadows with a Hand-Painted Appearance&rdquo; (Patent Number US 8,159,499 B2.) 
EVL is proud to have Siegel among its community of prestigious alumni, and we look forward to his future contributions to the entertainment industry and to feature films. 
# # # # 
For Siegel’s complete filmography, see <a href=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796969/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">IMDb</a>. 
For Siegel&rsquo;s SIGGRAPH papers, see: 
<a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1598016">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1598016</a> 
<a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2037850">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2037850</a> 
<a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2614137">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2614137</a> 
# # # #

UIC/EVL Alumnus Lewis Siegel Amasses an Impressive Computer Graphics Resume over Nearly 25 Year Career

Therapeutic games play an increasingly important role in modern healthcare. Games have been used to treat a broad spectrum of individuals, including patients with dementia, stroke, ADHD, cancer, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to name a few. We will survey autism research and evidence-based case studies. This workshop introduces participants to the fundamentals of therapeutic game development with a focus on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental health applications. 
Participants are introduced to scripting and develop a simple mental health game using the popular Unity game engine. They work in teams and are involved in problem-solving discussions to design a game to benefit people with autism. Participants share reflections and discuss how contemporary technologies can inspire novel forms of healthcare. 
An introduction to the basics of coding and scripting, designed for participants with no prior programming experience but an enthusiasm to learn about therapeutic games. 
Date: September 20 (9am-4pm) and September 21 (9am-1pm), 2019 
Location: Discovery Partners Institute, 200 S. Wacker Dr., Chicago 
Lectures and tutorials: 
Maureen Dunne (University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Disability and Human Development) 
Daria Tsoupikova (University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Design, Electronic Visualization Laboratory) 
Sponsor:: Discovery Partners Institute (DPI)

Introduction to Therapeutic Games with Unity 3D

Professors J. Aerts (Leuven University, Belgium), N. Gehlenborg (Harvard), G.E. Marai (UIC), and K. Nieselt (University of Tuebingen, Germany) organized a week-long international meeting on &ldquo;Biological Data Visualization: Crossroads&rdquo; at Dagstuhl, at the Leibniz Center for Informatics, Germany, with support from the German federal and local government. The center hosts invitation-only week-long meetings on cutting-edge/current research topics in computer science. 45 invitees from academia, research labs, industry, bioinformatics, biology and computer science attended the event from April 15-20th. 
Motivation 
The rapidly expanding application of experimental high-throughput and high-resolution methods in biology is creating enormous challenges for the visualization of biological data. To meet these challenges, a large variety of expertise from the visualization, bioinformatics and biology domains is required. These encompass visualization and design knowledge, algorithm design, strong implementation skills for analyzing and visualizing big data, statistical knowledge, and specific domain knowledge for different application problems. 
In particular, it is of increasing importance to develop powerful and integrative visualization methods combined with computational analytical methods. Furthermore, because of the growing relevance of visualization for bioinformatics, teaching visualization should also become part of the bioinformatics curriculum. 
With this Dagstuhl Seminar we want to continue the process of community building across the disciplines of biology, bioinformatics, and visualization. We aim to bring together researchers from the different domains to discuss how to continue the BioVis interdisciplinary dialogue, to foster the development of an international community, to discuss the state-of-the-art and identify areas of research that might benefit from joint efforts of all groups involved. 
 Thus during the seminar we envision to address the following topics: 
<ul><li>Challenges in the integrative and visual analysis of high-dimensional and complex medicine data</li>
<li>Visual analysis of stochastic biological networks</li>
<li>Beyond genomes: visual representations of metagenomes and pangenomes</li>
<li>On the BioVis crossroads: Continued collaborations between the visualization and bioinformatics communities</li>
<li>Designing a curriculum for teaching visualization in bioinformatics</li></ul> 
While emphasis of topics is put on different, highly challenging problems in biology, it is also envisioned to identify newly needed visualization paradigms and developments that can help to solve these challenges. Thus further topics may be added, depending on the specific interest of the participants. 
 As one outcome of the seminar, we plan to summarize the results in a white paper, in which the computational, the visualization and the application domain aspects are collected and published to not only ensure that a broad audience is reached but also that our crossroads journey may continue.

Prof. Marai co-organizes Dagstuhl meeting on visualization of biological data

Exploring big cities like Chicago can be a daunting experience when the tourist has to gather information from multiple sources regarding places, directions, transportation, safety, and weather.  We propose a large display solution (kiosks) which aims to encourage people to explore the city by showing cultural attractions, special events and other points of interest (POI) on a map along with multi-modal transportation options to take them to their destination. POI&rsquo;s and events are updated frequently based on the time and safety information. Kiosks are intended to be located throughout the city especially locations with the highest density of points of interest.

Exploring Chicago

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017 - The President of the University of Illinois System, Timothy Killeen, this week led a delegation of ~18 University officials on a two-day visit to one of its campuses, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). On the second day, the last stop, prior to a wrap-up meeting at University Hall, was to the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), a major research resource in the Computer Science Department. 
This trip was part of the President&rsquo;s Executive Leadership Program (PELP), whose objective is to broaden participants&rsquo; understanding of higher education issues and to strengthen their skill sets in leading and managing a public institution at the university or system level. The group travels to four meetings over a 12-month period; this year the trips include Washington DC (to meet with legislators and Federal funding agencies) and to sister campuses in Chicago, Urbana-Champaign and Springfield. 
PELP visits have a theme, and the theme of visiting the Chicago campus (UIC) was to learn about &ldquo;Leading a Public University in a 21st Century Global City.&rdquo; In their initial request to visit EVL, they asked to have students present their work. EVL simply complied - and in one hour, attendees received a compressed introduction of EVL&rsquo;s 44-year-old history from Director Maxine Brown, introductions from EVL-affiliated faculty (computer science, design and communications), introductions by PELP visitors, and nine virtual-reality, medical visualization, visual analytics, human augmentics and computer-supported collaboration demos - all presented by undergraduates, Masters and PhD students. 
The morning after the visit, a grateful email was sent by organizer Sarah Zehr, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs in the Office of the Executive Vice President/Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of Illinois System. She thanked EVL for a &ldquo;phenomenal tour&rdquo; and said, &ldquo;Several of the Fellows mentioned how much they enjoyed seeing the work the students were doing. I was impressed you were able to get so many faculty and students together to provide a whirlwind overview of the capabilities of the lab. It was much appreciated!&rdquo; 
EVL Director Brown responded that its faculty, staff and students are &lsquo;family&rsquo;, so the energy, enthusiasm and pleasure that everyone takes in showcasing their work is genuine. Humorously, during the demos, while students presented - faculty mentors interjected and students in the audience where giving real-time input to their friends with hand signals. 
EVL appreciated the opportunity to show such distinguished attendees the breadth of its research activities and to hopefully stimulate more inter-campus collaborations in the future. 
# # # # 
ATTENDEES (not including EVL students): 
EVL Faculty Attendees: Andrew Johnson, CS; Robert Kenyon, CS; Liz Marai, CS; Luc Renambot, CS; Debaleena Chattopadhyay, CS; Dan Sandin, CS/Art; Daria Tsoupikova, Design; Steve Jones, Communications 
U of I Administration: Timothy Killeen, President; Barbara Wilson, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs 
2017 PELP fellows: 
UIC: Steve Everett, Dean, College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts; Fernando Howell, Director of Capital Planning and Project Management, Facility and Space Planning; Jerry Krishnan, Associate Vice Chancellor for Population Health Sciences, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs; Michael Pagano, Dean, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs; Clark Stanford, Dean, College of Dentistry; Nikos Varelas, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs 
UIS (Springfield): Vickie Cook, Executive Director, Center for Online Learning, Research and Service; Lucía Vázquez, Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 
UIUC: Paul Ellinger, Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning, Office of the Provost; Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, Dean, College of Applied Health Sciences; Robin Kaler, Associate Chancellor of Public Affairs; Kimberlee Kidwell, Dean, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; Sharee Robinson, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research; William H. Sanders, Professor of Engineering and Head, Electrical and Computer Engineering 
University of Illinois Regional Campus at Peoria: Meenakshy Aiyer, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, College of Medicine, Peoria 
University Senates Conference: Harley Johnson, Professor and Associate Head of Graduate Programs, Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, College of Engineering, UIUC

University of Illinois System 2017 PELP Program Visits the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL)

Hacking for wildlife: students use technology to save the animals 
The challenge was inspired by public backlash over the hunting of Cecil the Lion in July, when hashtags like #justiceforcecil, #savethelions and #bantrophyhunting began viral trends. The Chicago Hackathon for Wildlife challenge was organized by the Internet of Elephants, an organization that supports collaborations between nonprofit organizations and technologists, and held at Solstice Mobile, a Chicago software company. 
Sixty participants from around the world formed teams of two to five members. Four winning teams were announced for overall best, best use of technology, best impact to conservation and best prototype. UIC Computer Science and EVL exchange students from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy — Filippo Pellolio, Marco Cavallo and Andrea Rottigni (Team Italy) — came in second for best prototype, having worked 36 hours straight on their entry, &ldquo;Wildlife Defense.&rdquo; 
For more information, see the UIC NEWS article <a href="http://news.uic.edu/hacking-for-wildlife-students-use-technology-to-save-the-animals">&ldquo;Hacking for wildlife: students use technology to save the animals&rdquo;</a> by Francisca Corona, published December 17, 2015.

UIC&rsquo;s &ldquo;Team Italy&rdquo; participates in Chicago Hackathon for Wildlife challenge

To show medical illustrators and educators the value of virtual reality for medical training, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago mocked up a 3D skeleton, complete with body organs, including the heart, lungs, and intestines, that students could manipulate on the walls of the CAVE2&trade; System. Datasets used are publicly available on the web. An EVL student lies on a bench in front of the walls for added effect. EVL&rsquo;s OmegaLib software is used to display the 3D model in the CAVE2 System.

Virtual Reality for Medical Training

Friday, March 18, 2016 
9:30am - 4:30pm 
SAIC Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago 
&ldquo;Celebrating Women in New Media Arts,&rdquo; a one-day symposium at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC), examines the achievements of women in the field of media art and emerging technologies from the 1980s onward. It is the signature event in SAIC&rsquo;s Conversations on Art and Science spring series. It is also a celebration of Women&rsquo;s History Month. 
In addition, this symposium celebrates the upcoming release of the new book from the University of Illinois Press, Women in New Media Arts: Perspectives on Innovative Collaboration, edited by Donna Cox, Janine Fron, and Ellen Sandor. 
Many of the women involved in the symposium, and included in the forthcoming book, are alumnae of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, from both the Computer Science Department and the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts (CADA). Included in this distinguished list are Carolina Cruz-Neira, Margaret Dolinsky, Copper Giloth, Lucy Petrovich, Dana Plepys, and Barbara Sykes. Also speaking is CADA associate professor Sabrina Raaf and EVL director Maxine Brown. 
The audience consists of friends of the presenters, academic colleagues, and SAIC undergraduate and graduate students. This event is open to the public. 
<a href="http://www.saic.edu/150/celebrating-women-new-media-arts">Symposium schedule.</a> 
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/327490720707937/">Facebook posting.</a>

Celebrating Women in New Media Arts

Developed by EVL PhD Candidate Arthur Nishimoto the CAVE2/Unity simulator is a Unity3D package for testing and development of Unity3D applications for the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid-Reality Environment. Using only standard Unity features (no platform-dependent libraries or Unity Professional license required), this package acts as a wrapper around the CAVE2 API to simulate the CAVE2 viewport and 3D spatial wand interactions on a desktop/laptop development environment. 
The associated <a href="https://github.com/arthurnishimoto/module-omicron">module-omicron package</a> also serves as the Unity/C# interface of accessing the omicron input abstraction library.

CAVE2/Unity Simulator

Dana Plepys is one of six people receiving the 2019 UIC Chancellor&rsquo;s Academic Professional Excellence Award (CAPE Award). This Award recognizes the demonstrated excellence of academic professional staff members and affirms UIC&rsquo;s highest regard for their contributions to the campus. She will receive the award during the UIC Employee Recognition Award Ceremony and Reception, which takes place on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at the UIC Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum, 725 West Roosevelt Road, starting at 10:30am. 
Plepys, Associate Director of the UIC Computer Science department&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Laboratory and Associate Director of the UIC Software Technologies Research Center (STRC), has distinguished herself as an exemplary UIC academic professional who has made outstanding contributions, both administrative and technical, to EVL and STRC&rsquo;s successes. Administratively, she manages all of EVL&rsquo;s and STRC&rsquo;s business and financial operations. Technically, she serves as a project manager and she promotes and documents EVL/STRC accomplishments via websites, video production and historical preservation. She also contributes her skills to major international professional organizations; notably she is Editor/Administrator of the ACM SIGGRAPH Video Review and is Director of the CineGrid Exchange, a distributed digital media archive. In addition, Plepys is one of the featured contributors in the recent book "&ldquo;New Media Futures: The Rise of Women in the Digital Arts.&rdquo; 
The CAPE Award, long overdue, recognizes her leadership service to her workplace and UIC. 
Congratulations, Dana! 
<a href="https://tinyurl.com/ydvfb5gq">More information on the UIC Employee Recognition Award Ceremony and Reception.</a>

Dana Plepys receiving UIC CAPE Award at 2019 UIC Employee Recognition Award Ceremony and Reception

TEDxUofIChicago 2016: Rethinking the System 
Victor Mateevitsi, a PhD candidate in the UIC Computer Science Department and Electronic Visualization Laboratoary (EVL), will talk about his SpiderSense human augmentics research at TEDxUofIChicago on April 8, 8 2016, 5:00-9:30pm, at the James Stukel Towers (JST) Event Center (near Halsted and Roosevelt). The event is currently sold out, but you can watch via a live web stream. 
For details, see the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TEDxatUIC/">Facebook page</a>. 
<a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gtU-6cxi1OA">Watch a video of Mateevitsi's presentation</a>. 
See additional information on <a href="http://tedxatuic.com/">TEDxUofIChicago 2016: Rethinking the System.</a>
<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxuofichicago-2016-rethink-the-system-tickets-22801827881">https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxuofichicago-2016-rethink-the-system-tickets-22801827881</a>

Victor Mateevitsi participating in TEDxUofIChicago, April 8, 2016

To announce OpenGrid, a new and innovative website enabling the public to navigate City data using an intuitive and visual interface, the City of Chicago&rsquo;s Department of Innovation &amp; Technology wanted a high-tech stage. Several stages, in fact, so that invited media and partners could listen to presentations in one environment and then move to another for demos and hands-on experiences. They came to the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago to host the event. 
Brenna Berman, the City&rsquo;s Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation & Technology, and Tom Schenk, Jr., Chief Data Officer (CDO), presented OpenGrid in EVL&rsquo;s Cyber-Commons room, followed by multiple demos in the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment. They explained OpenGrid&rsquo;s technical capabilities, but also its human capabilities - as it makes City data more readily accessible to Chicago communities, providing its citizens with the information they need to solve problems relevant to their communities. 
Data portals organize data by individual datasets, making it difficult to combine data and see what is happening in one&rsquo;s neighborhood. OpenGrid is a public website that makes the Chicago Data Portal more easily available to all residents. Users can select areas on a map of the City, on which to graphically view locations of inspections, street closures, potholes, crimes, and other activities. 
Chicago&rsquo;s investment in open data, along with strategic partnerships with civic tech volunteers and pro bono corporations, has also helped improve the city&rsquo;s services. EVL is proud to have helped this initiative! 
Learn more about <a href="http://opengrid.io/">OpenGrid</a>. 
See OpenGrid collaborator, University of Chicago&rsquo;s <a href="https://ci.uchicago.edu/press-releases/new-opengrid-app-illuminates-city-data-residents">press release.</a>

