19 February 1997.
We propose to field the Iris a la Carte extension of the studioCAVE project proposed and partially funded last year. The Iris a la Carte consists of a suitable Silicon Graphics workstation (Indy or O2), a liquid crystal projector for an overhead projector, and a suitable cart to transport this facility to the classrooms in Altgeld and Henry Buildings, and to special functions at selected locations ``south of Springfield,'' such as at the Campus Honors House. The studioCave is a student-centered environment for the transfer of new knowledge generated in the Virtual Environments Group (VEG) of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL) at UIC, into the regular curriculum of the Mathematics Department, and allied departments.
The Iris a la Carte is a fully portable, labor efficient method for presenting mathematical visualization and instructional demonstrations in the regular classroom as well as at special function at the Honors House and other places on campus.
The PI of this proposal is a professor of Mathematics, of Supercomputing Applications, and of the Campus Honors Program (CHP) at UIUC. He has published extensively in geometry; his Topological Picturebook, Springer 1987, has been translated into Russian and Japanese. He received an AMOCO award in 1994 recognizing his innovations in computer based undergraduate education, notably the UIMATH.APPLE.LAB project, and the ``Hypergraphics'' seminar in the CHP. He was a co-investigator on the original 1989 grant of the Renaissance Experimental Laboratory (REL) of the NCSA from Silicon Graphics Industries (SGI).
In the Applelab, and the REL, he has taught an undergraduate honors seminar (Math198), an in-service teacher's course (Math 351), and a graduate elective (Math 428), in annual rotation since 1984. Former and present students in these courses, supported by NSF and Research Board grants and NCSA research assistantships, brought the visualization of mathematical research to the CAVE(TM) at the Siggraph'94 and Supercomputing'95. Transfer of this technology to the common classroom has begun successfully; a weeklong demonstration was well received at the International Summer School on Scientific and Mathematical Visualization, Ettenheim, Germany, September 1996.
We are, moreover, the dozen or so undergraduate and graduate students in these courses and on these projects, who have continued to apply our considerable talents to software, hardware, parallel computation and especially net-ware development which we propose to transfer to the service of undergraduate computer based instruction in the studioCAVE.
In the first year of the studioCAVE project, the PI was awarded summer and fall RA support from the Research Board. While gearing up for a new project on visualizing the solutions to non-linear ordinary and partial differential equation in four and higher dimensions, the illiView team completed a series of 2 and 3 dimensional visualizations of these equations. These equation solvers are eminently suitable for use in our undergraduate (and graduate) differential equations courses, topology and geometry courses, and courses in allied, applied mathematical areas.
Our collaborators are the NCSA, EVLand CHP at Illinois, and The Geometry Center at the University of Minnesota, the Mathematics and the Informatics Departments at the University of Freiburg and Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) at the University of Heidelberg.
We are creating the software, courseware, netware and hardware infrastructure for a new instructional computer classroom, the uimath.grafiXlab. Under the ALTHE program last year, Vice President Sylvia Manning provided an SGI High Impact workstation, which was networked, maintained and is supported by the Mathematics Department. In addition, we acquired eight SGI 4D-25TG workstations from the NCSA, the loan of an RGB projector from Caterpillar Corporation, two stereographic glasses and emitters through an Educational Technologies Board grant, and a variety of of other hand-me-down equipment. The grafiXlab facility has been partially renovated (new ceiling). In its first year of operation, the grafiXlab was staffed by student volunteers, TAs and RAs in the Mathematics Department, and the PI. Beginning next year, he expects the assistance of the newly appointed assistant professor, John Sullivan, who has six years of extensive experience at the Geometry Center of the University of Minnesota.
We have demonstrated the feasibility of using inexpensive Pentium based workstations running OpenGL under Linux, to display our CAVE software. However, we have not yet found the means to support an entire laboratory of such workstations. Therefore we shall bring the ``the mountain to Mohammed'' by presenting our adaptations to the students in the classroom. While such passive participation is not ideal, it will encourage us to continue the studioCAVE project, and to benefit from the criticism of the students and instructors who see it being used.
A summary of our experience in creating the predecessor of the grafiXlab was part of our previous proposal. See http://new.math.uiuc.edu/studio/. Here we supplement it with information relevant to the present proposal.
