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

The Experimental Sound Studio presents eclectic performance and installation programming as part of it's OSCILLATIONS 2016 series. Among this year&rsquo;s line-up is EVL post-doctoral research associate Anil Camci, who will perform &lsquo;Temas&rsquo; - a real-time, stochastic, electronic, acoustic performance. In this performance, Camci traverses the fine line between the organic and the synthesized, analyzing patterns of sound and performing probabilities. 
Saturday, November 12, 2016 
Experimental Sound Studio 
5925 N Ravenswood 
Chicago, IL 60660 
Doors open at 7:30pm; performance begins at 8:00pm.

EVL Post-doctoral Research Associate Anil Camci Performs at the Experimental Sound Studio: OSCILLATIONS 2016

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

Best of Chicago 2016

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

While most academic conferences attract people who want to learn, the annual IEEE Visualization (VIS) conference attracts people who want to be challenged. Throughout the year, the conference sponsors several contests - to encourage the best visualizations and designs of complex datasets. Awards and recognition are announced at the annual conference, which is taking place this week in Baltimore, Maryland. 
Faculty and students of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago were surprised and elated to learn they won Honorable Mention in the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee&rsquo;s (VGTC) third International Data Visualization Contest, organized by the IEEE Visualization Pioneers Group (VPG). This year, the contest was done in collaboration with ACT, Inc., the company that administers the standardized test for college readiness assessment. 
Early in the Fall 2016 semester, UIC Computer Science (CS) associate professor G. Elisabeta Marai gave students in her CS 526 Interactive Scientific Visualization course a design assignment based on the IEEE VGTC VPG Data Visualization Contest. The students - including Timothy Luciani, Juan Trelles Trabucco, Chihua Ma, Andrew Burks, Manu Thomas, Krishna Bharadwaj, Shiwangi Singh, Peter Hanula, and Lei Di - spent several weeks designing, implementing, and integrating pieces for a group submission to the contest. Serendipitously, their visualization effort, called &ldquo;Multi-Scale Voronoi-Based ACT Assessment&rdquo; was recognized as one of the winning entries by the judges. The group was honored at the VPG Reception at VIS 2016. 
ACT operates nearly 9,000 testing centers annually to deliver the ACT Assessment test to over two million high school students on six different Saturdays each year as part of its open, &ldquo;National&rdquo; program. Use of the test data by schools and government agencies has grown significantly in recent years, and is increasing the demands on the ACT network and test seat availability. Thus, ACT seeks to use data it collects to better manage its system and its operating costs. 
The 2016 challenge was to develop a static visual representation that shows how geographic and seasonal changes in the availability of the ACT test affects nearby or adjacent testing sites, by moving students or assessments, changing dates, or some other strategy. For example, how does the addition or subtraction of a testing center affect demand in neighboring zip codes, or what is the optimal test center network in a particular season? 
The students who worked on the winning entry are UIC CS PhD, MS and BS students, many of whom have EVL Research Assistantships or Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) support. 
<a href="http://vacommunity.org/ieeevpg/viscontest/2016/">IEEE VGTC VPG third International Data Visualization Contest information.</a> 
# # # # # # 
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDITS 
TOP LEFT: Choropleth maps showing national-level costs and utilization. The large green map shows aggregate expenses (2012-2015). California, Texas, and Florida have the three highest expenses. The small multiple below shows the expense distribution per year (no significant variation). The purple maps show, similarly, the percent utilization (Assigned/Capacity), and a reasonably fair distribution nationwide. 
BOTTOM: Average bar charts. Two bar charts display the average expenses and utilization per state (2012-2015). The charts provide a quantitative comparison across states and complement the choropleths. 
TOP MIDDLE: Voronoi visualization of test center distribution at regional level (Illinois). Voronoi diagrams partition the region based on distances to test centers. The Voronoi cell intensity is mapped to Assigned/Capacity. The darker the cell, the higher demand in that region. The partially filled red circle in each cell double-encodes utilization. Circle size encodes the Center capacity, and the filled area shows the assigned number. Orange markers show population sizes per Zipcode. The region with the most test centers in Illinois is the greater Chicago area.K 
TOP MID-RIGHT: Side-by-side Voronoi analysis of center addition (Cook County). Two side-by-side Voronoi maps show county-level changes before and after the addition of two new test centers (yellow). The saturation of cells with a yellow boundary captures the effect over nearby centers. Lighter Voronoi cells in the South Side of Chicago indicate lower participation in those neighborhoods. 
TOP RIGHT: Seasonal Optimized Network. Four maps show seasonal population density per Zipcode (Chicago region). Partially filled red glyphs encode Centers and show the Assigned/Capacity per season. The Center network shown is a custom optimized network in which under-utilized Centers were iteratively removed and the nearest Center capacity was increased. Summer and Fall are popular in Chicago, and have dense Center networks.