City of Chicago Partners with UIC/EVL to Announce OpenGrid

AUGUST 9, 2016 - Jacqueline Tapia, a student in the Computer Science (CS) department and a summer intern at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), was one of four female undergraduates to be awarded a UIC CS Scholars scholarship. The awardees are full-time students with high academic standing, and each receives a monetary award for the 2016-2017 academic year, to be spent at their discretion. 
Tapia, in addition to being an excellent student, also participates in several extracurricular activities. She is an active member of the UIC Women in Computer Science (WICS) group and is Vice President of the UIC student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) professional society. 
This summer, Tapia&rsquo;s CS faculty advisor Elisabetha Marai hired her with Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a visual analytics web application. Tapia partnered with another one of Marai&rsquo;s CS REU students, Dennis McNamara, to visualize a building&rsquo;s sensor data and employee movement data, with the goal of helping the company better identify typical patterns and issues of concern. The data was provided by a major international conference, IEEE Visualization 2016, as part of a Visual Analytics Challenge it holds annually to encourage researchers to apply their programming, visualization and interaction skills to solving complex problems. Tapia and McNamara plan to submit a poster or a short article to the IEEE Visualization 2016 conference. 
Tapia took advantage of her time at EVL this summer to find out about other projects, and became interested in the Lab&rsquo;s SAGE2&trade; development, particularly as it relates to Software Defined Networking. For Fall semester 2016, she will be supported by REU funding from the NSF SAGE2 grant, and will work under the supervision of CS/EVL research associate professor Luc Renambot and senior research programmer Lance Long. 
The UIC CS Scholars scholarship was hard earned, but Tapia&rsquo;s scholarship is just beginning. This recognition, plus the opportunities that NSF affords with its REU program - to expose undergraduates to research and thereby encourage them to pursue advanced degrees and/or challenging careers - not only contributes to her scholarship, but to her inspirations. As Tapia explains, &ldquo;In the future, I hope other scientists and explorers can learn from what we have discovered and reach technological advances that we have only ever dreamed about. Overall, I have learned that I do belong in the field of Computer Science and I hope that one day, I too, can leave behind something meaningful in the field for those who are to follow in our footsteps.&rdquo;

UIC CS/EVL Undergrad Jacqueline Tapia Receives a UIC CS Scholars Scholarship

The collaborative 3D virtual reality experience &ldquo;Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project&rdquo; was exhibited during 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2016) at the Jeffrey Shaw 360 degree theater in Hong Kong. 
&ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; is a 3D narrative experience that gives voice to stories of violence and the post-traumatic stress experienced by ordinary American soldiers who became torturers in the course of serving their country.
The project was developed by a team including filmmaker Roderick Coover, writer Scott Rettberg, artist and visualization researcher Daria Tsoupikova, computer scientist Arthur Nishimoto, sound designer Mark Partridge, production assistant Mark Baratta, and senior research programmer Lance Long. Dr. Jeffrey Stevenson Murer of St. Andrews University, Scotland also contributed as a consultant on the project. EVL, the UIC Department of Art and Design, Temple University, and the Norwegian Research Council supported the development of the project.

&ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; Exhibited at ISEA2016

EDITOR&rsquo;S NOTE: The following article about UIC CS/EVL PhD graduate Victor Mateevitsi appears on the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yy5zl6p5">UIC Computer Science NEWS website.</a> 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
by Andrea Poet 
March 14, 2019 
A jet suit that can travel more than 30 miles per hour and ascend to 12,000 feet. Self-lacing sneakers. And a jacket that allows its wearer to navigate by using vibrations to alert them to obstacles in close proximity. 
These objects are just a few of the more than 100 wearable technology pieces that will be included at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (MSI) Wired to Wear exhibition, the first ever dedicated to wearable technology. 
The inclusion of UIC alumnus Victor Mateevitsi&rsquo;s SpiderSense tactile jacket in the exhibition thrills its designer. 
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had my technology in a museum,&rdquo; Mateevitsi said. &ldquo;As scientists, we do bleeding-edge work but we typically are presenting to peers, in journals. We rarely get the chance to share work directly with the public, and see them interact with it.&rdquo; 
Mateevitsi earned his PhD in Computer Science, with a specialization in human augmentics from UIC&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). Human augmentics can enable humans to see and hear better, absorb and interpret more information and increase physical endurance. Not all of human augmentics is what we would consider the stuff of science fiction: it can include eyeglasses, or hearing aids. More recent technologies include robotic limbs, Bluetooth earpieces and biometric sensors. 
The EVL at UIC, where the human augmentics research is being pioneered, is an internationally renowned interdisciplinary research laboratory that enables scientific and engineering discoveries by designing and developing high-performance visualization, virtual reality, and collaboration systems using advanced networking infrastructure. Established in 1973 as a joint effort of the UIC College of Engineering and School of Art and Design, EVL is the oldest formal collaboration between engineering and art in the United States. 
The original SpiderSense prototype had 13 sensors, located on the shoulders, wrists, chest, upper back, lower back, and abs. SpiderSense technology works by vibrating to let the user know if they are approaching an object, or if an object is approaching them. It can be used by the visually impaired or people in the line of duty, such as soldiers or firefighters, who are in areas of low visibility. 
Mateevitsi worked on other tools during his time at UIC&rsquo;s EVL, including developing 3D Visualization Software for the U.S. Air Force medical researchers; inventing the HealthBar, an ambient persuasive technology reflecting the health status of an office worker; and developing a client-server application enabling medical researches to upload image datasets to a remote database. 
He currently works as a human-computer interaction research scientist and sensory engineer at GN Advanced Science, a company that makes medical, professional and consumer audio products, including hearing aids. 
There are still some hurdles before the SpiderSense can be commercialized. The first prototype, which Mateevitsi co-invented with fellow UIC students Brad Haggadone and Brian Kunzer while at UIC, was a bit clunky, with 13 modules strapped to the wearer&rsquo;s body. The second iteration, developed by Mateevitsi, is more streamlined and easier to wear, but the electronics are housed in plastic cases, and the SpiderSense jacket cannot be washed without damaging the wires. 
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m waiting for technology to catch up,&rdquo; Mateevitsi said. 
While we wait, visitors to the Wired to Wear exhibit will have the opportunity to test out SpiderSense. Using Mateevitsi&rsquo;s concept, technological futurist firm Quantum XPR built out a vest for the exhibition, and guests will navigate a space relying on the haptic feedback the vest provides to alert them to obstacles in close proximity. Mateevitsi&rsquo;s first two prototypes will also be on display. 
&ldquo;Wearable technology sits at the intersection of design, technology and innovation, and we are proud to bring together compelling examples of how it is changing the world,&rdquo; said David Mosena, MSI&rsquo;s president and chief executive officer. &ldquo;We designed Wired to Wear to showcase the possibilities that wearable technology presents for society now and help guests understand how it can create opportunities for them they could have never imagined.&rdquo; 
The Wired to Wear exhibition opens on March 21. Wired to Wear is sponsored by BMO Harris Bank and will be at MSI through May 2020. It is not included in Museum Entry and requires an additional timed-entry ticket, $12 for adults and seniors, and $9 for children. <a href="http://msichicago.org">More information on the exhibition</a> or call 773-684-1414.

UIC alumnus Victor Mateevitsi&rsquo;s SpiderSense jacket included in MSI&rsquo;s Wired to Wear&trade; exhibition

UIC Computer Science and EVL exchange student from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, Marco Cavallo presents his thesis research on Mixed Reality. 
&ldquo;Merging Worlds: A Location-based Approach to Mixed Reality&rdquo; presents a novel approach to the design of Mixed Reality (MR) applications, which combines elements from markerless and location-based Augmented Reality in order to explore new types of interaction, leveraging a spatial representation of virtual content. In particular, a method for developing both a mobile application, that can be used by people to see augmented content in the real world, and an editor application, which can be used to design and create MR experiences is proposed.

Marco Cavallo Thesis Presentation &ldquo;Merging Worlds: A Location-based Approach to Mixed Reality&rdquo;

SAGE2&trade; Scalable Amplified Group Environment

This project&rsquo;s purpose was to investigate the ability of virtual reality to teach music. An application was developed for the CAVE2&trade; and Microsoft Hololens, and their ability to teach music effectively was analyzed. Both the applications teach the user how to play &rsquo;Mary Had a Little Lamb&rsquo;on the viola, and each virtual reality platform had itrsquo;s own benefits and drawbacks. An interface was created for both platforms that shows the user the correct bow direction, tempo, fingering, and sheet music. Additional features included adjustable tempo and a metronome that can be turned on and off. The application was helpful since the user could get visual cues from the graphics while still keeping an eye on his/her instrument. Future goals for the application include songs that can be uploaded by the user, microphone input, more instruments, and better graphics. The results of this research show that music instruction is a viable possibility in a virtual reality environment and will spark developers and musicians to work together to further explore this field. 
YouTube video of Microsoft Hololens version of this application: 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tv2SavmbDVg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 
YouTube video of CAVE2 version of the application: 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZg9cfZYQqU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Music Instruction in a Virtual/Augmented Environment

Cancer has a major impact on society all around the world. It affects people of all population groups though certain groups bear more burden of cancer. Some of the contributing factors for cancer disparities are socioeconomic status, geographic location, race/ethnicity. The objective of this project is to provide an interface to show cancer incidents and address the effect of different socioeconomic factors on cancer incidents in the areas of Chicago. 
The web-based application was developed by Computer Science Master degree-seeking graduate student Yashika Goyal, under the advisement of EVL and Computer Science associate professor, G. Elisabeta Marai.

Cancer Disparities in Chicago

PhD candidate Paul Murray presents his research in biological data visualization techniques. 
The Pathway Commons web service brings together several large biological databases, with tens of thousands of biological entities and interactions that can be traversed and queried through the Pathway Commons API. Query results are returned using the BioPax format (which is an RDF/XML OWL file), and each BioPax file contains a number of different relationship types. Rather than try to encompass a wide variety of node types and link types into a single visualization, a linked-view visualization approach is employed that presents each type of relationship in its own view, with linked interactions between views. This system is being integrated with the Pathway Commons API to enable effective visual queries of complex biological data.

Exploring BioPax and the Pathway Commons API Using Linked Views

The visualization of aleatoric uncertainty in ensemble simulations - i.e. the study of high concentrations in mixtures - provides many challenges due to the size and dimensionality of the data sets. EVL researchers have developed a web-based application designed to locate and track areas of high concentration in salt-solution simulations. 
The goal is to learn more about the behavior of Viscous Fingers, or contiguous areas of high concentration of salt within a cylinder of pure water. The application allows viewers to explore 3-D ensemble simulation data using both 2-D vertical slices of the cylindrical data to get a more detailed view of the data in a specific time step, as well as a feature tracking merge tree to better understand the evolution of these Viscous Fingers over the course of a simulation run.

Interactive Exploration and Tracking of Viscous Fingers in Large-Scale Ensemble Simulations

In this application, participants view a number of 2D high-resolution images captured by the Mars Curiosity Rover, along side a 3-dimensional model of Mars in the CAVE2&trade;. EVL&rsquo;s SAGE&trade; (Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment) software is used to display the images in the CAVE2. 

As the CAVE2 System is a hybrid environment, it enables users to display both 2D and stereo images, as well as 3D models using SAGE software. This functionality is in particularly useful for information analysis and insight. 

The data used in this application is from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology.

Mars Curiosity

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab of Chicago worked with the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago to use virtual reality to help people needing rehabilitation be more enthusiastic and energetic when doing their exercises. 
Using the VIVE head-mounted display, EVL researchers develop virtual reality worlds to augment the rehabilitation patients&rsquo; physical therapy spaces and sessions. The goal of this project is to increase patient interest and engagement, by supplementing physical therapy tasks and exercises with tasks incorporated into a number of different virtual worlds. Unity3D is used to build virtual environments, that are &lsquo;mapped&rsquo; to the physical therapy areas (e.g. a physical balance beam is represented by a very narrow bridge over a stream in a forest; the patient steps onto the actual beam, but are stepping onto a virtual bridge in the VR world). Data about the patient&rsquo;s movements and activities in these virtual worlds are visualized in real-time, allowing AbilityLab personnel to tailor the experience interactively. The enhanced rehabilitation experience intends to foster patient recovery and treatment success.

Virtual Reality Enhanced Physical Therapy

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 - UIC Computer Science (CS) Associate Professor G. Elisabeta (Liz) Marai loves to inspire and educate next-generation computer scientists. For several years now, she has selected the best and brightest undergraduates from her Fall and Spring courses and, pending financial support, offers them both summer research experiences and extracurricular activities to accelerate their knowledge of visualization and visual analytics technologies and techniques. 
Earlier this year, Marai reached out to CS faculty, and particularly CS faculty affiliated with the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), to ask if they would join her in hiring her undergrads on grants, with funding provided by the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program or by private donors. While the students would be paid to work on a variety of projects, Marai would also provide them with extracurricular work - participating in the 12th Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) Challenge, hosted annually by the international IEEE Visualization (VIS) conference. 
Months prior to the IEEE VIS conference, the VAST Challenge publishes several problems (a Grand Challenge and three Mini-Challenges) around one theme. This year, it focused on a fictitious mid-size city with a small industrial area located near a wildlife preserve, where it was discovered that the population of a specific local bird was decreasing. Each of the VAST problems provided different datasets, with different questions about &ldquo;who-what-where-why-when–how&rdquo;. For each problem, the goal was to design and develop specific visual analytics tools to help the local ornithologist determine what was happening to the birds. 
How do undergrad sophomores and juniors deal with such a competition? They work together in teams, and they learn a lot about visualization, visual analytics, programming, and web design and development. And, they are mentored by Marai&rsquo;s PhD/MS students, as well as other EVL faculty, staff and students. 
This year&rsquo;s VAST Challenge received 56 submissions from individuals and teams in industry, government, and academia. EVL student teams submitted three entries, one for each Mini-Challenge; two EVL submissions received Honorable Mention awards and one was well reviewed but did not receive an award. Given these submissions were led by undergraduates, most of whom had never done visualization before (most were students from Marai&rsquo;s CS342 software design course), that&rsquo;s a huge accomplishment! 
All the student teams wrote two-page papers about their entries that will be published in the IEEE VIS 2017 electronic conference proceedings. Marai will fund two students to attend this year’s IEEE VIS conference, to be held October 1-6, 2017 in Phoenix, AZ, to present their solutions, and to receive their Honorable Mention certificates on behalf of their teammates. 
 
# # # # # # 
 
Here is a summary of the three projects. 
Mini-Challenge #2: Honorable Mention for Clarity in Visual Communication 
Project: &ldquo;Mining Factory Pollution Data through a Spatial-Nonspatial Flow Approach&rdquo; 
UIC Participants: Undergraduates Joshua Castor, Joseph Borowicz and Andrew Burks; graduate students Manu Thomas and Timothy Luciani; and, faculty mentor Liz Marai. 
The dataset provided several months of meteorological data (wind speed and direction) and chemical data emitted by four industrial factories and captured by nine sensing stations. To explore the spatio-temporal chemical readings and wind data, specifically which factories emitted what chemicals and how the nine sensors in the area were performing, the team developed a web-based analytics tool with interactive visualizations and path line analysis to reveal sensor errors and chemical reading spikes, as well as pinpoint possible sources of chemical reading spikes. The goal was to help the local ornithologist determine whether or not the factories were compliant with environmental regulations. 
Mini-Challenge #3: Honorable Mention for Good Interactive Image Explorer for Temporal Analysis 
Project: &ldquo;Web-Based Interactive Image Explorer for Temporal Analysis of Satellite Images&rdquo; 
UIC Participants: Undergraduates Vijayraj Mahida, Bartosz Kupiec and Andrew Burks; graduate student Timothy Luciani; and, faculty mentor Liz Marai. 
The dataset provided satellite imaging data from commercial multi-spectral imagers that routinely cover the nature preserve every few weeks. The team developed a web-based image analysis tool that combined small, multiple views of satellite images, linked semantic zooming and image intensity histograms, along with filter controls. The goal was to help the local ornithologist interactively analyze spatio-temporal changes to understand the health of the wildlife preserve and alert him to possible conditions that might be impacting the birds. 
Mini-Challenge #1: No IEEE award, but kudos to the students for participating! 
Project: &ldquo;A Bespoke Analysis Tool for Spatio-temporal Park Traffic Data&rdquo; 
UIC Participants: Undergraduates Dimitar Kirilov, Isabel Lindmae and Andrew Burks; graduate student Chihua Ma; and, faculty mentor Liz Marai. 
The dataset provided resident and tourist vehicle traffic in the preserve, for day trips, overnight camping, etc., as a data stream with vehicle types and entry/exit timestamps. The team developed a web-based traffic-data analysis tool that consisted of two linked heat maps showing daily activity for vehicles, as well as a histogram showing the total time spent by vehicles in the park. Combined, these views enabled the analysis of both spatial and temporal patterns in the wildlife preserve, helping the local ornithologist identify traffic patterns, correlations, or anomalies to aid his investigations. 
 
