NEWS & EVENTS

2004-06-29

SIO VizCenter staff participated in the 2nd Annual OptIPuter NSF Site Visit held at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago. Demonstrations of large data objects being transferred over the UCSD campus fiber from the OptIPuter storage cluster for visualization at the SIO visualizaton cluster were transmitted over live video to the NSF reviewers in Chicago.

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2004-06-29

Dr. Frank Vernon (SIO/IGPP) introduced James Paul, who is a science policy export and a minority staffer for the House Science Committee, to real-time streaming data relating to SIO geoscience research and data collection.

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2004-06-28

The SCEC summer intern group toured the VizCenter to learn about the capabilities of the Center and the current visualization projects at IGPP. The group, composed of ~20 undergraduates from around the country, are working on a large earthquake visualization project this summer. All were impressed by the VizCenter hardware, as well as demonstrations by Debi Kilb and Geoff Ely. They were especially excited to see earthquake data from around the world, which they hope to incorporate into their current project. Annemarie Baltay (an undergraduate from Yale) assisted with the presentation, outlining her work with Geoff Ely (SIO graduate student) on a visualization of earthquake rupture dynamics.

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2004-06-18

Todd Needham from the Research Programs Group in the University Research Group at Microsoft Research visited the VizCenter to understand the various research projects underway at IGPP and at the VizCenter. The VizCenter staff described the various visualization tools actively used for research and also showed him the OptIPuter cluster.

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2004-06-17

The Board of Directors of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) held its annual meeting in San Diego, which included a visit to SIO to learn about current research in climate change and climate predication. Many of the 22 out-of-state visitors felt the local magnitude 5.2 earthquake on June 16th and they were delighted that seismologist Debi Kilb (SIO) was available to explain how to interpret the seismic signature of this earthquake. This minimal training was sufficient for them to identify a small earthquake in the streaming real-time ANZA seismic data.

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2004-06-15

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake occurred today off the coast of San Diego. Seismologists and visualization specialists led by Dr. Frank Vernon quickly prepared waveform analyses for an imprompt news conference in the SIO Visualization Center for the local television and radio stations.

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2004-06-15

During a series of seminars at UC Berkeley (April 27), the University of Toronto (June 8), and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (June 15), Dr. Catherine Johnson (SIO) used the 3D interactive capabilities of the Mars Scene file (housed and distributed through the SIO VizCenter) to discuss martian geography and the history of crustal formation on Mars. The ability to explore the 3D data interactively using a simple laptop system and freeware is preferable to static 2D cross sections, particularly for one-one-one interactions, and during questions after a seminar.

2004-06-10

Visualization Center staff showed demonstrations of 3-D seismic visual applications developed by the SIO Visualization Center at the 2004 IRIS Workshop held this year in Tucson, Arizona. Seismologists were interested in the applicability of the visualizations to earthquake monitoring, waveform analysis and education and outreach. Scientists gave valuable feedback about the applications, which will aid developers in improving the various visual objects.

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2004-06-10

Neal Driscoll's Inaugural Lecture "Tectonic Signatures on Continental Margins" included 3D visualizations created by SIO graduate students Kurt Schwehr and Jeff Dingler.

2004-06-08

As part of his book tour, Dr. Kim Stanley Robinson requested a special visit to the SIO Visualization Center as he was particularly taken by the Center during a previous visit. Graduate student Renee Bulow (SIO), an avid reader of his work, introduced the visitor to many aspects of Mars, the Earth and the Moon. Dr. Robinsons book, Forty Signs of Rain, the first novel in a trilogy on climate change is available in bookstores now.

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2004-06-04

NSF visitor Orin Shane (EHR/Informal Science Education) attended a round table discussion in the VizCenter to learn about the collaborations between SIO, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps and the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. The agenda included a presentation of the cutting edge EM research by Postdoctoral researcher Kerry Key (SIO) and a summary of the ongoing education outreach activities at the VizCenter by Debi Kilb (SIO). One of the goals of the meeting was in identifying the essential elements of successful researcher/educator E&O partnerships.

2004-06-04

Back in 2000 John Markoff, a writer for the New York Times, covered the launch of the Calit2 project, which is run under the direction of Larry Smarr. Smarr and Markoff reunited in 2004 to review the projects progress. Smarr guided Markoff through a number of different venues, which included highlights such as SIO’s real-time data collection from remote locations, the latest in visualization technology and its usefulness in geoscience research. They also viewed high resolution Ikonos satellite imagery for Incline village and Mars Rover images on the SIO high-resolution OptIPuter displays.

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2004-06-03

Brian Baird (CA Resources Agency Ocean Program Manager), Mary Glackin (Assistant Administrator for Program Planning and Integration, NOAA) and Pete Silva (Vice Chair, CA State Water Resources Quality Control Board) visited Scripps Institution of Oceanography for a series of briefings on Scripps research. Included in the events of the day was a tour of the SIO Visualization Center where SIO researchers Drs. Vernon and Cayan discussed the integration of real-time data into research projects and public safety venues.

2004-06-02

Dr. Dave Sandwell (SIO) held an informal class in the SIO Visualization Center for his undergraduate Remote Sensing class (ERTH135). The interactive ability to display various types of remote sensing data solidified many of the basic concepts that the students learned during the 10-week UCSD lecture series. The popularity of Dr. Sandwell's "3D journey to the bottom of the ocean" netted additional curious students, friends and co-workers to the gala -- eventually filling the room to its capacity.