IEEE VIS'16 VGTC VPC Data Visualization Contest winners - Juan Trelles, Chihua Ma, Manu Thomas, Timothy Luciani, G.E. Marai, Shiwangi Singh, Lei Di, Peter Hanula, Krishna Bharadwaj, Andrew Burks; EVL/UIC

UIC/EVL Receives Honorable Mention in IEEE VIS 2016’s VGTC VPG Data Visualization Contest

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.

A sample photo from the historical archive superimposed on the live camera stream. In order to create an appealing AR effect, the photo needs to appear aligned with specific environmental features.

Augmented Reality App Offers New Look at Eastland Disaster

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>

In an homage to Star Trek, Arthur Nishimoto spent his spare time over several years creating a 3D virtual-reality replica of the starship Enterprise for EVL&rsquo;s CAVE2&trade;. Enterprise exterior model developed by Dennis Baily and Eric Clark.

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

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> 
# # # #

Lewis Siegel

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

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 
# # #

(top) &ldquo;SpiderSense&rdquo; with Victor Mateevitsi - (photo L. Renambot); (bottom) &ldquo;Into the (Virtual) Jungle&rdquo; with Jillian Aurisano and James Hwang

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

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 Instructiton in VR/AR Presentation

HoloLens Interface

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

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;

Jacqueline Tapia, UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory.

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

Images from two articles by EVL&rsquo;ers made the cover of the January/February issue of JIST (Journal of Imaging Science and Technology)! 
COVER - TOP IMAGES (white background): 
Chihua Ma, Angus Forbes, Daniel Llano, Tanya Berger-Wolf, Robert V. Kenyon, &ldquo;SwordPlots: Exploring Neuron Behavior within Dynamic Communities of Brain Networks,&rdquo; Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 60(1), January/February 2016, pp. 010405-1 - 010405-13, DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2016.60.1.010405">http://dx.doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2016.60.1.010405</a> 
COVER - BOTTOM IMAGES (black backgrounds): 
G. Elisabeta Marai, Timothy Luciani, Adrian Maries, S. Levent Yilmaz, Mehdi B Nik, &ldquo;Visual Descriptors for Dense Tensor Fields in Computational Turbulent Combustion: A Case Study,&rdquo; Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 60(1), January/February 2016, pp.010404-1 - 010404-11, DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2016.60.1.010404">http://dx.doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2016.60.1.010404</a>

Cover art of JIST January/February 2016 issue features EVL research

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 Presentation Slides

The virtual island of Isla Barro Colorado as displayed in the CAVE2.

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

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.

SAGE2 Presentation Slides

SAGE2 presentation at &ldquo;Node.js Live - Chicago&rdquo;

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

EVL PhD candidate Michael Lewis presents his preliminary research on large scale query systems, and query complexity with regards to query pre-processing and memory usage within a tightly coupled high performance computing environment and within a cloud environment. 
Wednesday, June 15, 2016 
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 
EVL Cyber-Commons, 2032 ERF 
Abstract: 
From spreadsheets to database and Cloud services, data management software and systems use query based features for focused data inquiry and to examine results inquired from connected relationships among its components. Today&rsquo;s data-management systems are able to perform queries on SQL, NoSQL and semantic based structures for a scalable range of data. Partitioning techniques, network reduction algorithms, and memory based indexing schemes have been heavily researched and integrated into different data management products, in order to produce faster and scalable query results. However, there has been little to no research in using memory management and join pre-processing within a distributed environment to create scalable queries and to understand scale, based on query complexity.