# # # # # # 
 
The IEEE VIS 2017 VAST Challenge Awards are listed on the IEEE VIS 2017 website: 
<a href="http://ieeevis.org/year/2017/info/awards/vast-challenge-awards">http://ieeevis.org/year/2017/info/awards/vast-challenge-awards</a> 
The IEEE VIS VAST Challenge 2017 website: 
<a href=http://www.vacommunity.org/VAST+Challenge+2017>http://www.vacommunity.org/VAST+Challenge+2017</a> 
Note: At IEEE VIS 2016, Marai and EVL undergraduate and graduate students won Honorable Mention in the third International Data Visualization Contest organized by the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee&rsquo;s (VGTC) Visualization Pioneers Group (VPG). See: <a href=" https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2247">https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2247</a>

UIC/EVL Receives Two Honorable Mentions in IEEE VIS 2017 VAST Challenge

OCTOBER 22, 2018 - UIC EVL/MFA graduate JD Pirtle recently started his own company, <a href="https://www.depthandlight.com/">Depth and Light</a> which is an education, technology, and design studio+consultancy. Its mission is to help students, teachers, and learners of all ages feel confident using traditional and emerging technology for research, inquiry, and creativity. 
JD, as an EVL/MFA student, helped develop both the &ldquo;20 Foot Virtual Canvas&rdquo; multi-touch paint system and the &ldquo;Mega Tenori-on&rdquo; virtual sound instrument for EVL&rsquo;s large-scale tiled display wall, called Cyber-Commons. 
After graduating UIC, EVL retained JD to complete development of the CAVE2 sound library. He was then hired by Chicago&rsquo;s Catherine Cook School (preschool - 8th grade) as Director of Innovation, and promptly created IDEA (Innovation, Design, Engineering, Art) Lab, a school-wide, cross-divisional program that included 3D printers, a laser cutter/engraver, a large interactive display wall running EVL/LAVA&rsquo;s SAGE2 software, robotics, sewing equipment, and traditional shop tools. He ran several successful IDEA:TE Transforming Education workshops, too, targeted for preschool - 12th grade educators to discuss how best to integrate traditional and emerging technologies into their curriculum. 
Now JD brings us Depth and Light. As the website says &ldquo;Technology is magical, but it's not magic.&rdquo; JD is certainly a wizard behind the curtain, and we wish him luck in his new venture!

UIC EVL/MFA Graduate JD Pirtle Starts Depth and Light Consultancy Firm

June 29, 2016, 1 PM 
EVL Cyber-Commons, Room 2068 ERF 
EVL PhD candidate Jillian Aurisano and research experience undergraduate (REU) James Hwang present their progress on SENSEI-Panama, an 3-dimensional virtual reality application designed for the CAVE2 to explore animal movement data. 
Current work has focused upon recreating the Isla Barro Colorado island in Panama from lidar and aerial imagery. Movement data from spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, coatis and kinkajous has been captured and visualized in an effort to help animal behavior researchers understand how these animals forage for food. Methods for recreating the virtual island and tracking movement data is discussed.

SENSEI-Panama: Visualizing Animal Movement Data on a Virtual Island in the CAVE2&trade;

A November 27, 2018 story on the University of Illinois Cancer Center&rsquo;s website profiles leading-edge cancer and computer science research being conducted by G. Elisabeta (Liz) Marai, a UIC Associate Professor of Computer Science and the department&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), and a member of the Cancer Center. 
Specifically, this article highlights two major grants to Marai from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) to work with collaborators at other institutions on the design and development of computer programs to assist medical professionals determine the best treatment options for cancer patients, specifically those suffering from head and neck cancer. 
With collaborators at MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Iowa, and University of Minnesota (NIH/NCI R01 grant CA214825-01), Marai and her graduate students are developing a computing methodology that will precisely determine health outcomes for patients with head and neck cancers based on demographics, toxicity and complex imaging data. While there are &ldquo;large, rich repositories of patient data… risk prediction algorithms for cancers are rudimentary and incorporate minimal patient characteristics, largely due to a lack of computational methodologies....This research has the potential to change the standard of care and outcomes of treatment,&rdquo; Marai explains. 
A second NIH/NCI grant (R01 CA225190-01) enables Marai and the above-mentioned collaborators to develop computer models that combine imaging data, such as radiation dosage and spatial distribution, and nonspatial data, such as demographics and toxicity, in order to identify similar patients and assist medical professionals predict optimal treatment options. This research has the potential to improve the standard of care and the quality of life of surviving patients - not only for head and neck, lung, or brain cancer, but for other chronic conditions, such as mental health disorders, substance abuse diseases, or diabetes. 
<a href="https://cancer.uillinois.edu/marai-developing-computer-programs-to-aid-cancer-patients/">Read the entire story.</a>

UIC Computer Science/EVL Marai Developing Computer Programs to Aid Cancer Patients

After six years at the helm as EVL director and twenty-six years as an associate director, Maxine Brown retires effective October 1, 2020. Over the years, Maxine has led and been instrumental in EVL&rsquo;s interdisciplinary research and development specializing in collaborative visualization, virtual reality, visual data science, and advanced computing and networking infrastructure. 
Most notable, during Maxine&rsquo;s tenure as director, EVL invented the CAVE2&trade; hybrid-reality environment, developed the Continuum Smart Environment and collaborative middle-ware SAGE&trade; scalable adaptive graphics environment, as well as the SAGE2&trade; scalable amplified group environment. In collaboration with Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory, Maxine managed the EVL team to create STAR TAP (1997), Ithe research and education network connection facility for international traffic located in downtown Chicago. STAR TAP was followed by StarLight (2001), which is still the largest research and engineering advanced networking facility in the world. 
Maxine&rsquo;s contributions to EVL are numerous and significant. She will be sorely missed by faculty, staff, students and many colleagues worldwide. Andrew Johnson, EVL director of research and professor of Computer Science assumes the role of EVL&rsquo;s interim director. 
<a href="https://engineering.uic.edu/news-stories/maxine-brown-director-of-uics-electronic-visualization-laboratory-retires-after-34-years/">Read the complete College of Engineering article.</a>

Maxine Brown EVL Director Retires

Newcity magazine is Chicago&rsquo;s only locally owned and operated cultural weekly, and has been covering Chicago&rsquo;s local scene for more than 25 years. It&rsquo;s current &ldquo;Best of Chicago&rdquo; issue just came out (Volume 31, No. 1359). The section on City Life lists many best things about Chicago, including &ldquo;Best place to get your geek on.&rdquo; Um, that would be the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago! The article is reproduced below. 
* * * * * * * * * * 
Best place to get your geek on 
The Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at UIC 
Cutting-edge research meets a massive wall made out of small screens that would make any hardcore videogame fan scream and a literal cave that opens up a highly immersive, surround-screen, surround-sound, virtual reality environment at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The lab brings together academics, designers, engineers, artists and mad scientists using technologies that bend reality off into unimaginable directions. EVL is the place where visualization, virtual reality and real-time interactive computer graphics are born. As if that were not enough, it was here that the computer graphics for the first &ldquo;Star Wars&rdquo; film were created in 1976. How cool is that? 
UIC College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, 842 W. Taylor 
Best of Chicago 2016

Newcity magazine rates UIC/EVL as &ldquo;Best place to get your geek on&rdquo;

NOVEMBER 7, 2018 - Trina Roy, a UIC alumna who majored in Computer Science and worked as a research assistant at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), is being honored with an Outstanding Achievement Award by the College of Engineering (COE) and the Engineering Alumni Association. An annual Awards Dinner will celebrate and recognize the accomplishments and distinguished careers of several engineering and computer science alumni. This year&rsquo;s dinner is being held Wednesday November 7. 
Roy, currently a Senior Software Developer at Pixar Animation Studios, was previously invited to give the commencement address at the UIC COE Commencement in May 2017 because of her impressive computer-graphics career at major special-effects companies. She gave a motivating speech that focused on the value of good mentors, mutual respect and perseverance to achieve one’s dreams. While her focus was more on empowering young women, her presentation made clear that everyone needs to respect and help one another in today&rsquo;s world. Afterwards, young women graduates thanked her for her presentation. Young men graduates primarily thanked her for making great Pixar movies! <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2293">More details on her commencement speech.</a> 
Roy joins other EVL graduates who received campus-wide alumni awards from the UIC Alumni Association. Michael Papka (MS &rsquo;94) received the 2014 <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ya3pjfkv">UIC Alumni City Partner Award</a>. Steve Heminover (LAS &rsquo;79) received the 2007 <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ydychcdn">UIC Alumni Achievement Award.</a> 
<a href="http://engineeringalumni.uic.edu/awards/engineering-alumni-award-winners/">This year&rsquo;s award winners.</a> 
<a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/trina/">Roy&rsquo;s bio</a>.

UIC CS/EVL Alumna Trina Roy Receives Engineering Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award

Professor Peter Doran of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) employs virtual-reality to further biological research in terrestrial environments analogous to those found on other planets, and to enable remote searches for, and identification of, life in extreme environments. Doran and EVL are part of the NASA-funded ENDURANCE project (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer), a collaboration of UIC, Stone Aerospace, NASA Ames Research Center and Montana State University. Project members are analyzing 3D biogeochemical information captured by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the extreme environment of West Lake Bonney, a perennially ice-covered Antarctic dry valley lake in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. They hope to apply what they learn to planetary science, such as capturing and analyzing information about the water ice surface of Jupiter&rsquo;s moon, Europa. EVL&rsquo;s OmegaLib software is used to display the 3D model in the CAVE2&trade; System. 

Credits 
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), UIC Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Stone Aerospace, NASA Ames Research Center and Montana State University.

ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctiC Explorer)

JUNE 13, 2017 - Ryan Wolff and David Wolff, producers of the documentary web series &ldquo;The Good Stuff,&rdquo; recently completed a program on virtual-reality headsets, but &ldquo;as awesome as the experience was,&rdquo; says Ryan, &ldquo;it’s isolating. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be cool if there was a virtual-reality room you could share with other people, so your friends could actually see and experience what you&rsquo;re seeing? Could such a place actually exist? In Chicago? Five miles from where I live?&rdquo; 
Those questions prompted a visit to the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), to talk with Computer Science Associate Professor and EVL Director of Research Andy Johnson, and to see and experience the CAVE2 Hybrid Reality Environment. In their documentary &ldquo;Inside a Real Life Holodeck,&rdquo; Ryan exclaims, &ldquo;The idea of a room you can just walk into and have it simulate any environment that you want has been a big part of Sci Fi and fantasy series for a long time, except that this time...there&rsquo;s a real-life Holodeck sitting in an engineering building on a college campus.&rdquo; 
The 11 minute video also briefly talks about EVL&rsquo;s rich history: its early days when engineers and visual artists collaborated in a UIC lab then known as the Circle Graphics Habitat; its development of the Sayre glove--the first wired data glove and precursor of the Nintendo Power Glove; its role in creating the Death Star plans in the first Star Wars movie; and, its development of the original CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment. 
Andy Johnson understands the power of virtual reality; in the video, he describes his first experience in EVL&rsquo;s CAVE in the early 1990s as &ldquo;technology as magic.&rdquo; His interview is insightful, from his views of the current state of virtual reality, to various scientific applications that help researchers understand our world, to future implications of virtual reality in our society. 
Though all were in agreement that virtual-reality headsets are impressive, there is something special about the room-sized CAVE2&rsquo;s ability to let participants &ldquo;see people’s eyes, see their expressions, or know what they are pointing at or looking at in space.&rdquo; Andy Johnson elaborates that &ldquo;the lab…created a shared space where it’s the screens, the walls, that are active. So, you not only have a connection with the virtual space, but a strong connection between people.&rdquo; 
YouTube video: &ldquo;Inside a Real Life Holodeck&rdquo; 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L4gBCtfqZtU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Inside a Real Life Holodeck

As a demonstration of cultural heritage, participants can view 360-degree panoramic images of Medinet Habu, the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III located on the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt, in the CAVE2&trade; System. The 360-degree photographic images were taken by Tom DeFanti of California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at University of California, San Diego, on April 30, 2011, with the assistance of Adel Saad and Greg Wickham of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, using the CAVEcam camera developed by Dick Ainsworth, Dan Sandin, and Tom DeFanti. Images were stitched together by Dick Ainsworth. Calit2&rsquo;s CalVR software is used to display the panoramic image in the CAVE2.

Luxor

Ph.D. Student: Abeer Alsaiari 
Committee: 
Prof. Andrew Johnson, Chair and Advisor 
Prof. Joseph Michaelis 
Prof. Wei Tang 
Prof. Steve Jones (Department of Communication) 
Prof. Khairi Reda (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) 
Date: Monday, March 9th 
Time: 1:30 pm 
Location: ERF 3036 
Abstract: 
There is a steadily growing interest in leveraging ecosystems of digital devices that go beyond a single desktop for visual data analysis and exploration. This new thrust of multi-device interfaces supports new models for complex collaboration scenarios, and have great potential to support analysts in their data analysis by utilizing each device&rsquo;s capabilities. However, there are some challenges inherently associated with visual data analysis in multi-device environments (MDE). As the analytical process is underway, analytical components become scattered among different devices and displays. Building a mental model of the analysis flow can render the analytical process more challenging as it would be difficult to track many visualizations and therefore difficult for analysts to keep track of all the prior analyses. The primary goal of my thesis research is to understand the characterization of the analysis process, with regard to the use and formation around devices, and to support the design with visualization of the search space, which will allow users to efficiently explore their data.

Preliminary Examination Announcement: &ldquo;Supporting Collaborative Visual Data Analysis in Multi-device Environment&rdquo;

This research explores a novel approach to the design of Mixed Reality (MR) applications, which combines elements from markerless and location-based Augmented Reality in order to explore new types of interaction, leveraging a spatial representation of virtual content. In particular, a method is derived for developing both a mobile application, that can be used by people to see augmented content in the real world, and an editor application, which can be used to design and create MR experiences. Currently available mobile technologies needed to achieve these results are exploited, and the integration of sensors in order to improve tracking with a fully location-based approach, in which every content has a defined position in real space is explored. The advantages and the new interaction possibilities enabled by this method are weighed, in order to define the requirements for a custom MR authoring tool and its implementation. Particular emphasis is placed on the mapping between real-world and virtual coordinates and on the possibilities enabled by real-time editing, which allows the designer to preview the MR experience and also to interact with users.

Merging Worlds: A Location-based Approach to Mixed Reality

In January 2016, Siying Li, a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University covering technology innovations for arts, contacted the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) to do a story. More specifically, he contacted UIC computer science PhD student and EVL research assistant Arthur Nishimoto to learn more about what he was doing. 
Li was pleasantly surprised to learn that Nishimoto has, in his spare time, been adding lots of new features to his StarTrek Enterprise starship and is also developing a Star Wars game in the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment. Nishimoto&rsquo;s actual research at EVL, under advisor Andy Johnson, CS associate professor and EVL director of research, focuses on user interaction techniques and application development. 
Excerpts of the article appear below. 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * 
Star Wars Death Star reborn in virtual reality at UIC 
by Siying Li, with accompanying video by Chencheng Zhao
Medill Reports Chicago 
March 11, 2016 
The original [Death Star] model, featured in the first Star Wars film, was built there at the University&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Laboratory. The iconic film from 1977 made its latest comeback in late 2015 with the release of &ldquo;Star Wars: The Force Awakens.&rdquo; And so did a re-imagined Death Star, again created at UIC. 
Arthur Nishimoto, a second-year computer science doctoral student and research associate at EVL, is a Star Wars fan. He worked in his spare time to bring back the Death Star with virtual reality technology. 
&ldquo;What&rsquo;s cool about my Death Star simulation is that it&rsquo;s built at the actual size of a moon virtually,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just making a model of the Death Star. It&rsquo;s making a Death Star at full scale.&rdquo; And you can walk inside this Death Star. 
&ldquo;I feel fortunate to have CAVE2 as an ultimate canvas to work on and view my artworks,&rdquo; said Nishimoto, as he opened a door inside the Death Star with a computer-generated laser pointer. 
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think beyond the model - for example, I can make this ship fly around the Death Star like in any video game, but what if this is actually a real ship that we can apply real physics to?&rdquo; Nishimoto said. &ldquo;I always try to bring real science back into the fictional world.&rdquo; 
CAVE2 helps this happen, even for researchers besides computer scientists and video game designers. 
<a href="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/star-wars-death-star-reborn-in-virtual-reality-at-uic/
">Read the entire article.</a>

Star Wars Death Star reborn in virtual reality at UIC

The CAVE2&trade; System is a hybrid environment that enables users to mash-up a number of 2D and 3D images at the same time using SAGE&trade; software (Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment) developed by EVL. Users can display related digital media side by side for information analysis and insight. In this application, EVL&rsquo;s SAGE software is used to display 3D models of a prospective hospital design in the CAVE2. 

