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Protein folding and rational drug design are two representative Grand Challenge problems in the study of biological molecules that are hard-to-model, difficult to analyze, and computationally intensive. Virtual environments offer a powerful interaction medium for exploring such datasets in real time, enabling superior insights into the underlying biochemical processes. An important goal of such interactive visualizations is to provide a high-bandwidth human-computer interface to convey the rich multi-dimensional information space. The recent successes in the human genome sequencing have taken us a step closer to the goal of designing novel therapeutic drugs. One of the goals of this laboratory is to develop visual informatics tools and technologies that will give scientists deeper insights in understanding the relationships between form and function in various biological proteins.

The images above show Crambin's solvent-accessible surface computed and rendered by us for probe radii ranging from 1.4 to 10.0 angstroms.

Further details of our work on 3D molecular graphics can be found here.

The emergence of digital masters has introduced mega models in the automobile, aircraft, and the submarine industries. The commercially-available graphics hardware is unable to deliver the frame-update rates of at least 10, preferably 30, frames per second to sustain the illusion of a virtual world for such models. Low frame update rates that one currently experiences with the above models often lead to spatial disorientation and for some users can even result in motion sickness and nausea making such virtual environments unusable. The last few years have witnessed a significant research effort in visualization and interaction with such mega models that have millions to billions of rendering primitives. Our laboratory is developing technologies for efficient visualization and interaction with such mega models to help streamline the design process and also allow visual feedback from the mechanical, manufacturing, and maintainability simulations earlier in the design phase, thereby reducing the time-to-market for new products.

The left image above is a view of the Auxilliary Machine Room of a notional submarine model provided by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics. The right image shows path planning for a factory layout resulting from our joint work with IBM Research.

Walking through a proposed building using interactive 3D graphics allows architects and their clients to evaluate the design for usability, lighting, and aesthetic appeal. This allows any flaws to be detected early in the design phase, allowing them to be corrected on a computer instead of concrete. Our laboratory is engaged in developing solutions for effective navigation of large architectural datasets on stand-alone computers as well as over networks. We are also in the early stages of generating a 3D model of our computer science building from 2D floorplans and images.

The images above show radiositized architectural models with us from Lightscape Technologies.

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