Large Scale Query Analysis on HPC and Cloud Systems

EVL PhD candidate Chihua Ma presents her preliminary research in visual analytics for biological networks. 
Monday, June 13, 2016 
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM 
EVL Cyber-Commons, 2032 ERF 
Abstract: 
Biological systems are often modeled as networks in which vertices denote individual bio-units, and edges represent interactions between vertices, such as protein-protein interaction networks, gene regulatory networks, and neural networks. Biological networks feature spatial features, e.g. coordinates in the brain, and nonspatial features, e.g. the network structure. They change dynamically, e.g. brain activation. They are analyzed and explored at multiple levels. For example, brain activation data may range from the macroscale level to the microscale level. Last but not least, modeling these networks is often done over multiple examples or with different models. 
This wealth of data, features, models, and potential hypotheses and experiments exceeds the analytical capabilities of machines. Visualization provides an effective way to help biologists understand, communicate, and gain insight into their biological data through visual analysis and exploration. 
I have contributed to a survey of spatial-nonspatial integration in biology; designed several novel multi-scale visual encodings; and completed three applications that partially support the biological problems with the combination of those three challenges. In the future work, I will contribute to a taxonomy, design novel multi-scale visual representations and develop a visual approach that can fully support the big challenge.

Visual Analysis Techniques for Spatial-Nonspatial, Dynamic, Multi-Scale and Multi-Run Biological Networks

On June 11, 2016, at the annual Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) Conference at University of Victoria in Canada, &ldquo;Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project&rdquo; won the ELO&rsquo;s 2016 Robert Coover Award for the best work of electronic literature of any length or genre. The award, which consists a monetary prize of $1,000, a plaque, and a one-year membership in the ELO, recognizes creative excellence. 
Developed by Scott Rettberg (University of Bergen, Norway), Roderick Coover (Temple University), and Daria Tsoupikova and Arthur Nishimoto (University of Illinois at Chicago [UIC]), &ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; is a 3D narrative experience that was initially developed for the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory&rsquo;s (EVL) CAVE2&trade; virtual-reality environment. Based on interviews that John Tsukayma conducted with American soldiers who participated in or witnessed acts of abusive violence towards detainees in the counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan during the early 2000s, &ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; explores the circumstances and consequences of battlefield torture and its effects on those who participated in it. 
One jurist wrote, &ldquo;A major achievement. Rettberg and Coover harness the power of digital technologies to tell a powerful story and in doing so go far in changing the audience&rsquo;s hearts and minds about torture.&rdquo; 
&ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; premiered at EVL in June-July 2014. It was subsequently ported to run on large, interactive 3D displays, and there is now an iPad version in the works. It has been shown at the IEEE 2014 Visualization conference in Paris; the Literature, Media, Sound conference at Aarhus University in Denmark (November 2013); the Paris 8 University (November 2014); the Human Rights/Human Wrongs International Film Festival in Oslo, Norway (February 13, 2015); the IEEE 2015 VR conference in Arles, France; the ACM SIGGRAPH 2015 conference (poster session) in Los Angeles; the HASTAC 2015 Conference at Michigan State University; the 2015 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Vancouver, Canada; and, the 2016 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Hong Kong. 
The UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory, the UIC School of Design, Temple University, and the Norwegian Research Council supported the development of this project. 
To learn more about this award, see: 
<a href="http://bit.ly/268ImLu">http://bit.ly/268ImLu</a> 
<a href="http://bit.ly/1sNepSW">http://bit.ly/1sNepSW</a> 
To learn more about the &ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; project, see: 
<a href="http://retts.net/index.php/works/">http://retts.net/index.php/works/</a> 
<a href="http://astro.temple.edu/~rcoover/HeartsAndMinds/index.html">http://astro.temple.edu/~rcoover/HeartsAndMinds/index.html</a> 
Learn more about <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=1162">&ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; premiere</a> at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory, and <a href="http://bit.ly/265NTpx">watch a video</a>.

&ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; shown in the CAVE2&trade; virtual-reality environment. Performer wears stereo glasses with markers for wireless tracking and holds a wand controller for interacting with virtual objects in the scene.

&ldquo;Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project&rdquo; Awarded Top Electronic Literature Prize

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 Event Posting

Users interact with BactoGeNIE on EVL's Cyber-Commons tiled display.

Art of Science: Comparative Genomics, Visualization and Big Displays

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.

User experiencing &ldquo;Hearts and Minds&rdquo; at ISEA2016

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

Wednesday, May 6, 2016, 11:00 AM 
Room 1000, Science & Engineering Office Building, UIC 
UIC Computer Science and EVL exchange student from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, Andrea Rottigni presents his thesis research that explores the use of Virtual Reality for upper-limb and walking rehabilitation. 
&ldquo;RehabJim&rdquo; is a serious game designed for post-stroke patients to help with upper-limb rehabilitation using the CAVE2&trade; Hybrid Reality Environment. The application can be run in two modes - first and third person perspectives to allow domain scientists to better understand, which mode might be most effective in patient rehabilitation. A small user study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of each perspective mode. 
&ldquo;CAVEChef&rdquo;, another serious game developed for the CAVE2 to assist post-stroke patients in walking rehabilitation tasks. &ldquo;CAVEChef&rdquo; uses a third person perspective.

