Image from Mechdyne of a visualization wall at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Lab made with displays from Planar.

Professors Jian Chen,  Penny Rheingans,  Karl Steiner,  Michael Summers, and Craig Saper received a Major Research Infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation to build PI², an immersive virtual reality system to support research in interactive computing and digital humanities.

PI² will be one of the most advanced visualization facilities of its kind in the mid-Atlantic region. The team sees it as enabling new research efforts on the visual exploration of data and knowledge discovery for biology, math, engineering, visual arts, and digital humanities as well as a tool to study and enhance the potential of the medium itself.

The instrument will feature a curved wall with a 27M pixel resolution made from multi-column, thin-bezel, and stereo-capable LCD panels with a six degree-of-freedom tracking system. The system will integrate and leverage many important characteristics: immersion, hybrid reality, high resolution, large field of view, large space and size, body-centric human-computer interaction, and support for heterogeneous data fusion.

The short-term goal is to accelerate science and education by addressing complex data analysis tasks which may have at least three sources: (1) big data, (2) environments inaccessible or too dangerous for humans so that simulation is necessary, and (3) high-fidelity environments for engineering and human behavior studies.

PI² is expected to become an integral and vital part of a long-term vision for complex data analysis at UMBC, in effect, a human-computer symbiosis in which humans guide computers to identify features of potential interest that the computer then locates and displays. Developing this vision requires advances in multiple areas, including semi-automatic feature detection, visual representations, and interaction, where traditional display modalities limit what can be displayed and perceived. The instrument will facilitate broad interdisciplinary research and provides an innovative teaching and research environment for a diverse student population. Expectations include:

• Advancing multiple avenues of creative inquiry currently blocked or severely restricted will advance rapidly. The instrument encourages visual thinking among researchers in sciences, healthcare, biomedicine, national security, humanities, and education;
• Establishing appropriate levels of technologies needed for different classes of knowledge discovery analysis; and
• Assembling a set of research projects to investigate the use of the instrument with the expectation of creating a novel, demonstrably useful, rich, and expressive set of techniques for many cyber-physical and cyber-human systems.

PI² will integrate advances in natural language processing, wearable computing, visualization, data mining, and interaction and its ability to synthesize, capture, create, and analyze visual information in unprecedented detail will transform the way analysts interact with visual information. Its capabilities will benefit multiple research areas at UMBC, including brain connectome, woodland ecology, interpersonal experiences, biomedicine, universal access, engineering physics, simulations, systems biology, education, digital humanities, green technologies, and unmanned-vehicle studies.

For more information, contact Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. .

Meet Sara,

She is a Biology major who has done research at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. She currently works in Dr. Philip Farabaugh’s laboratory and is also President of the Food Recovery Network, an organization whose mission is to recover food from dining services on campus and donate it to local homeless shelters. Her future plan is to become a physician.

Sara is also a member of the Muslim Student Association and serves as a photographer for the Retriever Weekly.

Sara’s research involves determining how errors in protein synthesis are regulated.

Are you a first year student looking for an opportunity to make a difference on campus?  

Name: Hailey Lynch

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: The Hershey Company

Position Title: Advanced Capabilities Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Mathematics/Statistics;Economics 

Expected Graduation Year: May 2016

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

I was an Advanced Capabilities Intern in the Global Knowledge and Insights Department at The Hershey Company this past summer. Hershey is currently working with a Silicon Valley technology company to build new capabilities that will allow Hershey to analyze big data and advance analytics. I was one of three interns placed on the project. I was responsible for conducting a wide variety of analyses in order to gain insights into the consumer landscape and to answer high-value business questions. In order to do this, I worked with the technology company’s new capability and utilized a range of large public and private data sets. I also conducted statistical analyses using the programming language R. Additionally, I was responsible for meeting with key individuals on a biweekly basis to help shape and enhance the new capability. 

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I received an email from the Career Services Center notifying me that Hershey was looking for analytically minded undergraduates to fill its new internship position. I applied on Hershey's website and was notified by the Career Services Center that I had been selected for an in-person interview. Both a Vice President and a Senior Manager from the company came to UMBC to conduct interviews. Hershey called me back shortly after my in-person interview and offered me the position.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

Throughout my time at Hershey, I was exposed to so many brilliant people, and I was able to learn so much about technology, big data, and the consumer packaged goods landscape. As a math major, I never imagined I would be given such a unique opportunity. I love that my position allowed me to utilize my analytical mind and quantitative background to help the company develop a new capability that will be used by future researchers.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

Throughout the course of my internship, I made a multitude of recommendations for capability enhancements. In this way, I helped the system to run more efficiently, and I was able to leave my own personal mark on the capabilities being developed. Many of the recommendations I made either have been or are in the process of being implemented.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Be willing to try anything. I went into my internship unsure as to how a math major could be of any value to a chocolate company. My experience turned out to be invaluable, and it never would have happened if I hadn't taken a leap of faith at the start.

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

The Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) invites you to attend the Henrietta Lacks Memorial Lecture on Saturday, October 10, 2015, in Turner Auditorium on the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore (Medical) Campus.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Assistant Professor, Princeton University and author of People’s Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier.  Special guest presenters include Dr. and Mrs. Roland Pattillo, Morehouse College; Dr. John Joseph Strouse, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and members of the Lacksfamily. Copies of Dr. Benjamin’s book will be offered for sale and guests will have an opportunity to have their book signed.  The 2015 winners of both the Henrietta LacksDunbar Health Sciences Scholarship and the Urban Health Institute’s Henrietta Lacks Memorial Community Award will be announced.

This is a free community event open to the public. Parking, breakfast, and lunch are provided at no cost to attendees.  Parking is available in the Washington Street Garage, 701 N. Washington Street, Baltimore 21205.  Handicapped/disabled parking may be requested on the registration form.  Registration is required. Early registration is advised as online registration will close prior to the event.  Space is limited. Click here to download the event poster.

For more information and to register online, visit: http://ictr.johnshopkins.edu/lecture.  

 The goal of this event is to describe the reach and complexity, both biomedically and ethically, of the story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells as well as to provide some insight into the past, present, and future of the conduct of clinical research. By honoring Mrs. Lacks and the positive global impact of HeLa cells through this lecture series, the ICTR hopes to acknowledge, thank and honor everyone who participates in the clinical research process.