The pre-visualization is especially useful during the design phase of building a new hospital, as clients can virtually walk the hospital corridor and view what the hospital floor layout looks like in a 3D mock-up of the nurses&rsquo; station and patient rooms.

Hospital Architecture Study

Project Period: October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2021 
September 9, 2018 - The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year grant to the UIC Computer Science (CS) Department&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) to acquire the &ldquo;Composable Platform as a Service Instrument for Deep Learning &amp; Visualization (COMPaaS DLV)&rdquo;. The total project cost is $1,424,806, with NSF providing $997,363 for hardware and the balance provided by UIC cost share to cover staff and graduate student support to design, operate and maintain the system. Maxine Brown, EVL Director, is Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PIs are CS faculty and EVL affiliated faculty members Andrew Johnson, Robert Kenyon and G. Elisabeta Marai. 
COMPaaS DLV will be acquired and made available for Deep Learning and Visualization research and training. Initial users will be 17 faculty from 5 departments in the UIC College of Engineering (COE) who provided compelling use cases for this system, and then expanded to other COE faculty as availability and demand permits. Users include the above-mentioned PI and co-PIs, plus COE Senior Personnel: Tanya Berger-Wolf (CS), Sybil Derrible (Civil &amp; Materials Eng.), Barbara Di Eugenio (CS), Chris Kanich (CS), Alex Leow (BioEng/Psychiatry, and by courtesy CS), Bing Liu (CS), Farzad Mashayek (Mechanical &amp; Industrial Eng.), Roberto Paoli (Mechanical &amp; Industrial Eng.), Luc Renambot (CS), Philip Yu (CS), Milos Zefran (Electrical &amp; Computer Eng.), Xinhua Zhang (CS), and Brian D. Ziebart (CS). 
COMPaaS DLV is critical infrastructure on which UIC faculty can pursue fundamental research in deep learning (data mining, data analytics, computer vision, natural language processing, artificial intelligence), visualization (simulation, rendering, visual analytics, video streaming, image processing), and a combination of deep learning and visualization (that is, when data is so large that it cannot be easily visualized, deep learning is used to extract features of interest to be visualized). UIC faculty are investigating, and contributing to, solutions for societal issues in such areas as anthropology, biology, cybersecurity, data literacy, fraud detection, healthcare, manufacturing, urban sustainability, and cyber-physical systems (e.g., autonomous vehicles). 
Though EVL specializes in visualization and virtual reality, it has a longstanding reputation as a technology enabler for the campus. EVL will design and operate COMPaaS DLV as a highly flexible, scalable, high-throughput system for Big Data. Its flexible 4th-generation computer architecture, &ldquo;composable infrastructure,&rdquo; treats computer components - computer processing units (CPUs), graphical processing units (GPUs), and storage - as pools of resources. Each application defines what resources it needs, and the operating system composes, or combines, resources on the fly and infrastructure is provisioned &lsquo;right-sized&rsquo; and resized as needed. The system is easily scalable - new infrastructure is automatically integrated with existing infrastructure and becomes part of the pool of capacity. The system&rsquo;s components are all interconnected with a high-speed internal network fabric, so that Big Data can quickly move between CPU, GPU and storage at optimum speed, i.e., high-throughput, with little to no bottlenecks. 
COMPaaS DLV will complement, but be connected via UIC&rsquo;s research network, to campus and regional clusters, data storage, supercomputing and cloud testbed facilities managed by the UIC ACCC&rsquo;s Advanced Cyberinfrastructure for Education and Research (ACER) group, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Argonne National Laboratory&rsquo;s Leadership Computing Facility, and University of Chicago. 
Access to COMPaaS DLV will enable faculty, students and postdocs to execute deep learning and visualization codes faster, apply more sophisticated models to large-scale problems, gain greater insights, accelerate discovery, and open new avenues of research. The instrument will enable UIC to recruit new faculty who are attracted to institutions that can support their computational needs, and to recruit new students and produce a better trained workforce - which in turn attracts industrial partnerships. 
See <a href="https://today.uic.edu/nsf-grant-to-fund-advanced-deep-learning-and-visualization-computing-platform">UIC Today News Release</a> for more information. 
PHOTO CAPTION: One of the applications that will benefit from COMPaaS DLV is &ldquo;SENSEI Panama,&rdquo; a UIC collaborative project with evolutionary anthropologist Meg Crofoot (UC Davis) to enable anthropologists to use virtual reality to &lsquo;walk inside their data&rsquo; and study animal behavior. Specifically Crofoot and UIC computer scientists Tanya Berger-Wolf, Andy Johnson and Maxine Brown, are applying Deep Learning and Visualization to process data from LIDAR, aerial photography, terrain maps, GPS collars, and accelerometers, in order to study how coatis, kinkajous, spider monkeys, and capuchin monkeys on Barro Colorado Island (a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Research Center) in Panama, forage for food. This project received some funding from the NSF SENSEI $3.5M award to UIC CS Maxine Brown (principal investigator) and UIC CS co-PIs Andy Johnson, Tanya Berger-Wolf, and Robert Kenyon. (This project/photo won Honorable Mention in the <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2242">UIC 2016 Image of Research Competition</a>).

COMPaaS DLV: Composable Platform as a Service Instrument for Deep Learning & Visualization

The SC16 SAGE2™ BOF presentation is now posted <a href="http://sage2.sagecommons.org/2016/11/15/sage2-birds-of-a-feather-bof-2016/">online.</a> 
* * * * * * * * * * 
SAGE2&trade;: Scalable Amplified Group Environment for Global Collaboration Birds of a Feather (BOF) 
Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 12:15PM–01:15PM 
Salt Palace Convention Center, Room: 250-E, Salt Lake City, Utah 
SAGE2 is an innovative, user-centered, web-based platform that enables local and/or distributed teams to display, manage, share and investigate large-scale datasets on tiled display walls in order to glean insights and discoveries. SAGE2 enables users to easily display and juxtapose digital media (2D/3D charts, graphs, images, movies or documents) from a variety of sources. SAGE2, announced at SC14, is the next-generation SAGE (Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment), which was the defacto operating system for managing Big Data content on tiled display walls for almost a decade. SAGE2 provides the scientific community with persistent visualization and collaboration services for global cyberinfrastructure. 
This BOF provided a Forum for SAGE2 developers to meet with the the SAGE/SAGE2 global user community and potential users; specifically: 
<ul>
<li>to introduce key SAGE2 team members</li>
<li>to highlight SAGE2 research and education applications</li>
<li>to review SAGE2 capabilities and applications</li>
<li>to provide an overview of the SAGE2 roadmap</li>
<li>to solicit feedback</li></ul> 
In addition, SAGE2 demonstrations took place in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) research booth on the exhibition floor, November 14-17, 2016. 
<a href=" http://sage2.sagecommons.org/download/1778/">SAGE2 Presentation</a> 
<a href="http://sage2.sagecommons.org">More information on SAGE2</a> 
SAGE and SAGE2 are trademarks of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

SC16 SAGE BOF Now Posted Online

Participants interactively fly around a 3D representation of Mars in the CAVE2&trade; System. The 3D model was originally created by EVL graduate Robert Kooima using planetary data from NASA&rsquo;s Mars Global Surveyor and Viking missions and star data from the European Space Agency&rsquo;s Hipparcos mission. Kooima&rsquo;s Electro software is used to display the 3D model in the CAVE2.

Mars

Today&rsquo;s UIC Open House welcomed prospective students, their parents, and the general public to tour the campus and learn more about the many academic programs offered. As part of the day&rdsquo;s events, the Computer Science department organized numerous faculty talks, a student panel, and campus tours, including CAVE2 demos from the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). &ldquo;Team EVL&rdquo; presented nine 20-minute demos, with 20-30 attendees each. Audiences were enthusiastic and asked lots of questions. Though tiring, a good time was had by all. 
Many thanks to EVL student volunteers (shown in the photo, left to right): Juan Trelles Trabucco, Chihua Ma, Tim Luciani, Andrew Burks, Krishna Bharadwaj, Vijayraj Mahida, Sai Jyothula, Nina Sakhnini, Isabel Lindmae and Bart Kupiec. Also participating were Maxine Brown, Andy Johnson and Luc Renambot.

EVL hosts CAVE2 demos as part of Computer Science&rsquo;s activities for UIC Open House

Capitalizing on Star Trek&rsquo;s 50th anniversary, which debuted on September 8, 1966, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed a social media #holodeck campaign to promote its support of cutting-edge research in virtual reality and immersive environments. NSF recognizes that the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has a long history of leadership in this area, so not only included the lab in its campaign, but kicked off its campaign by highlighting EVL&rsquo;s work. 
Specifically, NSF is focusing on Star Trek&rsquo;s Holodeck - a virtual reality environment that can fabricate lifelike experiences and enable training, research and development, mental and physical health, entertainment and exploration. Coincidentally, the term &ldquo;holodeck&rdquo; has often been applied to EVL&rsquo;s CAVE&trade; Automatic Virtual Environment, introduced in 1992, and its CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment, introduced in 2012. Both these unique displays were designed and built with major funding from NSF. 
Inspired by the CAVE2 system, UIC Computer Science graduate student and EVL research assistant Arthur Nishimoto spent much of his spare time over the past several years developing a full-scale virtual model of Star Trek&rsquo;s starship Enterprise. The CAVE2 is a holodeck-like room that transports people who enter to the Enterprise, where they can walk through various rooms or fly through the cosmos. NSF selected a photo of Nishimoto in the CAVE2 environment, controlling the Enterprise, to put on its introductory blog. 
The Holodeck, as envisioned by Star Trek&rsquo;s creator Gene Roddenberry, is a fully-immersive artificial environment you can enter and experience with all your senses. The Holodeck is several decades away, and will take a great deal of basic research in computer visualization, sensors, data analysis, perceptual psychology and a range of other disciplines, as well as technological advances in virtual reality, augmented reality, holography, displays, projection and brain-machine interfaces. EVL, along with its many collaborators, has been involved in all these areas. 
NSF has been supporting research in virtual reality and immersive environments since the 1970s - predating &ldquo;Star Trek: Next Generation.&rdquo; Its goal for the #holodeck campaign is to raise awareness among public, media and legislative audiences of the science and engineering challenges involved in creating the Holodeck - or immersive experiences generally - and to promote the work of its many federally-supported researchers who are developing radically new kinds of multi-sensory experiences using computing and engineered devices. 
<a href="http://nationalsciencefoundation.tumblr.com/post/150653094693/building-a-holodeck">See the NSF introductory #holodeck blog.</a> 
<a href="http://nationalsciencefoundation.tumblr.com/">See the NSF blog.</a> 
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/US.NSF">See NSF at Facebook.</a> 
<a href="https://twitter.com/NSF">See NSF Twitter.</a>

UIC/EVL Helps Kick Off NSF&rsquo;s Holodeck Social Media Campaign

Participants stand inside virtual train tracks in the CAVE2&trade; System to observe distortion as high-speed trains roar past. This visualization of fundamental dynamics phenomena related to high-speed rail operations was done in collaboration with the National University Rail (NURail) Center - which consists of researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan Tech University, University of Kentucky, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology - and is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Understanding track structure movements, liquid sloshing, and wheel / rail contact locations are among several transportation research areas that require sophisticated virtual-reality tools such as the CAVE2 System. Visualization by the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). EVL&rsquo;s OmegaLib software is used to display the 3D model in the CAVE2. 

Credits 
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the National University Rail (NURail) Center.

High-Speed Trains

NOVEMBER 1, 2018 -- Lance Long, Senior Research Programmer for the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), which is part of the Computer Science (CS) department at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), is a recipient of the 2018 UIC Award of Merit. This campus-wide honor annually recognizes Academic Professional and Civil Service employees who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in all aspects of their work. 
Of the 30 awards being given this year, Long is one of two from the College of Engineering, representing the Computer Science department. Long started his career as a UIC Computer Science graduate student, who early on contributed to EVL&rsquo;s successes and is now a dedicated staff member that retains the collective laboratory memory of how things were developed, while helping make new advancements. 
The Merit Award recognizes Long&rsquo;s service to the laboratory, the Computer Science department, and the campus. He is currently responsible for facilitating and expediting the design, development, acquisition and integration of EVL&rsquo;s advanced visualization, computing and networking technologies. In addition, he assists with EVL tours and demonstrations for campus visitors and for student recruitment, supports interdisciplinary faculty and students who use EVL resources, and spends many hours assisting other campus units who want to replicate EVL&rsquo;s technologies. In addition, he contributes to Federal grants, co-authors research papers, helps set up and demo EVL'&rsquo;s technologies at major conferences, and visits and consults with academic, government and industrial partners who use and/or license EVL&rsquo;s technologies. 
It is an honor long overdue. Congratulations to Lance! 
UIC Award of Merit recipients will be honored during the <a href="https://emails.uofi.uic.edu/newsletter/190970.html">Employee Recognition Award Ceremony</a> on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the UIC Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum.

UIC CS/EVL Lance Long Receives UIC Award of Merit

Date & Time: May 8th, 2018, 10am 
Location: 1000 SEO 
Defense committee: 
Andrew Johnson, Chair and Advisor 
G. Elisabeta Marai 
Marco D. Santambrogio, Politecnico di Milano 
Abstract: 
The video game industry is growing year after year, but one of the main problems that most developers have is how to address the right difficulty of a game to satisfy all the players that have different skills and different attitudes toward the game. The most used method to achieve this goal is the performance-based dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA), i.e. modifying the difficulty of the game according to the score of the player. Often, it is not enough to rely only on the score to adjust the game&rsquo;s difficulty. It is important to consider the emotional state of the person because each player is different and can enjoy playing the game in different ways. This is why affective-based DDA methods should be considered to adjust the difficulty of a game. Moreover, thanks to Virtual Reality, people can do physical exercises while playing the game and motivating them by implementing the best DDA method is even more important. In this thesis I first discuss the performance-based and affective-based methods implemented in other games and researches, and the background theory related to flow, arousal, and skin conductance. Then, a Virtual Reality game called ETNA (Entertaining Training Neuro Affective) has been developed in 3 variants, one implementing a performance-based only DDA, one implementing an affective-based DDA only, and one implementing a mixed perfo-affective DDA, with both of them active at the same time. A user study was conducted and the results showed that affective gaming can be implemented in Virtual Reality to improve the overall gaming experience. Moreover, the perfo-affective method was the one which obtained the best results.

