HPCN Europe 98
RAI Conference Center Amsterdam, 22 April, 1998
WORKSHOP ON VIRTUAL REALITY
in Industry and Research

picture made by Edward J. Breedveld, SARA

THE VR WORKSHOP

With the development of High Performance Computing (HPC) techniques and the increase in the availability of computer power, large and complex time-dependent datasets are generated in simulations used in industrial and scientific applications. These datasets are not only large, but they also represent simulations of increasingly complex phenomena which often vary dynamically. In many cases visualization, or other exploration techniques, of these complex datasets is one of the few options to analyze these datasets and to obtain further insight into the simulated phenomena. Typical examples are climate modelling, biomolecular modelling, surface physics, simulations of fluid dynamics, diffusion, and reactivity in complex three dimensional geometries, which are relevant in a wide variety of industrial and scientific applications. Moreover with VR one can assess the (visual) impact of buildings and infrastructural works, which can accelerate decision processes.

The workshop on 22 April will consist of an industrial part (the morning sessions) and a scientific part (the afternoon sessions). In the industrial part potential users of the Cave Automatic Virtual Reality Environment (CAVE^tm) will tell about their applications and discuss their experience applying VR technology until this. These potential end users of VR techniques are all from the CAT (Cave Application Trials, ESPRIT 26029) project, which is an activity of the Dutch Technology Transfer Node. During the morning sessions demonstrations will given of applications using the ImmersaDesk. The scientific part consists of 4 invited lectures presented by some of the leading reseachers in VR. During the HPCN conference there will be the possibility for participants of the workshop to visit the SARA CAVE^tm.

EXAMPLES & TOPICS

Successful examples of applications of virtual reality techniques are ``minimally-invasive surgery'' simulators and in biomolecular research on protein docking. Minimally-invasive surgery simulators allow surgeons to rehearse and refine a surgical procedure prior to an actual operation using patient specific models, thereby reducing invasiveness and improving outcome.

An example of problems encountered in the exploration of biomolecular structures is protein docking where information on the matching of one molecule with the contours and charge of another molecule is required. This docking activity is crucial in the protein's ability to promote and inhibit chemical reactions. Although the docking process can be partly investigated through simulation, in many cases visual and haptic inspection is necessary to obtain further insight. The haptic information is then obtained by ``feeling'' how two molecules fit. Successful examples of industrial applications of virtual reality are in automotive industry and in architectural design.

THE SARA CAVE^tm

In the first half of 1997 an advanced Cave Automatic Virtual Reality Environment (CAVE^tm) has been installed at SARA (Academic Computing Services Amsterdam). With the SARA CAVE^tm, researchers have access to a unique state-of-the-art research tool, one of the first in Europe, in an environment characterized by a large concentration of high-performance computing tools. The possibility to visualize complex structures, their evolution as a function of time and their response to external actions has potentially far reaching consequences for the advance of Science and Technology. The SARA CAVE^tm therefore creates powerful new research opportunities over a broad range of disciplines, both in the public and the private sector. In particular it is an environment in which computer scientists cooperate in applications stemming from a wide variety of scientific disciplines e.g. biomolecular research, surface physics, research of catalysts etc. Look here for more.

THE CAT PROJECT

The CAT (Cave Application Trials) project demonstrates the use of CAVE^tm technology to interested parties. The project is an activity of the Dutch Technology Transfer Node. The final aim of CAT is to bring HPCN-supported visualization to new application domains and new users. CAT activities will cover a broad range of user organizations in terms of both industrial sectors and of company type. During the project, 12 demonstrators (suitable candidate CAVE^tm users) will assess the potential gains of this CAVE^tm. At the Workshop the demonstrators so far will tell about their application, the experience in the CAVE^tm and cover use requirements, feasibility and an analysis of the potential benefits in terms of business as well as in terms of increased technical capabilities and capacities.