Serious Games for Virtual Rehabilitation Presentation

User interactis with &ldquo;RehabJim&rdquo; rehabilitation application

Andrea Rottigni Thesis Presentation: &ldquo;Serious Games for Virtual Rehabilitation in a Large Scale Virtual Reality Environment&rdquo;

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.

&ldquo;Merging Worlds&rdquo; Presentation

Navigation And Information Browsing Case Study

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

May 3, 2016, 9:30 AM 
EVL Cyber-Commons, Room 2068 ERF 
UIC Computer Science and EVL exchange student from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, Fillipo Pellolio presents his Master thesis research on the development of an electronic whiteboard for large multt-touch displays, SAGEBoard. 
SAGEBoard provides users with the capability to perform classic whiteboard actions such as drawing or writing free-handed on the screen using their finger or a stylus - or use brushes to paint and erase content. Content can be relocated on the screen, new content inserted, and sessions saved and reloaded. Content can be shared between all the users with simultaneous interaction, improving the collaborative task. SAGEBoard is designed to be used locally or remotely where sessions can be shared in real-time between a number of participating sites.

SAGEBoard MS Thesis presentation

Users interacting with SAGEBoard on EVL&rsquo;s Cyber-Commons multi-touch display

Filippo Pellolio Thesis Presentation &ldquo;SAGEBoard: a Whiteboard for Large Multitouch Displays&rdquo;

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.

GPU Acceleration and Interactive Visualization for Spatio-Temporal Network

Brain network visualization interface showing networked communities plotted.

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

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.

Arthur Nishimoto stands in front of EVL’s Cyber-Commons that is running his video game &ldquo;Fleet Commander,&rdquo; an homage to the epic battles in Star Wars&rsquo; Return of the Jedi.

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

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

Victor Mateevitsi participating in TEDxUofIChicago, April 8, 2016

Wednesday, April 6, 2016, 1:00 PM 
EVL Cyber-Commons (Room 2068 ERF) 
EVL research assistant and Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student, Haoyu Wang presents his research contribution to the National Science Foundation sponsored &ldquo;Sensor Environment Imaging (SENSEI) Instrument Project&rdquo;. 
Abstract: 
The goal of SENSEI project is to create a scientific camera and display system for fully surrounding stereo cinema for scientific visual and depth data acquisition. Thus, the construction of 360 X 180 panorama are quite important for creating VR-like experiences based on the captured omnidirectional visual data. Right now, several different panorama generated methods have been investigated by the SENSEI research team: 
<ul>
<li>point cloud reprojection
<li>image stitching method 
<li>EPI technology and my task here is to implement an automatically panorama generation system with scripted-based panotools, which is belong to the image stitching method.</ul> 
In this talk, the advantages and disadvantages of the point cloud reprojection and image stitching methods are compared. In addition, an improved depth-based matching, which utilizes the depth information to help qualify 2D corresponding features will be presented. In order to solve the vertical disparity problem between left and right panoramas, one stereo optimization idea is proposed and will explain how to eliminate the vertical disparity and guarantee audiences can perceive nice depth information from the stereo panorama. Finally, two stitched 360 X 180 panoramas from 72 images in spherical coordinate will be displayed.

SENSEI Panorama Construction Using the Image Stitching Method

Result of 72 image stitched panorama.

360 X 180 panorama construction based on image stitching method

Thesis Presentation 
Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 1:00 PM 
Room 2068 ERF, EVL Cyber-Commons 
EVL MS candidate and Italian exchange student, Davide Tantillo presents his research in human-computer interaction on large vertical displays. 
Large vertical displays are starting to spread around different realities. Exhibitions, fairs, workplaces, and often schools and universities are employing them for their capabilities. They have very wide resolutions capable of hosting a lot of information at the same time. Furthermore, they are connected to internet where - it is easily known - an infinite quantity of information is immediately usable. However, it is not easy to exploit efficiently these resolutions, but disciplines such as Data Visualization are currently studying how to present information on these devices. Another important topic about large vertical displays is how users should interact with them. Mice and keyboards, touch detection systems, or other strategies can be employed. There is no winner among them and their preference depend on the application. However, no precise guidelines are present on how use them and on how provide an interface for large vertical displays with these input systems. Lastly, lack in the literature of large displays is that we do not know how people behave using them. There are some interesting studies, but they are limited and often neglect the existence of wider conclusions, leading to divergent conclusions. 
This research studies the behavior of humans in a collaborative-competitive task using a large vertical display with multi-touch capabilities. More precisely, the proposed task is the scheduling session for the talks in a scientific conference. Given this task and studying users is designed to better understand how people interact with the display and with one another as a group. We will code and analyze characteristics such as the group&rsquo;s verbal communication, visual attention, shape and the users&rsquo; proximity to the display. Eventually, the set of codes will be combined to understand if some are connected towards better understanding user behavior.

