This section was written by Associate Editor Jean Thilmany.
QUICK REVEAL
Until recently, scientists at Brown University in Providence, R.I., who are at work on a map of the Mars terrain, had a long wait ahead of them each time they downloaded new satellite data.
The researchers in the Planetary Geosciences Group would move the information from NASA to a computer on campus that would then transform it into images. Though the campus computer was a relatively high-performance model, it could still take three months to process a single package of images, said Clyde Briant, vice president for research at Brown.
Now, that same amount of work can be done in as little as one day, he said.
The Mars researchers now use a supercomputer, which Brown unveiled in late 2009. The new supercomputer can perform more than 14 trillion calculations per second—nearly 50 times faster than any computer that had been available to Brown researchers—and operates at a peak performance speed of more than 14 teraflops.
Before the supercomputer came to campus, researchers and scientists had access to other supercomputers, such as the one at the University of California, San Diego. But as guests they would need to submit a request and then wait in line, said Richard Lewis, physical sciences writer for Brown University.
“A supercomputer at Brown means researchers will have more immediate and consistent access to computing,” Lewis said.
The IBM computer will be shared by scientists at Brown and other educational institutions around Rhode Island to research problems in medicine, the environment, energy, and other fields, Briant said.
It will also allow researchers at separate venues who work in different disciplines to collaborate on projects that require the analysis of massive amounts of information, he added.
“I think it will really spur things and make things go forward very, very fast in ways we never imagined,” Briant said.
COASTER CLASS
Taking a page from real life can make hitting the books a little easier.
So say students in a new roller-coaster design course at Purdue University. The students find that real-world applications make solving difficult engineering problems more interesting, said Jeffrey Rhoads, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the university in West Lafayette, Ind.
This computerized animation was created by students in a new roller
coaster design course at Purdue University. Students in the course told
instructors they’re motivated to learn difficult engineering problems
when focusing on a fun application.
Rhoads and Charles Krousgrill, a mechanical engineering professor, started the roller-coaster dynamics course in 2009. Students in the class design actual roller coasters via computer. The real-world design approach draws in students who ordinarily might be turned off to engineering, the instructors said.
The pair decided to create the course while teaching another class called dynamics, which involves applying the principles of physics to mechanical systems.
“One of the students in that class was a real whiz on roller coasters,” Rhoads said. “He displayed some of his work on roller coasters on the course blog, and he inspired us to start the roller coaster course.”
The student, Jacob Miller, a junior in mechanical engineering, said he liked the new class because it explores complex engineering concepts, yet doesn’t bore students.
“It’s easy to lose interest in a problem of a technical nature if the application is not immediately obvious,” Miller said. “In designing roller coasters, for example, you want the acceleration to be thrilling, but not so great that people black out. You want the forces to be exhilarating, but not vertebrae-rearranging, and that made it much more realistic to me.”
Coursework includes designing roller coasters from scratch and also using computational software to help calculate forces, Rhoads said.
For much of the analysis the students use Matlab, the technical computing software from Mathworks. For simple coaster design, they use Working Model, a general-purpose software for dynamic analysis from Design Simulation Technologies Inc. For more complex coaster track design, the students use NoLimits, a specialty software for roller coaster design, from the company of the same name, Krousgrill said.
“If they went out and got an internship or a job in this field, they would likely use software of this type,” he added.
In fact, the course provides an edge for students seeking internships or jobs with companies that design and manufacture amusement park rides, Rhoads said.
DEFENSE PLANS
Combine advances in computer models and predictions about group behavior with upgraded video game graphics, and you’ll have a virtual world in which defense analysts can explore and predict results of possible military and policy actions, according to computer science researchers at the University of Maryland. The researchers published a commentary on computer predictions in the Nov. 27, 2009, issue of the journal Science.
“Defense analysts can understand the repercussions of their proposed recommendations for policy options or military actions by interacting with a virtual world environment,” wrote V.S. Subrahmanian. He’s a computer science professor at the university and director of the school’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.
He and John Dickerson, computer science researcher at the university in College Park, authored the commentary.
Virtual technology can help defense analysts propose policy options and walk skeptical commanders through a virtual world—a world in which one can literally see how things might play out, the pair wrote.
“This process gives the commander a view of the most likely strengths and weaknesses of any particular course of action,” they said. “Computer scientists now know pretty much how to do this, and have created a pretty good chunk of the computing theory and software required to build a virtual Afghanistan, Pakistan, or another world.
“Human analysts, with their real world knowledge and experience, will be essential partners in taking us the rest of the way in building these digital worlds and then in using them to predict courses of action,” the researchers wrote.
CRIME SHOOT
A single crime-scene photo combined with VRML software may help crack the case.
 Two researchers from the University of Salamanca said they’ve come up with a way for forensic investigators to extract metric data from crime scenes using one photograph to reconstruct a crime scene in three dimensions.
Diego González-Aguilera, co-author of a study about the method, is a researcher in the Department of Cartography and Soil Engineering at the school in Salamanca, Spain.
The method offers a new way to document and analyze crime scenes by using a technique that marries the principles of photogrammetry and computational vision, González-Aguilera said.