INVITED SPEAKERS

• Jan Prins, University of North Carolina, USA .
• Gerold Wesche, GMD - German National Research Center for Information Technology
• Louis F. Rossi, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
• Thomas J. Impelluso, University of California at San Diego
  

ORGANISATION WORKSHOP

• Dr. Jaap A. Kaandorp (Chair, University of Amsterdam),
• Dr. Jaap Hollenberg (Academic Computing Services Amsterdam)
• Dr. Hans J.W. Spoelder (Free University Amsterdam),

PROGRAMME

21 April CAVE demo 1

between 16.00-18.00 at SARA there will be demonstrations given in the CAVE. Each CAVE session takes 20 minutes, there will be bus transport between Amsterdam RAI conference and the SARA CAVE. During these CAVE sessions an introduction to the CAVE and examples of industrial and scientificCAVE applications will be given.

22 April

9.00 - 9.30	Andries Tieleman, Stork Engineers & Contractors B.V.-3D CAD Plant Visualisation in the CAVE
9.30 -10.00	A.J. Zegelaar, Zegelaar & Onnekes BV -The Batavia building in Virtual Reality
10.00-10.30	Marcel Glissenaar, Holland Railconsult -A preview of the new Utrecht Central Railway Station
11.00-11.30	Jordi Mestres, N.V. Organon -Assessing the Applicability of a Virtual Reality Environmentin Pharmaceutical Research. Insights into Specificity Issues in the Design of Anti-Thrombotic Drugs
11.30-12.00	Jackie Schooleman, JSID -A design tool in the CAVE
12.00-12.30	George Lavigne, Geo-Perfect Technich Wetenschappelijke Informatiesystemen BV -Understanding spatial information with the CAVE
14.00-14.45	Gerold Wesche, GMD, Germany -The responsive workbench for visualization of fluid dynamics
14.45-15.30	Louis Rossi, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA -Interactive simulation of multiphase flow through porous media
16.00-16.45	Thomas J. Impelluso, University of California at San Diego, USA -Physically-Based Modelling and High Performance Computing: Studies in SystemIntegration
16.45-17.30	Jan Prins, University of North Carolina, USA - Virtual reality applied in molecular dynamics simulations

23 April CAVE demo 2

between 9.00-11.00 at SARA there will demonstrations given in the CAVE.Each CAVE session takes 20 minutes, there will be bus transport between Amsterdam RAI conference and the SARA CAVE. During these CAVE sessions examples will be shown of new CAVE applications in research.

ABSTRACTS

• Gerold Wesche
  The responsive workbench for visualization of fluid dynamics
  Automotive industry uses three dimensional simulations of fluid dynamics as an important instrument to facilitate the development process and to reduce cost and time involved. We present a system, which has been developed at GMD and Daimler-Benz AG, that supports the evaluation and exploration of such huge simulation data sets in a highly interactive way. Our system has the following two key features: First, the visualization of the simulation data and the interaction occur through a virtual environment, called the Responsive Workbench. The Responsive Workbench is a high resolution stereoscopic table-top display, which supports head and hand tracking. Secondly, we tightly coupled the SGI Onyx graphics workstation, that drives the Workbench, with an IBM SP2 parallel computer via a HIPPI connection. The user specifies visualization parameters, like insertion points of streamlines, using six degree of freedom input devices. These parameters are continuously send from the SGI to the IBM SP2. In turn, the IBM SP2 computes rapidly high resolution visualization primitives, like streamlines or iso surfaces, and sends these back to the SGI,where they are displayed at high frame rates.
  Biography:
  Gerold Wesche is a research scientist at the German National Research Center for Computer Science in St. Augustin. His research activities include scientific visualization, virtual reality, surface modeling and rendering. He received his MS in computer science from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany in 1993.
  
