IEL Open House

I visited the Immersive Environments Lab (IEL) Open House yesterday. The facility is just wonderful and the energy and passion of those involved is infectious.

I'm pretty familiar with the Access Grid capable 3 walled system used to aid in the design process for student projects that is the centerpiece of the IEL, but I got to see some other tools in action as well.

There were some flat-screen 3D devices that Brian Orland demo'ed using some local GIS data. The effect was pleasing and insightful. A goal, according to Brian, is to allow someone to navigate geological and geographical spaces in a 3D space AND across time. Very cool idea.

George Otto gave me the scoop on how folks (in the College of Arts and Architecture) are working with people at Carleton University in Canada. I learned of a project called Eucalyptus
that comes out of CANARIE. Eucalyptus is interesting on many fronts. The area that stuck out to me was that it is a driver for developing infrastructure controls that enables user controlled light paths (UCLP). In short, this means that end-users can setup and use light waves on national (and hopefully international) fiber-optic networks.

My favorite aspect of the open house though is the student involvement and ownership of the facility. The faculty involved with the IEL have created an incredible learning environment in Stuckemann building. And ITS staff in the Visualization Group have played a key role in making it all happen.