UCSC scientists soon will create powerful and informative graphical images from their data at a new interdisciplinary laboratory, thanks to a $460,000 equipment grant from the National Science Foundation.
The Natural Sciences Division will match the federal grant with about $240,000 in funding and equipment, making the new lab worth about $700,000.
Today's complex scientific research makes visualization an essential tool. This is true especially for researchers who explore variations over a complex surface or within a volume of space. Large sets of numbers, in and of themselves, can reveal some useful knowledge. But when a scientist sees the data--with help from colors, shading, vectors, and other visual aids--crucial insights often emerge much more strikingly.
"This grant enables us to put together a state-of-the-art visualization facility that wouldn't other-wise be possible," said project director Jane Wilhelms, associate professor of computer science and an expert in computer graphics.
Jane Wilhelms
(Photo: Monica Lee)