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The 2003 SIO Visualization Center Competition Results

The 2004 Student Visualization Competition took place in the SIO Visualization Center on Friday 22^nd October. There were a total of 14 entries from the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics to the Climate Research Division to the Geosciences Research Division. Once again the judges and audience were impressed with both the standard of the presentations and the visualizations themselves.

This years competition illustrated a maturing of visualization techniques and presentations, with the entrants learning from the two previous years competitions (although there were a number of first–year graduate student entries!).

Students presented data visualizations relevant to their research projects, including satellite geodesy, real–time data acquisition from cameras distributed throughout San Diego County, moonquakes and tidal cycles, the tectonics of the Gulf of California, how optical seismometers work, a clustering algorithm of cloud properties, volume rendering of the deep Earth structure, the tectonics and mineralogy of the Lau Basin, active slumping in the Santa Barbara basin, satellite calibration in South America, volume rendering of grain–sizes in sediments, sedimentation in La Jolla, earthquake activity in California, the structure of gas blow–outs offshore Virginia, and seafloor geodesy.

The judges had a difficult task in picking winners, but Bridget Smith emerged triumphant, closely followed by Adrian Borsa and Jenna Hill. Each winner took home an iPod Mini. Five runners–up each received an X–Box (donated by Microsoft).

A big thank you to Science Director Debi Kilb and Director Graham Kent for organizing the event, and Kitty Haak for organizing the excellent refreshments!

A big thank you to the judges of the 2004 competition (from left to right): Kris Walker, Crispin Hollinshead, Cheryl Peach, Cindy Clark, Brad Werner.

Photos from the event

Alison Jacobs' Lau Basin project.	Todd Hansen's real–time cameras.
Renee Bulow teaches everyone about moonquakes.	Bridget Smith's movie on California seismicity impressed the judges.
Fiona Sutherland explained the tectonics of the Gulf of California.	Jose Otero created Flash animations of how the new Optical Fringe Seismometer operates.
Climate student Neil Gordon used Matlab to show how cloud–types can be defined by applying a k–means clustering algorithm.	Christine Reif's Open DX model illustrates how the characteristics of regions of deep seismicity vary around the globe.
Jeff Dingler demonstrated how multiple data sets can help determine why slumping occurred in the Santa Barbara channel.	Adrian Borsa described how an extremely flat surface (the salar de Uyuni in the Bolivian Altiplano) was used to calibrate the ICESat satellite.
Geology student Jenna Hill showed how large elongated craters offshore Virginia may have been formed by gas blowouts.	Last year's winner Kerry Key receives a prize for teaching classes on visualization to this years entrants.
The judges and audience were impressed by the high standard of presentations.	The judges had a difficult time determining the winners.
Enjoying the refreshments on the Visualization Center balcony.	Science Director Debi Kilb chatting with alison Jacobs.
Bridget collects her prize.	Adrian gets a medal.
Jenna wins an iPod Mini.	Renee picks up an X–Box.
Jose's animations and movies were a hit.	Jeff seems happy with the result!
Katie collects her X–Box.	Graham wondering if the medal is real gold...
This years winners...	...take the stage.
Renee and her new X–Box.	Celebrations!