MS Thesis Defense: &ldquo;ETNA: a Virtual Reality Game with Affective Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment based on Skin Conductance&rdquo;

by Maxine D. Brown 
February 3, 2016 - Victor Mateevitsi, a PhD student in the Computer Science Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and a recipient of the 2015 Dean&rsquo;s Scholar Award, was a featured future entrepreneur on the TV show &ldquo;All-American Makers&rdquo; on the Discovery Science channel (Season 2, Episode 9, titled &ldquo;Superpowers for Sale&rdquo;). On February 3, 2016, he held a viewing party for friends and colleagues at MATTER, a health-tech incubator for entrepreneurs located at Chicago&rsquo;s Merchandise Mart. 
The TV show &ldquo;All-American Makers&rdquo; regularly features four entrepreneurs whose products are reviewed by three judges - a successful entrepreneur and a very technical guy who rigorously test and deconstruct the products, and a venture capitalist who wants to invest in sure things. For each product, the show takes the viewers through the testing and analysis phase, followed by trials and opinions from members of a focus group, and ultimately the venture capitalist&rsquo;s decision on whether or not he will invest. 
Mateevitsi introduced SpiderSense 2.0, a more portable version (a jacket) of his original SpiderSense wearable technology that can sense one&rsquo;s environment and inform the visually impaired about obstacles in their path. Mateevitsi initially created SpiderSense as a class project for the UIC course &ldquo;Human Augmentics,&rdquo; and has continued developing it while a research assistant at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) under his advisor, Andy Johnson, associate professor of Computer Science and EVL director of research. SpiderSense is at the core of his PhD work on human augmentics, which explores the value of wearable technologies to expand the capabilities and characteristics of humans. 
The first part of the show had two of the judges examine and test the product. While SpiderSense can detect objects between 0 to 60 inches away from the user (the distance is programmable), the show had a person wearing SpiderSense try to navigate a cluttered path while blindfolded, and the path appeared to be 36 inches wide (at least to this viewer, who was watching the TV program). So, the sensors tingled all the time, the user got disoriented, and he knocked over some of the obstacles in his path. One suggestion, later in the show, was to have a switch so that the device could either tingle when there were obstacles or when there were no obstacles in a user&rsquo;s way. 
Then came the focus group. This group fortunately included a visually impaired man and a firefighter, who both praised SpiderSense's&rsquo; possibilities for detecting obstacles in their paths. 
Viewers were excited to learn that the judges gave Mateevitsi a score 7 out of 10 — the second best score on the show! 
Viewers hopes were then crushed, as the venture capitalist decided not to fund Mateevitsi...at least, not yet. He thought SpiderSense a great invention, and encouraged Mateevitsi to continue development and to form a team to help market and manufacture it. 
Mateevitsi was gracious to the judges throughout the show, and thanked them for their advice. His &ldquo;to do&rdquo; list for SpiderSense is growing longer, but first order of business is to complete his PhD. 
This <a href="http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/all-american-makers/">TV show is available online</a> but currently restricted to those who subscribe to the Discovery Science channel. 
<a href="http://spider-sense.com/">Information on SpiderSense.</a> 
<a href="http://news.uic.edu/students-spidersense-featured-on-discovery-science">UIC News press release.</a>

UIC/EVL Victor Mateevitsi Pitches SpiderSense on Discovery Science&rsquo;s &ldquo;All-American Makers&rdquo; TV Show

PhD Candidate: Timothy Luciani 
Date: Wednesday, May 15th, 2019 
Time: 10 am CT 
Location: ERF 2068 (Continuum) 
Committee: 
Dr. G. Elisabeta Marai (Chair) 
Dr. Andrew Johnson 
Dr. Robert Kenyon 
Dr. Angus Forbes, University of California, Santa Cruz 
Dr. Klaus Mueller, Stony Brook University 
Abstract: 
The scientific community faces an increasing amount of data due to advances in acquisition technologies. Because of the ubiquity of large data repositories in today&rsquo;s society, scientists have begun to analyze and explore the abundance of data now at their fingertips to both generate and test new hypotheses. However, spatial features often are an essential trait of these large-scale scientific datasets. While established visualization guidelines can provide recommendations that are generalizable enough to be applied to a variety of problems, they are often designed for abstract data (no spatial attributes) of moderate scale. Selecting an effective approach in these situations can be challenging for both novice and veteran researchers, especially when it may not be apparent wherein the data to begin the analysis or how to go about doing so. Visualization design strategies can help lessen this burden by guiding questions such as what data to show, how to display it, and if necessary, in what order to arrange it. 
This dissertation examines design strategies for visualization collaborations involving spatial data; in particular, how the data and task abstractions, workflow processes, and user expertise affect the decisions behind the design strategies of visualization collaborations involving spatial data. These strategies are actualized through the design and implementation of four integrated systems that demonstrate their effectiveness across the four spatial data problems in science and engineering domains. The merits and limitations of this work are supported through an analysis of each domain problem by demonstrating the complexities involved with interdisciplinary research and the necessity of working directly with domain scientists and their data. These strategies can serve as a reference for researchers who are working on endeavors that similarly characterize to those described in this dissertation.

PhD Thesis Defense Announcement: &ldquo;Problem-Driven Design Strategies for Scientific Data Visualization&rdquo;

EVL summer intern, Shreyas Mohan from Metea Valley High School, Aurora, IL presents the results of his efforts towards developing a robust music instruction application for use in virtual and augmented reality environments - the CAVE2 and Microsoft HoloLens systems. 
EVL Cyber-Commons, 2068 ERF 
Wednesday, August 10, 2016, 1:00 PM 
Shreyas developed an application for the CAVE2 and Microsoft HoloLens to investigate whether these technologies could be used effectively to teach music to a novice. Both applications taught the user &lsquo;Mary Had a Little Lamb&rsquo; on the viola, graphically representing the correct bow direction, tempo, fingering, and sheet music. Additional application features included adjustable tempo and metronome functionality. Combining graphical visual cues while seeing the physical instrument in a mixed reality environment proved to be a powerful method for independent music instruction.

Music Instruction in a Virtual/Augmented Reality Environment (CAVE2&trade; and HoloLens)

May 25, 2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the theatrical release of the first &ldquo;Star Wars&rdquo; movie. To celebrate the occasion, and to highlight Chicago&rsquo;s unique connection to the film, the Chicago Tribune published an in-depth and thoughtful article by features writer Chris Borrelli on May 23, 2017, titled &ldquo;Blueprints for &lsquo;Star Wars&rsquo; Death Star were created at UIC.&rdquo; The Tribune article can be found at: 
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-star-wars-evl-lab-ent-0524-20170523-column.html">http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-star-wars-evl-lab-ent-0524-20170523-column.html</a> 
Borrelli writes that the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) &ldquo;has a small but curious cameo in the first &lsquo;Star Wars&rsquo; movie - the Death Star battle plans that are presented were created there, by a small group of programmers and animators in 1976&rdquo; (for the film&rsquo;s release in 1977). 
At that time, traditional special effects were primarily done using optical (photographic) and mechanical (physical) techniques; computer generated imagery was in its infancy. The &ldquo;Star Wars&rdquo; movie&rsquo;s special effects were done traditionally, except for one brief scene - a computer model of the Death Star that is viewed by the Rebel Alliance in their briefing room as they try to determine the best way to destroy it. 
California artist Larry Cuba wanted to bid on the computer graphics, but commercial software was either non-existent or proprietary, and hardware was expensive. So, Cuba approached Tom DeFanti, a computer graphics pioneer, computer science professor and co-founder of EVL, and asked to use lab&rsquo;s hardware and software to create the film&rsquo;s content. 
Though the scene took months to generate, its legacy has lasted decades. &ldquo;Star Wars&rdquo; came out years before Lucas created Industrial Light &amp; Magic, and years before he created its precursor, the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Research Group, which ultimately became Pixar. 
DeFanti, interviewed for this article, says &ldquo;And now, [Star Wars] is the story of my life, this pleasant thread. Whenever I give a lecture, no matter what it&rsquo;s about, I&rsquo;m someone who worked on &lsquo;Star Wars.&rsquo; I mean, who would have thought, in 1977, of all the things developed at the lab in Chicago, the one small piece of a film we contributed to, a movie none of us expected to be significant, would help fund a lot of people to do a lot of (computer animation).&rdquo; 
Maxine Brown, current EVL director, is proud of the lab&rsquo;s role in the movie. &ldquo;Of course, it&rsquo;s wonderful,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;but it can date you - when they suggest that the last thing you did was develop the Death Star.&rdquo; And, Cuba, a computer art pioneer, states, &ldquo;I make experimental computer-animated films…There are maybe 1,000 people familiar with my films and 10 billion who know the other thing.&rdquo; 
Steve Heminover, who worked at EVL as a UIC undergraduate when Larry Cuba was there, was able to keep the computer graphics hardware, software and associated data files from the scrap heap as the equipment aged - and, more serendipitously, was able to restore and make it operational. This article contains a video clip by Tribune photographer Chris Sweda, in which Heminover demonstrates the working computer system. And, as the Death Star&rsquo;s blueprints rotate on the old vector display, Heminover plays the briefing room scene from the original movie on his smartphone in the foreground. 
May the Force continue! 
# # # # # # # 
In Spring 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of UIC, the Alumni magazine published the article &ldquo;The Circle&rdquo; by Daniel P. Smith that highlights 50 moments in the history of the campus. Number 49 on the list is the &ldquo;Star Wars&rdquo; imagery created by UIC/EVL. 
<a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/documents/uic_alumni_spring_2015_circle50.pdf">https://www.evl.uic.edu/documents/uic_alumni_spring_2015_circle50.pdf</a> 
Steve Heminover is a recipient of the 2007 UIC Alumni Association&rsquo;s Achievement Award for his pioneering contributions to the growth of the laser display industry. 
<a href="http://archive.news.uic.edu/releases-2002-2012/1974-alumni-association-honors-uic-alumni-for-professional-achievement.html">http://archive.news.uic.edu/releases-2002-2012/1974-alumni-association-honors-uic-alumni-for-professional-achievement.html</a>

Blueprints for 'Star Wars' Death Star were created at UIC

October 2016 - Augmented reality (AR) is being used in a very novel and compelling way to engage Chicago residents and tourists into learning more about the city&rsquo;s history. John Russick of the Chicago History Museum teamed with Geoffrey Alan Rhodes at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) to create Chicago 0,0 Riverwalk, a mobile AR application that superimposes historical imagery onto matching views of Chicago&rsquo;s downtown riverwalk. The first project focuses on a single block between N. LaSalle and Clark Streets, the site of the Eastland Disaster in 1915, in which 844 people lost their lives on a pleasure boat when it rolled over in the Chicago River. On October 19, 2016, journalist Jay Shefsky told the story of how AR to being used to chronicle the tragedy of the <a href="http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/10/19/augmented-reality-app-offers-new-look-eastland-disaster">S.S. Eastland on an episode of WTTW Chicago Tonight television</a>. 
During the development of this application, UIC Computer Science (CS) professor Angus Forbes and his MS student Marco Cavallo, both affiliated with the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), worked with the SAIC faculty and students on technical considerations that have since been incorporated into the second version of the application software. EVL&rsquo;s expertise enabled better tracking and feature detection of real-world objects; better registration and orientation of the real-world environment with historical photographs; the use of a smart, intuitive interface to help users navigate in the real world and locate historical images; and, better image contrast, even on overcast days with adverse lighting conditions. Together, these technical efforts have contributed to better user experiences. 
In the WTTW story, John Russick of the Chicago History Museum notes the value of this AR application: &ldquo;One of the biggest challenges in communicating history is finding human emotional connections to very old stories … that draw us in a deeper, more meaningful way.&rdquo; Rather than passively view photographs or documentary films, AR enables users to experience history firsthand, in its relevant surroundings. 
<a href="http://chicago00.org/">Download more information and the Chicago 0,0 app for smartphones or tablets</a>. 
Marco Cavallo (UIC), Geoffrey Alan Rhodes (SAIC) and Angus Forbes (UIC) co-authored a poster paper <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2255">&ldquo;Riverwalk: Incorporating Historical Photographs in Public Outdoor Augmented Reality Experiences,&rdquo;</a> that was presented at the 15th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), September 15-23, 2016, in Merida, Mexico.

Augmented Reality App Offers New Look at Eastland Disaster

NOVEMBER 11-16, 2018 - Members of the SAGE2&trade; Team who attended the IEEE/ACM SC18 conference - from University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa’s Laboratory for Advanced Visualization & Applications (LAVA), University of Illinois at Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), and University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo - were involved in many tech transfer activities, notably research demonstrations, a Birds of a Feather (BOF) meeting, and maintaining and developing content for three SAGE2 walls managed by the SCinet DevOps team. The SC18 conference was held at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. 
SAGE2 BOF 
The &ldquo;SAGE2 10th Annual International SC BOF: Scalable Amplified Group Environment for Global Collaboration&rdquo; meeting was held on Tuesday, November 13, 2018. The BOF provided a Forum for SAGE2 developers to meet with the SAGE/SAGE2 global user community and potential users; specifically: 
To introduce key SAGE2 team members 
To highlight new SAGE2 sites and use cases 
To introduce SAGE2 v4 (named &ldquo;Cahokia&rdquo;) 
To elicit community input on cybersecurity enhancements 
To provide a forum for discussion and feedback 
SAGE2 Presentation Materials (see download link at bottom of page) 
SAGE2 Videos 
<iframe width="420" height="345" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rmg9YnXLBsM">
</iframe>SAGE2 Introduction 2018 
<iframe width="420" height="345" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dn-k7wAhY-I">
</iframe>Quick Tips for Using SAGE2 
SAGE2 Demonstrations 
SAGE2 demonstrations took place in the StarLight research booth on the exhibition floor, November 12-15, 2017. Booth attendees saw firsthand SAGE2 v4&rsquo;s many new and advanced features, and talked with the key developers: 
SAGE2 Performance Improvements 
SAGE2 Quick Notes Improvements 
SAGE2 JupyterLab Extension 
SAGE2 Asset Management 
SAGE2 and Unity3D 
SAGE2 Identity Management and Security 
Model for Cybersecure SAGE2 
In addition, SAGE2 partners from Japan&rsquo;s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) organized and hosted a SAGE2 tutorial in their research booth on the show floor, and also participated in collaborative demos between their booth and the StarLight booth. 
SAGE2 partner Calit2-Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego, hosted a remote presentation on our SAGE2 display by Scott Stellars about their NSF CHASE-CI award (Cognitive Hardware and Software Ecosystem, Community Infrastructure) and their use of Kubernetes. 
SAGE2 SCinet Participation 
SCinet is the SC conference&rsquo;s highly sophisticated, high-performance network infrastructure that is designed and implemented by a large group of academic, government and industry volunteers. SCinet&rsquo;s DevOps Team runs the internal software infrastructure for SCinet - including software to monitor and measure network flows to ensure services and provide alerts when there are issues. Starting in 2016, SCinet DevOps used SAGE2 on a tiled display wall outside their Network Operations Center in order to provide attendees with large-scale images about the network. This year, SCinet upgraded its SAGE2 display and computer technology and hosted three SAGE2 walls at the conference - one outside SCinet, one for a new venue called SC News (with live and recorded videos), and one at the special SC18 30th Anniversary booth. Andrew Burks, a member of the SAGE2 Team from EVL, oversaw the operation of the three walls with help from other SAGE2 Team members and produced several visual analytic diagrams over the course of the week that were displayed both on SCinet’s wall as well as in the SAGE2 research booth.

SAGE2 @ SC18: Demonstrations, Birds of a Feather, and SCinet Participation

EVL PhD candidate Juan Trelles Trabucco has been recognized among the UIC Computer Science Department&rsquo;s 2020 Outstanding Graduate TAs. This award typically recognizes graduate TAs for their work over an entire year, but given Juan&rsquo;s stellar performance during the spring semester, and especially during the pandemic, Juan is being duly recognized for his contributions to courses CS426 and CS529. 
&ldquo;Juan&rsquo;s TA performance in CS426 was beyond spectacular. The course had 60 students enrolled and made use of a variety of technologies. Yet with Juan&rsquo;s help, we had a flawless transition to online teaching, when the pandemic lockout was instituted.&rdquo; 
CS associate professor Elisabeta Marai was the instructor for both courses. CS426: Video Game Design and Implementation covers tools and techniques for the design and implementation of 3D interactive video games. CS529: Visual Data Science is an introduction to key design principles and techniques for interactively visualizing and analyzing data in data science. 
In addition, to the usual TA assignments of tutoring students, grading papers, etc. assisting in the transition of these courses to an online virtual platform posed additional challenges, and makes Juan truly deserving of this recognition. 
Please join us in congratulating Juan!

