Brown University CS237/Rhode Island School of Design Illus 5303
Fall 2002

Interactive Scientific Visualization


Tuesday/Thursday 10-12
Location: CIT 477, Lubrano Aud.


Brown Instructor:
Prof. David Laidlaw
Office: Brown CIT 449
Hours: e-mail for appt.
Phone: 863-7647
dhl@cs.brown.edu

RISD Instructor:
Prof. Fritz Drury
Office: RISD ISB 102
Hours: Tu/W/Th 1-4 by appt.
Phone: 454-6241
fdrury@risd.edu

TA:
Dan Keefe
Office: Brown CIT 411
Hours: by appt.
Phone: 863-7662
dfk@cs.brown.edu

Writing and Rhetoric Fellow:
Claire Grace
Hours: by Appt.
Phone: 454-2789 (before 11)
Claire_Grace@brown.edu


Course Description

In this class we will experiment with and learn about design as it applies to scientific applications in virtual reality.

Goals for the class:

Aims

At the end of CS237, students will also have had experience with:

Objectives and Course Content Overview

The course will be organized around designing interactive visual solutions for exploring 3D fluid flow datasets. We will work with collaborators in Computer Science, Illustration, Bioengineering, and Applied Math in this design process.

We will learn about the scientific problem as well as about the interaction and visualization challenges that arise when addressing the scientific issues. We will learn about our "medium:" immersive virtual reality -- 3D computer graphics in an 8x8x8 foot cube of display screens. We will learn about design by designing visualization solutions to sub-problems of the larger problem. We will learn about communication by presenting and evaluating our designs based on the scientific needs. We will learn about evaluating our work by doing expert and group crits, by getting formal and informal feedback from users, and by doing reviews with one another. Finally, we will learn about some of the larger design issues by aggregating solutions to sub-problems into larger, more complete solutions.

Each student, sometimes alone and sometimes in a small group, will design and/or realize several visualization approaches during the semester culminating in a final project.

During the semester we will also read about related design and scientific visualization work to put our work in context.

See the class outline and class by class schedule for more details.

Assignments

We expect assignments each week to take ten to fifteen hours beyond the four class hours. Assignments will include targeted readings about design and about the state-of-the-art in visualization, design, programming, presentations, a final project proposal, and a final project.

Because the class will have two very distinct student populations, many of the design assignments will be done in small groups, typically pairs. Pairs will be assigned with one student from each population. Both students will be involved in both design and implementation, but it's expected that the design and implementation load will not always be evenly divided. We will strive to create assignments where everyone can learn about both processes and about how to collaborate and appreciate one anothers skills and expertise.

Assessment

Readings

Readings will be copied and handed out or made available via the course readings/assignments web page.



David Laidlaw, dhl@cs.brown.edu