D. Tantillo Thesis Prsentation Slide Set

Large Multitouch Vertical Displays in Multi-User Competitive Tasks

The Chicago Tribune&rsquo;s Blue Sky Innovation section today featured Victor Mateevitsi, a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Computer Science PhD candidate, and his work on SpiderSense. Here are excerpts from the article &ldquo;Can a Spider-Man-inspired jacket help the blind get around Chicago?&rdquo; by reporter Ally Marotti. 
SpiderSense &ldquo;allows you to feel the environment around you. It scans for people or objects, and it vibrates,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The vibrations increase as you get closer to the object. … If someone is following me, I can feel them.&rdquo; 
He says the SpiderSense jacket could help prevent injury among people with visual impairments, or help firefighters find openings in a smoke-filled building with low visibility. Mateevitsi is working with the Chicago Lighthouse, a nonprofit providing rehabilitation services for people with visual impairments, on improving SpiderSense. 
His doctoral adviser, Andrew Johnson, pointed to eyeglasses as an example of an early augmented device. &ldquo;It’s something that&rsquo;s so ingrained in our lives it doesn&rsquo;t look odd to see someone walking down the street with eyeglasses,&rdquo; said Johnson, the director of research at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory and a Computer Science Associate Professor. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the angle we&rsquo;re trying to take with this. … What we&rsquo;re trying to focus on is not so much trying to regain an ability, but how can we add something.&rdquo; 
Mateevitsi is scheduled to pitch at Technori&rsquo;s maker-themed showcase on Tuesday, March 29. 
<a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/technori-maker-movement-march-2016-sponsored-by-jpmorgan-chase-tickets-22334257365?aff=website">Read about the event and purchase tickets.</a> 
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/series/makers/ct-spidersense-jacket-makers-bsi-20160323-story.html">Read the complete Chicago Tribune article and watch a video of SpiderSense.</a> 
Mateevitsi&rsquo;s SpiderSense jacket, filled with sensors and inspired by Spider-Man, was recently featured on the <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=2160">Science Channel&rsquo;s &ldquo;All-American Makers.&rdquo;</a>

Victor Mateevitsi created the SpiderSense jacket to vibrate when something, or someone, is close.

Can a Spider-Man-inspired jacket help the blind get around Chicago?

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

MS candidate and Italian exchange student, Marco Cavallo presents his research in Augmented Reality (AR). His presentation will introduce a user-centered AR approach for publishing 2D media archives as AR content. Relevant technical considerations for developing an effective application in the Unity 3D game engine for public outdoor AR experiences that leverage context-specific elements in a challenging, real-world environment will be discussed. This research provides enabling technology for the the Riverwalk project - Chicago 0,0, a novel app-based AR experience that superimposes historical imagery onto matching views in downtown Chicago along the Chicago river Riverwalk pedestrian mile. Historical photographic and filmic views of the sites along the river are superimposed onto buildings, bridges, and other architectural features through image-based AR tracking, providing a striking experience of the city&rsquo;s history as rooted in extant locations within the community. 
This work is done in collaboration with Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, Assistant Professor at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Riverwalk Augmented Reality Experience Presentation

Riverwalk: Incorporating Historical Photography in Public Outdoor Augmented Reality Experiences