EVL PhD Candidate Juan Trelles Trabucco Receives CS 2020 Outstanding TA Award

Krishna Bhradwaj&rsquo;s MS Thesis Defense 
Committee: Andrew Johnson, Luc Renambot, Liz Marai 
Abstract: 
The amount of data that we deal with, on a daily basis, is ever increasing and coupled with the fact that display technology is getting cheaper by the day, this has led to the rise of large/scalable resolution display systems. With more and more people adopting large/scalable resolution display systems in their work places, these display systems are being used for data visualization as well as collaboration. 
The complexity of data being visualized and the nature of collaborative tasks being carried out using large/scalable resolution displays are changing the way we use these displays. It is no longer enough to passively look at data on these displays. There is a growing need to actively engage and interact with the content. As such, large/scalable resolution display systems that handle large amounts of data need to provide adequate functionality to interact with this data. SAGE2 comes as an answer to this. It allows scalable displays to effectively act as platforms for data visualization and at the same time gives these systems the power of multi-user interaction. I propose two textual annotation tools to annotate documents and images in SAGE2. These annotation tools will further the capabilities of SAGE2 in terms of allowing users to collaborate. Through this thesis, I have evaluated these tools leading to insights about their usability, affordances, and limitations.

Textual Annotation Tools for SAGE2

October 19, 2020 - - Fabio Miranda joins the EVL faculty as an assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science. Miranda interests include developing techniques that allow for the interactive visual analysis of large-scale data, combining methods from visualization, data management, machine learning, and computer graphics. Of particular concern is how visual data analytics can help address different problems cities face by integrating data on different resolutions and from different sources. 
Miranda&rsquo;s research in data science, human-computer interaction and visualization include: visual data analysis, data structures and indexing techniques for big data visualization, urban analytics, harnessing data sets of different types (images, land use information, 3D building geometry, etc.) to address concrete city problems, and machine learning. He has worked closely with domain experts from different fields, from urban planning to occupational therapy, and the outcome of these collaborations include not only research published in leading visualization, database, HCI, and AI venues, but also systems that were made available to experts in academia, industry, and government agencies. 
Miranda received his Ph.D. from New York University (2018).

Fabio Miranda Joins EVL Faculty

Arthur Nishimoto, a PhD student in the UIC Computer Science Department and a Research Assistant at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), is a recipient of the 2016 UIC Chancellor&rsquo;s Student Service Award. He will be honored, along with other students who have made exceptional contributions to the campus, at the 44th Annual Chancellor&rsquo;s Student Service and Leadership Awards (CSSLA) Ceremony this evening. 
The CSSLA recognizes outstanding student leaders and student volunteers who, while maintaining high academic achievement, demonstrate a commitment to the UIC community through participation in student organizations and campus activities and throughout the greater Chicagoland area through active service and community engagement. 
Nishimoto was recommended by Professor Daria Tsoupikova, Associate Professor of Design Technology in the UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, and an EVL faculty member. While Nishimoto has been collaborating with Tsoupikova for several years on several virtual-reality art projects, most recently &ldquo;Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project,&rdquo; she recommended him for this award based on his long-term contributions to the success of EVL, the Computer Science Department and to UIC. Specifically, she noted his &ldquo;competence, creativity, personal initiative, commitment to his work, dedication to the success of the Lab, Department and University, as well as his research and academic achievements.&rdquo; 
Among Nishimoto&rsquo;s extracurricular activities, he was a member of the student delegation sent to Washington DC to present the UIC Obama Presidential Library Proposal to Congressional staffers; he converted architectural plans for a new UIC College of Engineering building into the CAVE2 virtual environment; he developed a procedure to port interactive 3D programs written in the Unity programming language into the CAVE2 environment, which is now used in several computer science courses; he has mentored many EVL undergraduates; he never tires of assisting EVL with numerous demos and tours; and, his virtual-reality tribute to the Star Trek Enterprise, developed in his spare time, is a major highlight of EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2 demos. Also, Nishimoto has received Honorable Mention in the 2014 and 2011 UIC Graduate College&rsquo;s Image of Research contests for his work on graphical user interfaces and on a multi-user electronic paint program.

UIC CS/EVL PhD student Arthur Nishimoto receives 2016 UIC Chancellor's Student Service Award

Good Gamer 
Pearl Shin <a href="https://emails.uofi.uic.edu/newsletter/2432950.html">(UIC Magazine, Spring 2020)</a> Lindsay Grace, MFA &rsquo;09 - Knight Chair of Interactive Media at the University of Miami (Fla.) School of Communication - has turned his passion for video games into a career, and in the process, created innovative games with a positive social impact. 
WHAT LED YOU TO GAME DESIGN? 
I had an off-again/on-again romance with games until I became a web developer. Then I really started to see the long-term potential for games to offer positive social impact and engagement. 
HOW DID YOUR TIME AT UIC CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR WORK? 
I took my first game course at UIC&rsquo;s Electronic Visualization Lab. I wasn&rsquo;t the best student, but I was eager, and I found UIC to be an invigorating environment, especially when you mixed arts-focused students and faculty with engineers and computer scientists, as EVL did. 
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU THINK GAMES HAVE A SOCIETAL IMPACT? 
Play helps us learn; it helps us be creative and serves many other functions. Games help shape our play, by giving us new challenges and frameworks. So, when we create educational games, we tap into the innate propensities of play to produce social good. I find it rewarding when teaching opens whole new perspectives for my students - the moment they go from media consumers to producers and critics. They can peek behind the curtain, understand how things work and identify how they can be improved.

EVL Alumnus Lindsay Grace Profiled in the UIC Magazine Spring 2020 Edition

&ldquo;SwordPlots: Exploring Neuron Behavior within Dynamic Communities of Brain Networks,&rdquo; authored by Ma, C., Forbes, A. G., Llano, D. A., Berger-Wolf, T., Kenyon, R. V. was recognized by the Society for Imaging Sciences and Technology as the recipient of the 2017 Charles E. Ives Journal Award. 
The Charles E. Ives Award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution in the area of basic or applied science or engineering published in a Society journal (JIST or JEI) during the preceding calendar year.

EVL PhD Candidate Chihua Ma Receives Charles E. Ives Journal Award

Victor Mateevitsi, a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) PhD student in the Computer Science (CS) Department and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), applied to Microsoft Research for a 2015 summer internship to work on virtual and augmented reality systems. Selected, he worked in Jaron Lanier&rsquo;s lab; Lanier is a highly regarded computer scientist, writer and composer, who pioneered virtual and augmented reality in the 1980s. Lanier is researching multi-person mixed reality - i.e., enabling more than one person to interact with the same virtual object or phenomenon at the same time. 
Mateevitsi, whose PhD advisor is CS Associate Professor and EVL Director of Research Andy Johnson, is interested in Human Augmentics and Sensory Augmentation; i.e., how wearable technologies and body sensors affect people&rsquo;s perception of the world around them and, more specifically, how these devices can improve one&rsquo;s awareness in complex environments. 
Given his interest in wearable technologies, the opportunity to work on augmented reality at Microsoft Research for the summer, particularly under the tutelage of a luminary in the field, was a wonderful opportunity. Mateevitsi worked on applications with interns from Stanford University, MIT Media Lab, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech, and other notable institutions. 
Lanier&rsquo;s project is called Comradre (pronounced &ldquo;comradery&rdquo;). Headsets were made using smartphones and laptop computers, and the tracking of a person&rsquo;s head movements were performed using external sensors. Mateevitsi worked with a small group to create a system that allowed sound waves to be detected and then shown visually. In one scene from the group&rsquo;s video, the sound produced by Lanier&rsquo;s flute playing was shown in mixed reality. 
To learn more about how researchers in Lanier&rsquo;s lab at Microsoft Research are exploring ways for people to share experiences in mixed reality, see the October 12, 2015 article <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/542341/microsoft-researchers-are-working-on-multi-person-virtual-reality/">&ldquo;Microsoft Researchers Are Working on Multi-Person Virtual Reality&rdquo;</a> by Will Night, published in the MIT Technology Review.

Summer Internship Enables UIC/EVL Student to Work on Multi-Person Virtual Reality

June 22, 2016 
Old Crow Smokehouse 
149 W Kinzie Street, Chicago, IL 
Research Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), Luc Renambot presents his research in interactive techniques and collaboration using advanced visualization displays and high-speed networking at the <a href="http://live.nodejs.org/events/chicago.html">&ldquo;Node.js Live - Chicago&rdquo;</a> 
Renambot directs a team of researchers at EVL developing SAGE2&trade;. SAGE2 is a Node.js and browser-based environment that creates a seamless ultra-high resolution desktop across a display wall (one to many displays). Users can wirelessly connect to the wall to interact with the system, transfer documents, manipulate applications and share their screen. Data visualization applications can be created quickly using 3rd party library such as D3.js, Snap, Vega, WebGL, and be integrated into the SAGE2 API.

Luc Renambot presents SAGE2&trade; at &ldquo;Node.js Live - Chicago&rdquo;

BactoGeNIE, the Bacterial Gene Neighborhood Investigation Environment, is a genome visualization approach developed at Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) to address growing volumes of genome sequence data, specifically microbial genomes, in the biological sciences. Decreases in sequencing costs have driven a proliferation in the volume of complete sequenced genomes. Existing visualization approaches are not designed to enable the comparison of hundreds to thousands of sequenced genomes in one view. At the same time, advances in display hardware have enabled growth in display resolution and the development of large, high-resolution display environments, presenting an opportunity for high-resolution visualization design. 

This novel high-resolution genomics visualization approach transforms genomic data into high-resolution digital maps that enable rapid comparison of hundreds of microbial genomes in one view. The image shown right shows segments of 600 draft E. coli genomes from the PubMed database displayed on the Cyber-Commons display wall at the University of Illinois at Chicago, EVL. Alignment of similar genes from related bacterial strains and coloring by gene identity on a gradient around a target gene, enables researchers to quickly spot insertion, inversion and deletion events across hundreds of bacterial strains. BactoGeNIE demonstrates the potential of high-resolution display environments to facilitate large-scale genomic data analysis. 

See a <a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrSyi1RWcUw&amp;feature=share&amp;list=UU3GTGwIcQfqqMS-Wt9uMwyQ&amp;index=2'>BactoGeNIE video</a> on the EVL YouTube channel.

BactoGeNIE, the Bacterial Gene Neighborhood Investigation Environment

JANUARY 24, 2019 - Daria Tsoupikova, associate professor in the UIC School of Design and an affiliated faculty member of the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) which is part of the Computer Science (CS) department, recently received a $150,000 grant from the University of Illinois (UI) System&rsquo;s Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and the Humanities. Given how important the arts and humanities are to education, research, scholarship, and public engagement, this newly-created initiative supports the visibility and excellence of the arts and humanities at the UI System&rsquo;s sister campuses. 
Tsoupikova&rsquo;s &ldquo;Transforming Storytelling: Multi-User Virtual Reality Theater for Collaborative Tele-Immersive Exploration&rdquo; is a collaboration with EVL Director of Research and CS associate professor Andrew Johnson, CS/EVL Senior Research Programmer Lance Long, CS/EVL PhD student Arthur Nishimoto, and Chicago-based theater director Jo Cattell, who recently received the Goodman Theatre&rsquo;s 2018 Michael Maggio Directing Fellowship. They will partner with the Goodman Theatre&rsquo;s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement, whose youth program works with Chicago&rsquo;s diverse demographics of middle-grade and teenage kids (ages 11-18). 
&ldquo;Transforming Storytelling&rdquo; will demonstrate how virtual-reality technology can be both an artistic medium to further immerse participants in live theater experiences and a storytelling medium. Project collaborators will develop multi-user theatrical performances that merge real and virtual worlds with the goal of encouraging stronger theater engagement with tech-savvy younger audiences. Chicago youth will attend performances at the Goodman Theatre and at UIC/EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2&trade;, allowing for immersive participation in the plot lines through avatars, hand-held devices and 3D platforms. 
While non-profit theater groups have great interest in incorporating new technologies in live performances, they don&rsquo;t necessarily have the financial support to do so. UIC&rsquo;s collaboration with the Goodman Theatre can demonstrate that live performance combined with virtual reality is a viable option for immersive theater. 
The UI System&rsquo;s Presidential Initiative selected 14 faculty projects from 53 proposals, which will share nearly $2-Million in funding over the next two years. Of the 14 proposals, all but one was allocated $100,000 or more and eight will receive $150,000 or more. By comparison, the average grant award in 2016 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was $25,000 and fewer than 40 NEA grants totaled more than $100,000, according to Grantmakers in the Arts. 
<a href="https://news.uillinois.edu/view/7815/738301">University of Illinois System News, January 24, 2019</a> 
<a href="https://cs.uic.edu/news-stories/uics-electronic-visiualization-lab-is-helping-reimagine-live-stage-performance/">UIC Computer Science Department News, April 25, 2019 
Chicago Tribune, January 25, 2019 
<a href="https://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-tribune/20190125/281638191417696">&ldquo;U. of I. grants $2M to bolster arts, humanities&rdquo;</a>

Tsoupikova&rsquo;s &ldquo;Transforming Storytelling: Multi-User Virtual Reality Theater for Collaborative Tele-Immersive Exploration&rdquo; Awarded

October 1 - - EVL Director of Research Andrew Johnson has been named Interim Director of EVL following Maxine Brown&rsquo;s retirement from UIC. Johnson now assumes the responsibility of heading EVL - overseeing EVL&rsquo;s overall mission in education, research, development, and technology transfer. 
For over 23 years, Johnson has been a valued EVL faculty member (Professor of Computer Science) and researcher who has focused upon interaction and collaboration using advanced visualization displays and the application of those displays to enhance discovery and learning. 
His areas of expertise include visualization, virtual and augmented reality, natural language processing, visual analytics, and high-performance networking. 
Over the years, Johnson has been instrumental in the development of EVL instrumentation and systems, including the Continuum smart environment, CAVE2&trade;, LambdaVision high-resolution tiled displays, LambdaTable tabletop touch system, GeoWall portable geoscience display environment, PARIS augmented reality and ImmersaDesk virtual reality systems. He has overseen the development of numerous visualization and virtual reality applications across diverse domain disciplines from science and engineering to the humanities and art. Johnson is a highly regarded mentor and educator to EVL&rsquo;s graduate students and undergraduates alike. 
Johnson retains his position as Director of Research while leading EVL&rsquo;s future initiatives and innovations as Interim Director.

Andrew Johnson Named Interim Director, EVL

Participants fly through a close-up of a glass fissure computed in a 5-Million atom molecular dynamics nanoscale simulation. Visualization by Aaron Knoll and Michael Papka of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) at Argonne National Laboratory and Khairi Reda of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Simulation and data provided by Kenichi Nomura and Priya Vashishta of University of Southern California. EVL&rsquo;s OmegaLib software is used to display the 3D model in the CAVE2&trade; System. 

Credits 
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) at Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Southern California.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of a Glass Fissure

Ph.D. Student Name: Arthur Nishimoto 
Committee: 
Prof. Andrew Johnson, Chair and Advisor 
Prof. Debaleena Chattopadhyay 
Prof. Steve Jones 
Prof. Wei Tang 
Prof. Jason Leigh (University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa) 
Date: 12/2/2019 
Time: 11 am - 1 pm 
Location: ERF 2068 
Abstract: 
Given the adoption of many variations of virtual and augmented reality devices such as CAVE/CAVE2, large virtual reality (VR) capable displays walls/domes, and a growing set of increasingly capable and affordable head-mounted displays (HMD) in both commercial and industrial applications, it has become apparent that not one platform will be appropriate for every use case scenario. HMDs are becoming increasingly more lightweight and powerful, but in collaborative settings there always will be a need for a shared display or environment to bring discussions together. 
The goal of this proposal is to leverage the best of current augmented reality head mounted display technologies: 360 degree field of regard visuals, rendering of graphics over the real world, and personalized views with the best of large display wall environments: high resolution and contrast, shared visual environment, and more accurate tracking. 
With fully immersive HMDs blocking our natural sense of communication and AR still limited by resolution and field of view, combining large VR display walls and AR may provide a middle ground to maximize the growing benefits of interacting together in virtual worlds.