In preparation for requesting the funds to create the Applelab in 1983, we first acquired an ``Apple a la Carte.'' We wanted to test our course-ware in situ. We wanted to sell our colleagues the notion of using a computer laboratory in elementary and middle level undergraduate mathematics instruction. We installed one of the original 8 Apple II+ computers on a mobile cart. We rolled it into classrooms, demonstrated the software and encouraged selected students and faculty to work with it and 6 similar machines in the Applelab. Over the years this strategy has worked well towards the creation of the Excel (IBM) lab, the PLATO lab, the MacIntosh lab and now the grafiXlab. The Department has generously provided seedling machines in the past. Unfortunately, under present financial conditions of the Mathematics Department, we cannot hope for such funds for the Iris a la Carte.
The Mathematics Department teaches a large number of 200 and 300 level courses inside and in the immediate vicinity of Altgeld Hall. The prototype grafiXlab is also located in this building. When the Iris ala Carte is not used for classroom demonstration, it will be part of the grafiXlab. Since the Iris is better equipped for video production than the Impact we expect to develop our web-based software on it also. The projector we request also supports the Impact graphics, hence, it can be used as back up or replacement for the RGB projector. (Caterpillar's six year old Sony RGB projector is showing its age and is not fully reliable.) Thus the grafiXlab development and in-lab teaching will also benefit greatly.
Students in my courses create interesting and useful software projects at the REL on SGI platforms. At present there is no showcase for this creative activity other than the very busy laboratories of the NCSA. The Iris a la Carte is very mobile. Its large disk and light weight make it suitable for transportation to sites more appropriate to publicize this student work.
Thirdly, videotape is both static, time consuming to produce and visually unsatisfactory. If, for example, a student asks a ``what-if'' question, the Iris a la Carte can provide instant answers, while a videotape cannot. Therefore, the possibility of a mobile Silicon Graphics workstation will significantly enhance public presentations by the PI and his collaborators.
The renovation of the facilities for the studioCAVE in the Department is already underway. The Apples have been ``recycled'' to two local elementary schools. The Department has purchased two (of the eventual 20) Pentium-based Linux boxes, and the NCSA has transferred eight ``hand-me-down'' SGI 4D/25TG Personal Iris graphics workstations to our use. The PIs are, however, five generations of low end SGI workstations out of date, and are of limited use. The NCSA has provided free assistance in reformatting the disk and reinstalling an older, more appropriate operating system. We have figured out how to connect our ancient Sony RGB projector to the PIs to show CAVE animations ... soundless, in slow-motion and not stereo, but only for now!
We are asking for the current equivalent of the following, which is based on a, by now expired, special price proposal of 1 October 1996.
One Model W24-150S-2G64 SGI INDY, 150 MHz R5000SC SGE24 64 MB 2.0 GB HD, 1280x1024, 17" Monitor IndyCam and Hardware support ... $11,606.50.
One FP-1280-ONLY, High Res Presenter 13" 1280x1024 LCD Flat Panel Display for use w/ Indy and Indigo 2 IMPACT ... $9,097.00.
One 3M-BRAND 6000 lumen model 98000 overhead projector ... $860.
One "Highsmith" D91-23969 cart with big wheels ... $458.00.
The Presenter is liquid crystal projector that works with the Iris AND with the Impact already in the grafiXlab. Thus on the cart it will be used as above. Off the cart, it will back up the ageing RGB-projector on loan from Caterpillar Corporation.
The Overhead projector can be used with the Presenter, but also without. Thus in the grafiXlab, it will also be used parallel with the RGB projector.
The Cart will be used with the Iris and the Presenter. At times it will also be used with other computer systems in the Department.
The integration of the Iris a la Carte in the regular classes will begin immediately on acquisition. Some software packages, such as illiFlow for ordinary differential equations, illiWave for partial differential equations, and illiGeodesy on geodesics on elementary surfaces, are ready for immediate use. Their effectiveness was demonstrated just last week at the International Summer School for Scientific and Mathematical Visualization at Ettenheim, Germany. Since the Iris can compile and run our software without modification or translation, many more real-time interactive computer animations can be shown a la Carte and in short order.
The usefulness of the Iris a la Carte will be judged chiefly by how frequently and in what diverse fashion this classroom support will be requested by the cooperating instructors. As part of the studioCAVE project, it will share in the evaluation of the overall effort.
George Francis, Prof.
Mathematics Department, UIUC
Principal Investigator
Philippe Tondeur, Prof.
Mathematics Department, UIUC
Chairman
Bruce Michelson, Prof.
English Department, UIUC
Director
Campus Honors Program, UIUC