Princeton Review&rsquo;s Top 25 Graduate Schools to Study Game Design for 2016 
On March 15, 2016, the Princeton Review released its seventh annual ranking lists naming the best undergraduate and graduate schools for students to study - and launch a career in - game design. UIC made the list of the top 25 graduate schools to study game design. The selection was based on a survey it conducted in 2015 of administrators at 150 institutions offering game design coursework and/or degrees in the U.S., Canada and some countries abroad. 
The selection and ranking of schools was based on criteria that broadly covered the quality of the faculty, facilities and technology. The Princeton Review also factored in data it collected from the schools on their curriculum and career services. 
The UIC Computer Science Department has been teaching &ldquo;Video Game Design and Development&rdquo; for over a decade, and in 2014 and 2015, it was taught by UIC alumnus and adjunct instructor of computer science, Mark Tulewicz, a game developer who previously worked at Incredible Technologies in the Chicagoland area, and is now a software developer at Amazon Game Studios. Tulewicz taught the course at both at UIC and, with co-instructor Kevin Cherry, at Louisiana State University (LSU) using video conferencing. Students were organized into virtual teams, and each team had to design and develop a video game as its class project, which were then judged in a formal setting. Students learned to balance real-world deadlines while working with classmates who were thousands of miles away. The course was meant to mimic the challenges faced by many startup indie game developers. 
The Princeton Review has reported its game design program rankings annually since 2010. It has teamed up with PC Gamer, a monthly magazine published by Future plc, as its reporting partner on this project since 2013. PC Gamer&rsquo;s May issue will have a feature on the ranking lists that details the schools&rsquo; unique programs, prominent professors, and alumni. 
More information on the Princeton Review&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/game-design">&ldquo;Top 25 Graduate Schools to Study Game Design for 2016.&rdquo;</a> 
This is not the first time Princeton Review acknowledged UIC&rsquo;s video game course. In 2010, UIC was rated one of the top undergraduate game design programs in the U.S. and Canada. (Note that the course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.) Jason Leigh, then a UIC Computer Science professor, <a href="https://www.evl.uic.edu/entry.php?id=947">started this course</a> and taught it for many years.

This montage shows stills from the student-developed projects done for the &ldquo;Video Game Design and Development&rdquo; computer science course, taught by Mark Tulewicz at UIC in collaboration with Louisiana State University, in 2014 and 2015.

Princeton Review rates UIC one of the top 25 graduate schools to study game design

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>

Arthur Nishimoto and the Stormtroopers in the Death Star, shown in the UIC CAVE2 Hybrid Reality Environment.

Star Wars Death Star reborn in virtual reality at UIC

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 1:00 PM 
EVL Cyber-Commons, Room 2068 ERF 
MS candidate and Italian exchange student, Andrea Purgato presents his research into methods for the GPU-based computation to define the structure of a dynamic social or biological network. Emphasis is placed expressly on brain network computation, which is computationally expensive. The goal is to speed up the computation process by using high performance computing techniques, exploiting the computational power and the architecture of GPU. Examples centered on a real-time visualization of the computed networks, using GPU-accelerated computing will be presented. The goal is to provide researchers' greater insight into the structures of dynamic networks.

Network visualization spplication screenshot.

Network Computation with GPU

Wallcology, an extension of the &rsquo;Embedded Phenomena&rsquo; learning technology framework, can be described as a computer simulation designed to support middle school curricular goals in life science and population ecology. By situating students within a complex virtual ecosystem, this system allows them to conduct investigations focused on topics such as the identification and classification of species, predator-prey relationships, food webs and others. Kyle Almryde presents his contribution to this research project, and discusses some of the design rationale and classroom experience surrounding this ubiquitous computing application. 
This work is part of a collaboration between two programs of research known as EPIC (Embedded Phenomena for Knowledge Communities). The EP framework was developed by Tom Moher and the Learning Technologies Group at UIC. The Knowledge Community and Inquiry model is being investigated by Jim Slotta and his students at the Encore Lab at OISE/UT. In EPIC classrooms, students work together as active members of a knowledge community, sharing information, reasoning together, and solving problems.

Wallcology in the classroom.

Wallcology: Technology based learning and scientific inquiry

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>

Victor Mateevitsi welcomes friends and colleagues to his viewing party for the All-American Makers TV show featuring SpiderSense at MATTER headquarters.

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

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>

Brenna Berman, City of Chicago&rsquo;s Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation &amp; Technology, introduces OpenGrid on the UIC EVL Cyber-Commons wall.

Events - 2016

SC16 SAGE BOF Now Posted Online

EVL Post-doctoral Research Associate Anil Camci Performs at the Experimental Sound Studio: OSCILLATIONS 2016

Newcity magazine rates UIC/EVL as “Best place to get your geek on”

UIC/EVL Receives Honorable Mention in IEEE VIS 2016’s VGTC VPG Data Visualization Contest

Augmented Reality App Offers New Look at Eastland Disaster

UIC/EVL Helps Kick Off NSF’s Holodeck Social Media Campaign

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