Preliminary Examination Announcement: &ldquo;Collaborative Augmented Reality for Virtual Reality Display Wall Environments&rdquo;

PhD Candidate: Anthony Perritano 
Date: Friday, September 6th, 2019 
Time: 10:30 am CT 
Location: Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), Room 2068 ERF (Continuum) 
Committee: 
Tom Moher (Chair) 
Andrew Johnson 
Chris Kanich 
Joel Brown, Biology 
James Slotta, University of Toronto 
Yvonne Rogers, University College London 
Abstract: 
An important research question concerns the nature of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) methods and supports for improving students&rsquo; access to, application of, and general interactions with the community knowledge in a learning community approach. This thesis investigates a novel approach to supporting classroom learning communities through the use of embodied interaction and ambient visualizations. Specifically, community knowledge is embedded within the physical space of the classroom, with the aim of mediating opportunistic inter-group interactions, instigated through proximity and shared artifacts. This approach entails decomposing the community knowledge-base into a collection of independent thematic sub-stores, and then conceptually distributing those sub-stores to mapped, demarcated locations around the classroom, called &ldquo;Knowledge Places.&rdquo; This necessitates physical movement among and proximity to those places in order for students to contribute to or otherwise access their peers&rsquo; contributions to the emerging knowledge-base. This investigation was embedded within a larger NSF-funded study and was enacted over the course of a semester within a sixth-grade classroom as part of the regular life science curriculum (e.g., food webs, ecosystems).

PhD Thesis Defense Announcement: &ldquo;Knowledge Places: Embedding Knowledge in the Space of the Classroom&rdquo;

Fleet Commander is an interactive game developed to explore how a real-time strategy game that often relies on complex keyboard commands and mouse interactions can be transferred into a multi-user, multi-touch environment. 

This game attempts to tackle many of the challenges of developing a multi-touch application in a tabletop environment. This includes orientation independent interfaces, multi-user interaction, and issuing multiple commands using only a multi-touch interface. 

Originally designed for use with TacTile, a 52-inch multi-touch LCD tabletop display, Fleet Commander is also being used to explore multi-user interaction on a 20-foot wide multi-touch LCD wall. 

Fleet Commander is being developed using Processing, an open source programming language <a href='http://processing.org/'>processing.org</a>.

Fleet Commander

The <a href="http://hci.cs.uic.edu/">Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory</a> at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is led by assistant professor Debaleena Chattopadhyay of the Department of Computer Science. The HCI Lab designs computer technologies to transform human experiences and deliver positively impactful societal change. 
UIC HCI is an affiliate laboratory of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) providing a human centered approach to the development of tools and technologies related to advanced visualization, virtual reality, visual analytics and networked collaboration. 
The HCI Lab&rsquo;s mission is to support individual and social activities and improve everyday life, designing, building and evaluating ubiquitous computing technologies. The design of these systems draws from research on how people work, play, and communicate in day-to-day life. 
The UIC HCI Lab is located on the UIC campus at: 
Science & Engineering Laboratory West Room 1032 
900 West Taylor Street 
Chicago, IL 60607

UIC Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory

In the past decades, science has become increasingly interdisciplinary and scientific discovery has experienced a paradigm shift from the classical scientific method to data-intensive scientific discovery. SAGE2 provides these interdisciplinary collaborators with a powerful, shared workspace. However, there remains a high cost of parallel work integration for data-intensive work. VisSnippets is a system which allows collaborators to perform expressive, impromptu data analysis and exploration within SAGE2. 
VisSnippets acts as a collaborative interface to exploratory programming, allowing users to write modular &ldquo;snippets&rdquo; of code for data retrieval, processing/aggregation, and visualization. Users may then compose modular analysis blocks from the shared snippet pool into branching data pipelines. The snippets may be edited or &ldquo;cloned&rdquo; by collaborators, and reused/applied multiple times across a collaborative session. 
To further facilitate collaborative work, the VisSnippets system provides further abstraction onto the expressive foundation of exploratory programming. VisSnippets reduces the overhead to scaffold a responsive web application and allows users to walk away from the collaborative analysis with a packaged web application containing all of the analysis.

VisSnippets: A Web-Based System for Impromptu Collaborative Data Exploration on Large Displays

Committee: Andrew Johnson (Chair and Advisor), Steve Jones, Robert Kenyon, Jason Leigh (University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa), Luc Renambot 
December 18, 2017, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
Room 1000 SEO 
Abstract: 
An estimated 253 million people in the world are blind and visually impaired. Visual impairments can significantly lower one&rsquo;s quality of life as they hamper the ability to perform otherwise simple tasks, like cooking a meal, walking to the bedroom or enjoying the outdoors. Similarly, people working in high-risk low-visibility environments, like firefighters and soldiers, might temporarily lose their vision when they need it the most. And while Tactile Visual Substitution Systems have been designed to aid in situations with vision loss, their use in navigation scenarios is very limited. 
In this dissertation, I investigate and propose different environment-to-vibration mappings while assessing one&rsquo;s Situation Awareness. The proposed approaches seek to understand whether one&rsquo;s experience with a tactile display would affect their Situation Awareness and how different vibration configurations, patterns, and environment-to-vibration mappings would affect one&rsquo;s navigation. The results of this dissertation provide insight and design implications for creating more complex navigational tactile displays.

Doctoral Defense Announcement: &ldquo;Supporting Navigation with a Torso Wearable Tactile Display&rdquo;

OCTOBER 18, 2018 - &ldquo;Herstory: Digital Innovations Symposium and Book Signing,&rdquo; celebrates the book &ldquo;New Media Futures (NMF): The Rise of Women in the Digital Arts.&rdquo; The Symposium will take place at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), 1205 West Clark, Room 1030, Urbana, IL, on October 26, 2018, from 8:30am - 2:00pm. 
The NMF chronicles 22 women who went to school or worked at UIUC, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the 1980s and beyond, during a pivotal time for the digital arts media in the Midwest. Nine of the 22 women profiled in the book are PhD/MS/MFA/BFA graduates and/or employees of the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), which, at the time, was a formal collaboration between the UIC Computer Science department and UIC School of Art and Design. 
Thirteen of the book&rsquo;s contributors will attend the Symposium - including the woman who designed the first graphical web browser, the first female gaming company founder, and the woman who helped build the first room-sized virtual reality room environment - and will give TED-inspired Lightning Talks, and meet with attendees. They will discuss their passions, digital innovations and their herstories - both formally in short presentations and informally in small group breakouts - to inspire and mentor a young and diverse audience. Seven of the speakers have an affiliation with EVL: Maxine Brown, Carolina Cruz-Neira, Margaret Dolinsky, Copper Giloth, Dana Plepys, Mary Rasmussen and Barbara Sykes. 
For more information about the Symposium, see the flyer below and <a href="http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu/events/herstory-digital-innovations-symposium">go to the website.</a> 
<a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2369">More information about the NMF book.</a>

UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory Graduates and Staff Participate in Symposium &ldquo;Herstory: Digital Innovations&rdquo;

We present the design and implementation of a visual mining and analysis tool to help identify protein mutations across family structural models, and to help discover the effect of these mutations on protein function. We follow a client-server approach in which distributed data sources for 3D structure and non-spatial sequence information are seamlessly integrated into a common visual interface. Multiple linked views and a computational backbone allow comparison at the molecular and atomic levels, while a trend-image visual abstraction allows for the sorting and mining of large collections of sequences and of their residues. We evaluate our tool on the triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) family structural models and sequence data, and show that our tool provides an effective, scalable way to navigate a family of proteins, as well as a means to inspect the structure and sequence of individual proteins.

FixingTIM: Interactive Exploration of Sequence and Structural Data to Identify Functional Mutations in Protein Families

Participants can explore the self-assembly of a ligated gold nanoparticle and proteins inside an ionic solution in the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment. Data and visualization provided by the Petr Kral Research Group at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the Vincent M. Rotello Research Group at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. OmegaLib software by the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) is used to display the 3D model in the CAVE2. 

Credits 
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), UIC Department of Chemistry&rsquo;s Petr Kral Research Group, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst&rsquo;s Vincent M. Rotello Research Group.

Gold Nanoparticle

JD Pirtle, a UIC alumnus with an MFA in Electronic Visualization from the College of Architecture and the Arts (now renamed College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts), was a student and staff member at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) before leaving to create the position of Director of Innovation at the Catherine Cook School, a Chicago-area private school for preschool through eighth grade children. 
Pirtle was featured in the Chicago Tribune article &ldquo;Chicago private schools lead &lsquo;high-tech, high-touch&rsquo; movement&rdquo; written by reporter John Carpenter, which was published August 28, 2015. Pirtle created the school&rsquo;s Idea Lab (Innovation, Design, Engineering and Art). The article goes on to say that &ldquo;projects incorporate robotics, computer programming, digital manufacturing and electronics, among other things.&rdquo; Pirtle&rsquo;s program aims to &ldquo;teach design thinking, which emphasizes collaboration, problem solving and creative thinking.&rdquo; 
One highlight of the Idea Lab is technology developed by EVL. Pirtle built a tiled display wall consisting of 12 screens that takes up nearly an entire wall running EVL&rsquo;s SAGE2&trade; software. SAGE2 facilitates group collaboration by enabling users to easily access and display large amounts of high-resolution information on a tiled display wall, treating it as if it were one big laptop screen. Using SAGE2, &ldquo;students can literally drag projects from their tablets or computers onto the wall as they are being discussed.&rdquo; 
According to the article, &ldquo;Catherine Cook is not alone. At other private schools in the city, tablets and laptops are no longer the apex when it comes to technology in the classroom. Officials at those schools say parents are increasingly demanding that students learn as much by designing, making and writing computer code as they do from lectures and books.&rdquo; 
Pirtle explains that &ldquo;the educational need is to apply technology to learning challenges. &lsquo;I never want to just throw technology at them,&rsquo; he says. &lsquo;I want them to reach into a tool box for what they need.&rsquo;...&lsquo;We&rsquo;re a high-tech, high-touch school...The real goal is to make (students) producers and not just consumers.&rsquo;&rdquo; 
On a separate but related note, in June 2015, Pirtle organized the Catherine Cook School conference, IDEA:TE (Innovation, Design, Engineering, and Art: Transforming Education). Preschool through 12th grade educators were invited to attend and explore ways to integrate traditional and emerging technologies into their curricula through hands-on experience. The sessions were led by educators and experts from UIC, IIT/SAIC and UW Oshkosh in fields such as robotics, 3D printing, laser cutting and wearable technology. <a href="http://www.catherinecookschool.org/page.cfm?p=6581">Another conference is planned for 2016</a>. 
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/ct-technology-chicago-schools-bsi-20150828-story.html">Read the Chicago Tribune article</a>.

One Chicago grade school is transforming education with EVL technologies

Ableton Live is music software designed for computer-based composition and performance. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics">Ambisonics</a> is a full-sphere surround sound technique used for playing audio on sound systems with more than two speakers, providing the illusion that sound is coming from all directions. Combining these has allowed music producers to compose music inside of Ableton, in 3D. Programmed in the visual programming language <a href="https://cycling74.com/products/max/">Max</a>, is an ambisonic decoder for the Sound Dome built by former EVL post-doc Anil Camci. 
The decoder outputs sound sources through specific speakers in the sound system based on their specified Azimuth, Elevation, and Distance parameters. To integrate Ableton Live with the decoder, all of the audio channels in Ableton were streamed into the decoder via an application called Jack which allows users to route audio from one application to another. A Max utility was also built to run inside of Ableton Live and allow the user to conveniently adjust the azimuth, elevation, and distance parameters of a particular channel. 
The azimuth elevation and distance values are sent over a network back to the Max decoder allowing producers to change the location of playback for every channel in Ableton without leaving the application. Custom audio effects are also being programmed to exploit all of the surrounding speakers and take full effect of system.

Ableton Live Integration & Audio Effects for a 32 Speaker Ambisonic Sound System

UIC Computer Science Professors Andy Johnson (PI) and Barbara Di Eugenio (co-PI) have been awarded a $333,000 NSF grant entitled &dquo;CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Articulate+ - A Conversational Interface for Democratizing Visual Analysis&rdquo; project period October 2020 to September 2022. Dr. Moira Zellner, now of Northeastern University will also participate as co-PI on this grant. This project is part of a larger overall award of $500,000 that also includes Jason Leigh at University of Hawaii at Manoa. 
&ldquo;Articulate+&rdquo; continues EVL&rsquo; research in Natural Language Processing and Visualization also sponsored by NSF for the last 5+ years. See <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2522">Articulate+ - A Conversational Interface for Democratizing Visual Analysis</a> for more information on this project. 
NSF Award Number (FAIN): 2007257

NSF Grant &ldquo;CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Articulate+&rdquo; Awarded

Caterpillar Inc. is working with the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) to develop a SAGE2&trade; application to enable distributed teams to collaborate on project planning and scheduling. 
Planning and scheduling the design, development, engineering and manufacturing processes of construction equipment with worldwide teams and suppliers is an extraordinarily complex task. Caterpillar, inspired by &ldquo;StickySchedule,&rdquo; an interactive SAGE2 multi-user application for conference scheduling, asked whether EVL could help automate their project management workflow, which is currently a very manual process. 
The goal is to develop an innovative SAGE2 application to enable people from different Caterpillar units to schedule interdependent tasks over several months or years using electronic post-it notes on a large tiled display. The resulting schedule would be translated into a spreadsheet, which would then be input to project management software. SAGE2 would also enable groups to work collaboratively over distance, whereas now, everyone must be in the same room at the same time. Today, these management plans are updated only a couple times per year due to the high labor and cost of travel. This tool will enable these planning sessions to occur for significantly less labor and cost, resulting in a more regular update by the extended team. 
Additional information: 
<a href="http://sage2.sagecommons.org">SAGE2 Website</a> 
<a href="http://sage2.sagecommons.org/download/2117/">StickySchedule Paper</a> 
<a href="http://apps.sagecommons.org/">StickySchedule App</a> 
Project team: 
Lisa Creger, Lean Product Development Advisor, Innovation & Technology Development Division (ITDD), Caterpillar 
Peter E. Cooper, Product Development Manager, Medium Wheel Loaders, Caterpillar 
Luc Renambot, Computer Science Research Professor and EVL SAGE2 Project Manager, UIC 
Tommaso Massari, Computer Science MS student and EVL Research Assistant, UIC

SAGE2 Project Management Application

EVL PhD Candidate, Michael J. Lewis defends his thesis &ldquo;A Distributed Graph Approach for Retrieving Linked RDF Data Using Supercomputing systems&rdquo;: 
UIC / EVL 
842 W. Taylor Street, Room 2068 (EVL Cybercommons) 
Chicago, IL 60607 
312.996.3002 
Date: Friday, April 21, 2017, 1PM 
Committee: Andrew Johnson (advisor and chair), Ugo Buy, Ajay Kshemkalyani, Jason Leigh (University of Hawaii, Manoa), Venkatram Vishwanath (Argonne National Laboratory) 
Graph systems play a dominant role in discovering relationships and patterns over large unstructured data in which data does not explicitly declare its meta-data. Graph analytics through queries, has been increasingly used in the business and research community alike in the areas of biomedical research and genome sequencing, disease research, social media and gaming networks, financial services, IT security - enhancing networks against cyber attacks, and in pharmaceuticals - helping to discover patterns from drug interactions. The Research Descriptive Framework, a graph based,data model is used by many graph systems in order to effectively create graph structures that are queryable for relational based and graphical based queries. My research looks at the ways pre-processing linked data into memory can improve query retrieval timings over a range of query types, as compared to a solely graph explorational method. In this dissertation I review RDF systems that retrieve queried RDF data from a relational, table based approach, an iterative data merge approach using Map-Reduce, and from a graph explorational approach. I introduce the work called Mantona, which is a distributed RDF system used within a supercomputing environment. I explain in detail, the workings of two different algorithms implemented in Mantona using MPI. The first algorithm (graph-cache) algorithm stores partial joins into a graph in order to expedite query retrievals. The second algorithm (graph-retrieval) retrieves a query by exploring RDF graph nodes. I conclude by presenting results generated from Mantona covering the graph-cache approach and the graph-retrieval approach, and in showing the range of queries in which a graph-cache implementation improves query retrieval timings over a solely explorational, graph-retrieval implementation.

