A sample of the visualization work coming from Discreet’s education and government business program. 2004 © Discreet, a Division of Autodesk Inc.

Several years ago, senior researcher and professor, Dr. Aaron Clark and Eric Wiebe of North Carolina State University (NCSU) began a curriculum in scientific visualization that was adopted and approved statewide. Scientific visualization is visualizing tabular data and how to properly chart and graph that data. It's the 2D and 3D visualization of illustration and animation of technical and scientific concepts. Anytime a technical subject needs to be communicated to someone less technical — whether that's a salesperson to a client, an expert witness to a jury or a scientist to an investor — visual communication provides a tremendous benefit. A study at Harvard and Oxford Universities showed that it is possible to learn by seeing without cognitive thought. So as help and explanation for technical subjects, 3D visualization has been an amazing learning tool.

Drs. Aaron Clark (left) and Julie Petlick visit one of VisTe’s pilot-sites.

VisTE — Visualization in Technology Education — is a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored project to develop activities that link science and technology though the creation of visualizations. Teachers can use these activities in the classroom not only to enhance their understanding of science and technology, but also at the same time help students develop good visual skills. A two-year high school curriculum called Scientific and Technical Visualization, based on the VisTE materials is more in depth and provides students a strong enough background that upon completion they can seek a career in this area. There are lots of reasons for using 3D graphics in teaching. The biggest plus is that students are attracted to the graphics more than words on the page. They use the same technology as a learning tool that they use as entertainment in their games and films. Dr. Clark adds, “We also know, that a lot of people are visual learners. Visual learners learn best by working with and seeing.” The overall goal of the program is to teach students how to communicate any kind of information using 3D graphics.

These new tools are intended to teach students how to communicate more accurately and effectively. Students are given design briefs and must make decisions on how to solve problems and the best way to communicate the topic using different types of graphics. It's a hands-on approach that is much more active than rote learning of the material. Instead of just focusing on the learning the terms, students focus on how to present it. In order to be able to present material effectively, students need to have mastered the material. “They learn implicitly because they are not just memorizing material, they are using it practically,” according to Dr. Julie Petlick. “Any time that you can apply your learning, that's a much deeper level of learning than just rehearsing it and regurgitating it.” An associate professor at NCSU, Petlick has a psychology and graphics background and helped develop the VisTE program with Dr. Clark.

Animation is used extensively both in landscape architecture and interior work. ACADIA — advanced computer applications in design and architecture— is a consortium dealing with, as the name implies, the use of 3D in design and architecture. Architects at the University of Pennsylvania used particle systems to design a train station. The train was animated as it came into the station. Setting a particle emitter on top of the train and watching the vault of the particles as it came into the station supplied data for designing the roof structure of the station. Crowd simulators are used to analyze flow — ingress and egress from buildings.