PHYSICS

Purdue University, world-renowned for its science, engineering and technology disciplines, recently celebrated the grand opening of its immersive, multidisciplinary, virtual reality lab. Named the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization and powered by the unsurpassed visualization technology of Silicon Graphics, the new Envision Center will enable Purdue to tackle the world's most demanding engineering, scientific and creative challenges and more. Purdue University's Envision Center for Data Perceptualization On April 12, 2004, Purdue University held the grand opening of the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization, powered by a 32-processor Silicon Graphics® Onyx4(TM) UltimateVision(TM), and a Silicon Graphics® Tezro(TM) visual workstation. This state-of-the art visualization technology from SGI is enabling Purdue to achieve international recognition as a leading research facility, and will allow faculty and students to produce world-class research. The center will allow far more life-like simulation of real-world phenomena, from storm systems to cellular life, and will help far-flung teams of engineers to collaborate on projects from automobile design to oil prospecting. In recognition of his dedication and vision, Gary Bertoline, associate vice president for discovery resources in Information Technology at Purdue, will be presented with the SGI Innovator Award at 12 Noon on April 20th for his efforts building this new center. "I am flattered and I am excited to receive the SGI Innovator Award because SGI is an internationally recognized leader in computer graphics," said Bertoline, who is also vice president of Visualization and Research Computing at Purdue. "That has been my discipline; my profession has always been in computer graphics, so to be honored by SGI is quite an accomplishment." The 5,600-square-foot Envision Center boasts a reconfigurable theater that seats approximately 50 observers and can be set up as a 30-foot wall or as a three-sided "cave." Fakespace, Inc., a long-time SGI partner, built the theater. Rear projectors behind each panel display 3D data rendered by the Onyx4 system, which is capable of managing Tera-byte sized models. The center can use the power of the Onyx4 system to simulate exploring the surface of a planet or walking through buildings not yet constructed. A key feature of the center is the ability to interact with the virtual environment using more senses than just sight and sound. Through the use of "haptics" technology controlled with the Silicon Graphics Tezro system, Purdue students and faculty will actually be able to manipulate and feel their virtual models. Silicon Graphics Tezro is also used as the motion-capture system enabling anatomical movements to be precisely tracked for ergonomic studies and prosthetic device design or even for enhancing ballet performances. The Envision Center is more than just a local on-campus resource. It also has an access grid node, linking it via the Internet to more than 200 research and academic sites on five continents, which allows users to work collaboratively in real-time on projects via videoconferencing. By September 2004, the Envision Center will also be part of the Teragrid, a National Science Foundation-funded initiative to connect major research institutions and labs around the United States via high-speed fiber. Once connected to the Teragrid, the center will become one of the most capable facilities in the country for the practice of computational science. "The Envision Center is not attached to an academic department. It is meant to be a central resource; everyone can have access to it," said Bertoline. "That also makes it much more inter-disciplinary in nature. The trend outside of academia is for more inter-disciplinary cooperation amongst teams and Purdue is encouraging a similar level of interaction. All over campus, we expect people in all the different disciplines will come and use this facility, and I think you're going to see some exciting results from the Envision Center." To demonstrate to Purdue faculty the potential of the SGI® visualization technology powering the Envision Center, the SGI® Mobile Innovation Center (MIC) rolls onto the West Lafayette, Ind. campus today. The MIC is supercomputing on wheels: a state-of-the-art customized 18-wheel truck equipped with SGI's latest technology solutions for high-performance computing, storage, and advanced visualization. The MIC provides hands-on knowledge of how SGI's leadership in high- performance computing (HPC) and visualization can further enhance Purdue's scientific research. The twenty-seat on-board SGI® Reality Center® facility powered by a SGI® Onyx® visualization system has the power required to process and analyze data equivalent to a 100 years of worldwide climate data or MRI data from 35,000 patients. Users can also experience the power of the SGI® Altix® 3000 family of servers and superclusters that combines SGI supercomputing architecture with Intel® Itanium® 2 processors and the Linux® operating system. The SGI Mobile Innovation Center is coming to a city near you. The Mobile Innovation Center, complete with the latest cutting edge technology, is making its way around the country. To register or view the schedule of cities, visit the Web site www.sgi.com/events/mic.