A Distributed Graph Approach for Retrieving Linked RDF Data Using Supercomputing systems

School of Design associate professor, and EVL affiliated faculty member Daria Tsoupikova showcases her work as part of the Chicago Design Milestones 1920-2019 installation at the <a href="https://150mediastream.com/">150 Media Stream</a>. The upcoming installation taking place throughout July visualizes the evolution of Chicago design by its examination and presentation of historic characteristics of design works in the <a href="https://chicagodesignarchive.org/">Chicago Design Archive</a> collection over the last 10 decades. 
Chicago Design Milestones​ was developed as a collaboration of CDA, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Design & Electronic Visualization Laboratory, and Columbia College Chicago. ​It is part of the ongoing research of this collaboration ​aiming to highlight the role of Chicago as a national design center​ through the use of new technologies. 
Opening of the ​Chicago Design Milestones 1920–2019​ installation: 
Monday, July 1, 6:30–9pm, 150 N Riverside Plaza, Chicago 
Creators: Daria Tsoupikova (UIC), Sharon Oiga (UIC/CDA), Guy Villa Jr (CCC), Jack Weiss (CDA), Cheri Gearhart (CDA), Wayne Stuetzer (CDA), Krystofer Kim (NASA), Ali Khan (UIC) 
Grant funding support: Riverside/150 Media Stream, Columbia College Chicago, UIC College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts 
150 Media Stream comprises 89 LED blades stretching 150 feet long and rising 22 feet high. Located at 150 North Riverside Plaza in Chicago, 150 Media Stream is the only structure of its kind dedicated to showcasing Chicago artists, culture and history alongside renowned and emerging artists from around the world.

Chicago Design Milestones 1920–2019 Installation Opens July 1, 2019

SENSEI will be a reconfigurable, ultra-high-resolution, spherical (4π steradian), photometric, radiometric and photogrammetric real-time data-acquisition, sensor-based, camera system capable of capturing 3D stereo and still images for viewing in collaboration-enabled, nationally networked, virtual-reality systems. 
The ultimate goal of SENSEI will be to capture ultra-high-resolution still and motion 3D stereoscopic video and images of real-world
scenes, that can be viewed in 3D high-performance virtual-reality systems, and can be used to extract objects&rsquo; sizes, shapes and distances within a scene. 
SENSEI, given its ~terapixel/minute flood of imagery, presents big data challenges as well. Specifically, SENSEI will be an integrated, distributed cyber-collaboration instrument with big attributes: 
- &ldquo;Big Resolution,&rdquo; configurable, portable, sensor-based camera systems: Sensor-based, dynamic 3D stereoscopic motion/video and/or multi-spectral data camera systems will be developed. They will be flexibly configurable to capture geometries such as: outside-in, inside-out, light field arrays, photogrammetry, macroscopy and microscopy. SENSEI will have an optional weatherproof transport container for field use and underwater cases developed by partners. SENSEI will create images that are ~9 times IMAX resolution. Open source software and wikis will encourage adoption and modification by other domain scientists, as with our OptIPortals and CAVEs from prior MRIs. 
- &ldquo;Big data&rdquo; computational and storage systems: Graphics processing unit (GPU) computing with RDMA, fast storage systems, and software development are needed to perform the necessary image processing calibration, stitching, synchronization, partitioning, and video serving/streaming. 
- &ldquo;Big displays&rdquo; for 3D stereoscopic viewing: Virtual-reality displays, such as the CAVE2, WAVE,
and similar technologies, are ideal for end-user viewing and multi-user, multi-site collaboration. The next generation of 4K 3D OLED TVs and LCD TVs, singly or in small arrays, will also be supported. 
- &ldquo;Big networks&rdquo; for an end-to-end, tightly coupled, distributed system: The distributed system -
cameras, computational and storage systems, and display technologies - will use 10/40/100Gbps optical networks at/between partner institutions to share and correlate data in useful time frames. 
SENSEI can advance computer science and electrical engineering disciplines in the development of image capture systems, display technologies, image processing, visualization, and image creation, and advance scientific domain disciplines such as archaeology, architecture, astronomy, biology, cultural heritage, digital arts, earth science, emergency preparedness, engineering, geographic information systems, manufacturing, oceanography, planetary science, and science education. 
SENSEI partner institutions are: 
- University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) 
- Jackson State University (JSU), College of Science, Engineering and Technology 
- Louisiana State University (LSU), Computer Science Department (Beginning in Year 2)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), Jaffe Laboratory for Underwater Imaging 
- University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Calit2-Qualcomm Institute (Calit2-QI) 
- University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), Lab for Advanced Visualization &amp; Applications (LAVA) 
UIC, UCSD, LSU and SIO are the primary technology developers of SENSEI. JSU and UHM, as well as the developer sites, have application teams who will be early adopters of SENSEI and provide feedback on the workflow, operation, and use.

SENSEI: Sensor Environment Imaging (SENSEI) Instrument

In this application, participants view several 2-dimensional high-resolution images captured by the Mars Curiosity Rover in EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment.  Using EVL&rsquo;s SAGE&trade; (Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment) middleware a broad range of digital media, including 2D images, files and documents, as well stereo imagery, 3D models, can be displayed for contrast, comparison and discussion. The 2D data displayed in this application is from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology.

Mars Curiosity (SAGE in CAVE2&trade;)

Content and application programming: Dan Sandin 
Content and systems programming: Robert Kooima 
Music and sound effects: Laurie Spiegel 
Driver: Tom DeFanti 

The virtual-reality installation &ldquo;Particle Dreams in Spherical Harmonics&rdquo; is the latest of a series of VR art installations created by Dan Sandin and collaborators to involve the viewer-participant in the creation of an immersive, visual and sonic experience. It is based on the physical simulation of over one million particles with momentum and elastic reflection in an environment with gravity. In the final scene there is a very realistic rendering of water with reflections, and lighting based on spherical harmonics. The sound components are triggered and modified by the user and particle interaction. This work was premiered in January 2011 at the gallery@calit2 University of California San Diego, designed for exhibition in the Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego division of Calit2&rsquo;s StarCAVE and the CAVE2&trade; developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago. 

According to Amos Jessup, standing in the StarCAVE &ldquo;was like standing in a rainstorm made of rainbow fragments, with the power to guide the storm by hand. It was unsettling, out-of-body, very trippy stuff, a powerful artistic experience. The sounds, in small fragments like the rainbows, seemed to be natural concomitants of the gestures, even though you could tell it was not through a mechanical linkage, a theremin or one of its descendants. But whatever the linkage was it managed to be sensitive, or else it was just inherent in the genius of the sounds that they seemed that way.&rdquo; 
<a href="http://www.evl.uic.edu/dan/">Daniel J. Sandin</a> is an internationally recognized pioneer of electronic art and visualization. He is director emeritus of the Electronic Visualization Lab and a professor emeritus in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is continuing his professional activities with Tom DeFanti at Calit2, UCSD. As an artist, he has exhibited worldwide, and has received grants in support of his work from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His video animation Spiral PTL is in the inaugural collection of video art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 
In 1969, Sandin developed a computer-controlled light and sound environment, called Glow Flow, at the Smithsonian Institution and was invited to join the art faculty at the University of Illinois the same year. By 1973 he had developed the Sandin Image Processor, a highly programmable analog computer for processing video images in real time. He then worked with DeFanti to combine the Image Processor with real-time computer graphics and performed visual concerts, the Electronic Visualization Events, with synthesized musical accompaniment. In 1991, Sandin and DeFanti conceived and developed, in collaboration with graduate students, the CAVE virtual-reality (VR) theater. 
In recent years, Sandin has been concentrating on the development of auto stereo VR displays (i.e., free viewing, no glasses), and on the creation of network-based tele-collaborative VR art works that involve video camera image materials, rich human interaction and mathematical systems. 
Robert Kooima began collaborating with Sandin and DeFanti while a doctoral student at EVL between 2004 and 2008. Kooima&rsquo;s work, research and teaching focus on interactive 3D computer graphics, scientific visualization, game development, and stereographic display technology. 
Laurie Spiegel, composer, software creator and visual artist, is known widely for her pioneering work with many early analog and digital electronic music systems, including the GROOVE system at Bell Telephone Labs, and Music Mouse, a softwarebased musical instrument for Macintosh, Atari and Amiga. Her realization of Kepler&rsquo;s &ldquo;Harmony of the Planets&rdquo; was included on the Voyager Spacecraft’s &ldquo;Sounds of Earth&rdquo; gold record. Often praised for her integration of intellect and intuition, she has taught at Cooper Union and NYU. Spiegel currently lives and works in a large, semi-raw loft in lower Manhattan and in cyberspace. 
Tom DeFanti, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California, San Diego. He is also a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). 
DeFanti is an internationally recognized expert in computer graphics since the early 1970s. He has amassed a number of credits, including: use of his lab&rsquo;s hardware and software for the computer animation sequence produced for the 1977 Star Wars movie; recipient of the 1988 ACM Outstanding Contribution Award; and appointed an ACM Fellow in 1994. He also shares recognition, with EVL director Daniel J. Sandin, for conceiving the CAVE virtual-reality theater in 1991. 
Striving for more than a decade to connect high-resolution visualization and virtual-reality devices over long distances, DeFanti has collaborated with Larry Smarr, Maxine Brown, Joe Mambretti, Tomonori Aoyama, and Kees Neggers to lead state, national and international teams to build the most advanced, production-quality networks available to scientists, with major NSF funding.

Particle Dreams in Spherical Harmonics

EVL PhD candidate Arthur Nishimoto has developed a virtual reality representation of the proposed new College of Engineering (COE) building for display in the CAVE2. Participants can navigate through and explore the virtual COE building and surrounding UIC campus. This rendition consists of models converted to Unity3D from the AutoDesk Revit model provided by the architecture firm Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture LLC (LVDA). Additional Chicago city buildings were added to show how the downtown Chicago and other areas around UIC would look from the perspective of the new building. 
Using EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2 Unity simulator and Mechdyne&rsquo;s getReal3D plugin, the Unity scene was exported for use in the CAVE2 Hybrid-Reality Environment. Within the virtual COE building users can explore rooms within the proposed building including collaborative classrooms, the winter garden, and laboratories. Other 2D elements and renderings provided by LVDA are integrated into the virtual walk-thru. 
Model Credits: 
Chicago city model by Andrew Lock 
<a href="http://arthurnishimoto.blogspot.com/2015/10/uic-science-and-engineering-offices.html">UIC Science and Engineering Offices by Arthur Nishimoto</a>

Proposed UIC College of Engineering Building Rendition in the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment

May 15, 2017 - Though students graduate, faculty retires, and staff moves on to new jobs, we have an expression that &ldquo;No one ever leaves EVL.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s because during its 44 year history, the faculty, staff and students of the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) are more family than fleeting acquaintances, and form lifelong friendships, stay connected through social media, attend the same conferences, and occasionally visit the EVL &ldquo;mothership&rdquo; and become role models for current students. 
The latter happened a week ago, when two former EVL computer science students returned to campus to participate in the UIC College of Engineering (COE) Commencement on May 6, 2017. <a href="http://www.evl.uic.edu/trina">Trina Roy</a>, now a Senior Software Developer at Pixar Animation Studios, was invited to give the COE Commencement address. <a href="http://klynch.com/">Kevin Lynch</a>, Vice President of Technology at Apple, received an honorary doctorate of engineering for his contributions to society as one of the world’s preeminent software developers and technology innovators, including leading the software development team for the Apple Watch. Lynch was the speaker at the UIC midyear undergraduate commencement in December 2015. 
Roy, who received her MS in Computer Science (CS) in 1995, worked as an EVL research assistant under Tom DeFanti, EVL co-founder and UIC distinguished professor emeritus. She has worked in the film industry for many years on a number of films, many of which received Oscars, including &ldquo;Shrek,&rdquo; &ldquo;King Kong,&rdquo; &ldquo;Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Dark Knight Rises&rdquo; and &ldquo;Inception.&rdquo; She credits EVL&rsquo;s focus on art and science with having had a huge impact on how she learned computer graphics and how she cultivated her creative side, which in turn influenced her professional career and her personal friendships. 
Lynch, who attended UIC 1984-86, was a CS undergraduate and also studied interactive computer graphics under DeFanti. In a 2013 interview, when he was CTO of Adobe, he was quoted in the Blog of Appliness, saying: &ldquo;To me, creative expression is technical, and at the same time technology opens new doors to creativity. I learned this early on as I worked for a time as a member of the EVL in college. I was an engineer sitting at a workbench right next to artists using the software we developed.&rdquo; 
The day before Commencement, both Lynch and Roy agreed to meet with COE students, primarily undergraduates though all were welcome, for a Student Q&A that was held in EVL&rsquo;s Cyber-Commons classroom. Students asked Lynch everything from tips on entrepreneurship to whether he ever met Steve Jobs - he did - and what was he like - creative and open to new ideas. Roy was asked what her favorite movie was that she worked on - she liked them all - and what she did in her spare time - photography and hiking! One student thanked her for working for Pixar and creating such enjoyable animated movies. Though Roy and Lynch had never met before, they were clearly EVL kindred spirits, giving similar responses to questions they were jointly asked, and both saying how lessons learned at EVL greatly influenced their lives and careers. 
<a href="https://youtu.be/ES6avmbRChM?t=35m35s">View Roy&rsquo;s UIC College of Engineering Commencement Speech.</a> 
<a href="https://youtu.be/ES6avmbRChM?t=1h7m12s">View Lynch&rsquo;s Honorary Doctorate Degree Acceptance Speech.</a>

No One Ever Leaves EVL

Monday, May 2, 2016, 9:30 AM 
Room 1000, Science & Engineering Office Building, UIC 
UIC Computer Science and EVL exchange student from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, Andrea Purgato presents his thesis research that explores the optimization of the similarity computation among nodes for spatio-temporal networks. 
This research is divided into two parts. The first aspect is to develop a GPU-based computation system to speed up the networks definition. The second uses the GPU-based method developed initially to develop an interactive visualization tool focused specifically on brain network visualizations.

Andrea Purgato Thesis Presentation: &ldquo;GPU Acceleration and Interactive Visualization for Spatio-Temporal Network&ldquo;

On-line, real-time audio dilation is a technique that time stretches, or slows down the tempo of audio signals as they are generated. This research focuses upon the control over incoming live audio tempo for increased intelligibility and comfort. 

The system features networked, full duplex communication, independent variable dilation rates, variable voice activation detection and a length (visual) audio storage buffer. Anticipated application areas include public safety, pilot / flight controllers, language translation, international communication, hearing loss, to name a few.

Audio Dilation

SENSEI: Sensor Environment Imaging (SENSEI) Instrument is a National Science Foundation award to construct a reconfigurable, ultra-high-resolution, spherical (4π steradian), photometric, radiometric and photogrammetric real-time data-acquisition, sensor-based, camera system capable of capturing 3D stereo and still images for viewing in collaboration-enabled, nationally networked,
virtual-reality systems. 
As SENSEI researchers develop the SENSEI camera system, collaborators are exploring and refining techniques for displaying data captured via a variety of sensors, as well as investigating human computer interaction modalities for stereoscopic, virtual reality applications and environments incorporating complex layers of sensor data. 
SENSEI-Panama (SENSor Environment Imaging-Panama) is a environmental visualization approach developed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) to investigate the movement patterns on newly isolated species in the anthropological sciences. Researchers who have left the field are unable to visually determine what animals see in their environment; however, they produce large amounts of data through the use of GPS collars. accelerometers, LIDAR, aerial photography, and terrain maps. SENSEI-Panama considers how to visualize this kind of data in an environment like CAVE2&trade; and combine it with the animal movement data collected. The data is transformed to create a virtual map to enable researchers at the University of California Davis to easily track the movements of animals through their habitat on the island, and study their behavior.

SAGE2 Team Engaging with the Trusted CI Center on SAGE2 Cybersecurity

Contact