Calit2 Research Team at UCI Receives Research and Curriculum Development Grant from NSF
By Anna Lynn Spitzer
 Professor Tara Hutchinson (PI) |
Professors Tara Hutchinson (PI), Falko Kuester, Mark Warschauer, Masanobu Shinozuka and Nader Bagherzadeh (CoPIs) were awarded $410,000 by the National Science Foundation for their work on improving visualization capabilities in engineering education. The three-year grant award, entitled "Expanding Engineering Thinking: Interactive Visualization of Numerical Models", was made possible in part by a commitment of matching funds for hardware and salaries from Cal(IT)², the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and the Office of Research and Graduate Studies. The award will allow Hutchinson and her colleagues to develop a new learning environment that incorporates a specially designed lecture room and a laboratory.
The new environment, called VizClass, integrates two- and three-dimensional spatial learning by coupling a series of interactive projection display boards (2D white boards) and a semi-immersive wall display (3D stereo equipped) controlled by a dedicated visualization server, each connected to a numerical solver. Problems and equations put on the white boards can then be solved and the results presented visually in a variety of graphical modes. The use of VizClass will enable UCI to augment several existing engineering courses and to conduct a new advanced class on visualization. Web links to other UC Campuses and National Laboratories will be established, and the students will have real-time web access to the system. Initial emphasis will be placed on problems involving finite element analysis, in which developing the visualization is typically the most time-consuming step.
 Graphic presentation of finite element analysis of a simple plate under bending pressure |