• Louis Rossi
  Collaborators: Jon Goldman, George Sohos, Rob Stevenson
  Interactive simulation of multiphase flow through porous media.
  We present an interactive, distributed simulation of multiphase flow through porous media as we first demonstrated at the Supercomputing '95 Global Information Infrastructure Testbed. The software was designed and implemented through a remote collaboration of two computer scientists, a mathematician and an environmental engineer. We solved a nonlinear system of partial differential equations describing multiphase flow through porous media on an SGI Power Challenge Array in at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications in Illinois using a partially scalable GMRES algorithm. Halfway across the United States, users interacted with this simulation in the conference center CAVE in San Diego, California. Data traveled between the conference site and the supercomputer via dedicated vBNS and ATM connections permitting a nominal 3 frame per second for a 20 ³ domain. Using this application, investigators in the CAVE can view isosurfaces of contaminant concentration and permeability simultaneously in real time. The visualization software buffers the solution so that investigators can also move backward and forward in time as well as space. Applications such as this one are essential to assessing treatment strategies and effectively remediating contaminated sites. Also, by facilitating the visualization of multidimensional data, tools such as these help scientists and mathematicians design models which capture essential aspects of the flow such as dispersion across high-contrast transitions in the permeability tensor or through preferred pathways in the media. This project also demonstrates the utility of remote supercomputing using the existing global communications infrastructure.
  Biography
  Louis Rossi is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His research activities include flow through porous media, Lagrangian methods, vorticity dynamics, solidification, and numerical analysis. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College, his M.A. in Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D in Applied Mathematics from the University of Arizona. This work was completed while he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (grant DMS-9407660) at Northwestern University, and he acknowledges their support.
  
• Thomas J. Impelluso
  Collaborators: Hidenori Murakami, Robert E. Skelton, and Yoshitaka Nishimura
  Physically-Based Modelling and High Performance Computing: Studies in System Integration
  Most current Virtual Reality (VR) environments are purely image based. The Finite Element (FE) Method is the best method to equip the Virtual Space with deformable bodies. There are two classes of deformation which can be studied using the FE method: small deformation analyses (typically for the design of metallic or composite structures); and large deformation analyses (human tissue, for example). Materials which undergo large deformation are visually stunning, and should be the focus for physically-based VR. If FEM is to be utilized in VR it will necessarily be for such materials which undergo large strains. The creation of fast FE codes for large deformation analyses is the focus of the effort at UCSD. It includes the development of new types of FE codes, and the exploitation of High Performance Computing, and High Speed Networks when appropriate. Further, the current work studies the most feasible methods to integrate: FE methods, High Performance Computing, Networks, and Graphics.

  Three specific efforts will be presented and discussed, along with lessons learned.

  • The 3D FE code serving a haptic client, and a visualization client. This code allowed two participants to deform an object in the virtual space in real time.
  • A 3D large deformation beam code serving a graphical user interface which allows inspection of beam-tube contact.
  • This third example is for tensegrity structures which consist of tension and compression members; these can be equipped with sensors and actuators to become 'smart' structures. A VR-based CAD system for tensegrity structures allows engineers to interact with a these structures, feel reaction forces, and, via 'walk-through' to observe stress, forces, and deformation.

  Biography:
  Thomas Impelluso is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests focus on the integration of visualization, networks, haptics and finite element methods. He received his MS in Engineering from Columbia University in New York, and his Ph.D. from UCSD. The work was conducted at The University of California at San Diego, Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Science, MC-0411, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0411, http://baboon.ucsd.edu/femvr/
  

• Jan F. Prins, UNC Chapel Hill
  Collaborators: Geoff Mann, Jan Hermans, Jon Leech
  Steered Molecular Dynamics
  A molecular dynamics simulation approximates the motion of atoms in a system of molecules over short intervals of simulated time, typically on the order of picoseconds to nanoseconds. Such simulations may run for days or weeks on a computer when used to investigate the dynamic behavior of small proteins in biological systems. By adding additional restraints, a simulation may be "steered" to observe the possibility of particular behaviors or to eliminate others at interactive rates. The SMD system provides interactive placement of restraints using a graphical interface coupled to a running simulation that provides immediate response to the restraints. Some applications of the SMD system will be described. The SMD system is being ported to the PIT (Protein Interactive Theater), a head-tracked stereo worksapce for two users. To improve the system requires increasing the simulation rate which poses significant challenges for high-performance computing.
  Biography:
  Jan Prins is an associate professor of Computer Science at UNC Chapel Hill. His current research interests center on high-performance computing and include visualization. He is a member of the NIH research resource for parallel computing in structural biology located at UNC. He received his Ph.D. in 1987 from Cornell University. He was a founding member of Digital Effects, one of the first commercial computer animation firms (and also one of the first to go out of business).

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