Emerging from the CAVE:

Advanced Visualization and Collaboration Research at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory

Professor Jason Leigh

Electronic Visualization Laboratory

University of Illinois at Chicago

Date: Friday, April 27, 2007
Place: Buchanan 1930
Time: 2:00 pm — 3:00 pm


Abstract:

EVL invented the CAVE in 1992. Since then EVL has pursued a wide range of research topics. The presentation will provide an overview of EVL's recent research in visualization, high speed networking, and computer supported cooperative work that has been conducted as part of the OptIPuter project. The OptIPuter, so named for its use of Optical networking, Internet Protocol, computer storage, processing and visualization technologies, is an envisioned infrastructure that will tightly couple computational resources over parallel optical networks using the IP communication mechanism. The OptIPuter exploits a new world in which the central architectural element is optical networking, not computers - creating "supernetworks". This paradigm shift requires large-scale applications-driven, system experiments and a broad multidisciplinary team to understand and develop innovative solutions for a "LambdaGrid" world. The goal of this new architecture is to enable scientists who are generating terabytes and petabytes of data to interactively visualize, analyze, and correlate their data from multiple storage sites connected to optical networks.

JASON LEIGH is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and co-director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He received a PhD in Computer Science from the Unversity of Illinois at Chicago in 1997. His current areas of interest include: developing techniques for interactive, remote visualization of massive data sets over high-speed photonic networks; and for supporting long-term collaborative work in amplified collaboration environments.

Leigh is co-chair of the Global Grid Forum's Advanced Collaborative Environments research group; and a co-founder of the GeoWall Consortium.

Leigh now leads EVL's research on the OptIPuter- a cluster of distributed computers interconnected by photonic networks.

Leigh has led EVL's Tele-Immersion research agenda since 1995 after developing the first networked CAVE application in 1992. The outcome of his work has been in active use by General Motors, Hughes Research Labs, Searle/Monsanto, members of the NSF-funded, PACI Alliance, the Next Generation Internet and Internet2, and collaborators around the world including: the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Computational Systems (ACSys) in Australia, Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore, Intelligent Modeling Laboratory at Tokyo University, and the National Center for High-Performance Computing in Taiwan; and many others.

Hosts:

Prof. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Media Arts and Technology
Prof. Tobias Hollerer, Computer Science