The image used must include easily identifiable details and at least three vanishing points—the convergence point of straight lines projected to represent depth—as well as at least one reference object in the distance. According to González-Aguilera, a software tool written in Virtual Reality Modeling Language can be used to visualize a crime scene from any viewpoint in an interactive and three-dimensional way.
The technique allows scientists to take measurements and to analyze the dimensions of the scene by calculating distances, angles, and surfaces, González-Aguilera said.
So, for instance, police could establish that a knife was 32 centimeters away from the victim, or that there was an angle of 37 degrees formed by a trace of blood, a footprint, and a bullet hole.
It’s better to use a single image for these reconstructive purposes rather than several images, as it is often difficult to ensure that a range of photos overlaps well, González-Aguilera said.
CLOSER TO 20/20
Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated a way to give computers better vision.
And they’re calling up low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware to help.
The human or animal neural process used to visually recognize even the simplest object is quite difficult to mimic in computer systems, said David Cox, principal investigator of the Visual Neuroscience Group at the Rowland Institute at Harvard.
He’s co-leader of a study that looks at how computer vision might be enhanced by mimicking biological vision. Nicolas Pinto, a Ph.D. candidate at MIT, is the other co-leader.
Through use of graphics processing units, or GPUs, the same technology that video game designers use to render lifelike graphics, researchers are making quick progress in upgrading computer vision, Cox said.
“Reverse engineering a biological visual system—a system with hundreds of millions of processing units—and building an artificial system that works the same way is a daunting task,” Cox said. “It is not enough to simply assemble together a huge amount of computing power. We have to figure out how to put all the parts together so that they can do what our brains can do.”
To help, the team turned to techniques used in molecular biology. Rather than building a single model and seeing how well it could recognize visual objects, the team constructed thousands of candidates and screened them for those that performed best in recognizing certain objects.
Some of the better models outperformed a crop of state-of-the-art computer vision systems across a range of tests, Cox said.
Through use of modern graphics hardware, the analysis was done in just one week.
DISSONANT PHONES
Might the iPhone be the musical instrument of the future?
Georg Essl says yes.
In December, he organized a concert that featured nearly a dozen music and computer engineering students at the University of Michigan. They performed using unconventional instruments: their iPhones.
The students were part of the Building an iPhone Ensemble class taught by Essl, assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science and in the school of music, theatre, and dance at the university of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Students in a Building an iPhone Ensemble class at the University of
Michigan played tones and sounds on iPhones at a recent concert.
Each student built an instrument on an iPhone by programming the device to play back the sounds it collects from its touch-screen, microphone, GPS, compass, wireless sensor, and accelerometer. When students ran their fingers across the displays or blew air into the microphones, they triggered those sounds.
The result?
“Everyone makes a totally different sound. They’re not even related,” student Devin Kerr told the Detroit Free Press.
His instrument sounded a bit like the teacher from “Peanuts.”
“Yeah, it’s probably not the most pleasant music at first. You have to be willing to accept noise as a form of music,” he told the newspaper.
The students performed on a darkened stage with lit-up iPhone screens. Each iPhone was a different color. The sounds fade and grow as the holder tilts the phones making for a kind of dissonant, musical noise, Essl said.
HOW GREEN?
Environmentally friendly buildings and construction methods have been getting a lot of attention lately.
Now Retrofit, an online game from engineering software provider Autodesk of San Rafael, Calif., calls upon players to construct environmentally sound structures.
The game challenges users to build a greener, more sustainable building than the structure originally depicted. It’s meant to raise awareness about sustainable building practices, according to an Autodesk statement.
Retrofit can be played at www.autodesk.com/retrofits.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Siemens PLM Software of Plano, Texas, has released four D-Cubed component software products: version 41.0 of the 3D Dimensional Constraint Manager; the Assembly Engineering Manager; the Collision Detection Manager; and the Hidden Line Manager. /// Lumiscaphe of Ann Arbor, Mich., has announced version 4.0 of Patchwork3D, which offers real-time visualization of 3-D models. /// VX Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., maker of integrated CAD and CAM software, has released VX 2009 version 14.2, which contains many enhancements in drafting, modeling, and two-to-five-axis CAM. /// LMS International of Leuven, Belgium, has released the latest version of its multi-domain system simulation solution, LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim revision 9. /// A maker of non-contact measurement and inspection solutions, Perceptron Inc. of Plymouth, Mich., is now shipping AutoGauge Plus, an in-process gauging system that offers freeform surface scanning and discrete feature measurement. /// Altair Engineering of Troy, Mich., has launched HyperWorks Durability Director for managing the many aspects of durability simulation. /// Delcam of Birmingham, England, has launched the 2010 version of its PowerINSPECT inspection software. /// Ansys Inc. of Canonsburg, Pa., has released Ansys revision 12.1 for simulation product development. /// Conceptual Product Development Inc. of West Caldwell, N.J., has released Doctor Walt’s KeyCreator 9 Introductory Guide, which introduces both veteran Cadkey users and novices to the newest Keycreator release.
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