Ocean State research will take center stage at Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR’s 2017 Annual Research Symposium April 12 along with the platforms that engage new modes of inquiry, provide opportunities to bridge disciplines, and push the boundaries of discovery.
The event, co-hosted by Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, showcases a poster presentation by faculty, researchers, and students, funded by RI EPSCoR and the RI Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC). Researchers from other RI EPSCoR tracks will present their work.
Professor Tamara Galloway of the University of Exeter will be the featured speaker. Her research focuses on marine pollution, the human health effects of pollutants, and the sustainable development of novel materials and substances.
The day’s schedule also includes tours of three RI EPSCoR core facilities — the Center for Computation and Visualization (CCV) and NSF/EPSCoR Shared Proteomics Facility at Brown and the RISD Nature Lab — available to the RI EPSCoR community in support of the investigative process.
Set back on Providence’s George Street, a quiet space amid the bustle of the Brown University campus, the CCV ambitiously pursues its vision of “computational best practices, innovative solutions, and expert knowledge combined to build advanced tools for research and scholarship, and enable new discoveries and empowering collaborations.”
The facility’s virtual reality theater serves as the eye-popping attraction of the center’s massive technological capabilities. Called the YURT (Yurt Ultimate Reality Theater), the theater boasts 69 projectors, each run at 1920-by-1080 pixels, paired with 20 computers, each with four graphics cards, tied into the university’s supercomputer and capable of scaling up to handle research data loads.
Wearing special glasses, visitors can, among a variety of three dimensional experiences, explore Gale Crater on Mars, gain new perspectives on a snail embryo, study design details of a sitting room, step into the streets of Paris, and examine the breadth and depth of the Garibaldi panorama, a 240-foot scroll that is too long and unwieldy to view in person.
“Typically, the kind of data that works well has some sort of fundamental, three dimensional element to it, like molecules or the surface of Mars,” explains John Huffman, CCV manager of user services. “It’s potentially a huge place for the humanities, architectural models, population studies.”
The YURT also fuels creative exploration through applications that allow users to conduct virtual writing and painting or drawing.
Think, says Huffman, of the world wide web, which is built on interactive text: “You click on a word and the text becomes alive. Creative writing in the cave is the next iteration of hypertext — you’re seeing a poem or story that is actually being displayed in a virtual context. You click on a word and it takes you to a different place.”
Pairing a wand with the virtual reality glasses, visitors can draw or paint, real or abstract, and then turn over and around the three dimensional shape, and walk through or gaze at it from the outside.
Huffman says the research symposium tour will offer a look at a variety of applications available — from Mars and the moon to molecules, art, architecture, and creative pursuits — and show how different disciplines might take advantage of the interactive technology.
For anyone uncertain about how the YURT might amplify data sets, Huffman says the CCV staff makes itself available to potential users to discuss what opportunities are available and ways to transition from desktop computer to cave.
“Walking around your data set or flying through it with virtual reality is an asset,” he notes. “We’re available to discuss what might be possible.”
The CCV is part of Brown University’s Computing and Information Services (CIS), which serves as the institutions central IT organization.
Founded in 1937 by RISD faculty member Edna Lawrence, the Nature Lab today serves as the physical and intellectual home of Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR on the RISD campus, striving to broaden the dialogue on the relationship between art, design, and science.
“In addition to being a natural science resource center for art and design students, the lab continues to grow as a platform for exploring the intersection of science, art and design, and transdisciplinary inquiry,” explains Director Neal Overstrom, the RISD partner liaison to RI NSF EPSCoR. “And, because our team has the training and experience in both the arts and sciences, we are uniquely positioned to facilitate these conversations at multiple levels.”
The lab’s street side, sunlit rooms house a vast and varied collection of the natural world, specimens that invite investigation of design concepts, form and function. One floor down, state-of-the-art imaging equipment assists the descent from macro to micro.
Resources available to students and RI EPSCoR researchers alike include compound and stereo microscopes with full-color cameras, a Phenom G2Pro desktop scanning electron microscope, standard and high-speed video cameras, and geospatial imaging workstations with large format multi-touch screen and plotter dedicated to geographic information systems (GIS).
Overstrom says the momentum behind the RI EPSCoR investment in the Nature Lab as a core facility has been to promote and advance work in four thematic areas — data narratives, bioimaging, biodesign, and ecological landscapes.
The lab team also works with RI EPSCoR in advancing competency in data narratives and seeking novel ways to engage the public through the use of authoritative data and visual communication strategies. The goal, says Overstrom, is to find new methods of making scientific discovery meaningful in people’s day-to-day life.
RISD, as an institution, has embraced the RI EPSCoR commitment and made equally substantive investments in the Nature Lab. The partnership has yielded a series of closed system aquariums, complete with newly added artificial seawater mixing and distribution capabilities to support an intriguing array of specimens that includes local and tropical fishes, axolotls, moon jellyfish,seahorses, and soon-to-be added cuttlefish. Under staff direction, students collect specimens from the field and maintain the delicate systems.
“We’re trying to showcase the principles of living systems through maintenance of a variety of marine organisms,” Overstrom says. “The students gain a sense of place, going out in the field, and an appreciation for the features of our coastal habitats. They learn about biogeochemical cycling and get exposure to specialized adaptations that are exemplified by the selection of species we choose to maintain.”
This exposure, adds Overstrom, inspires critical thinking about the principles of biomimicry and biophilic design, and how to apply those concepts to innovative strategies that foster a more sustainably built environment.
“We are trying to pilot a biodesign makerspace, something that integrates the biology lab and art and design research to create novel solutions and applications,” Overstrom says, looking where this potential is headed. “The Nature Lab is a science resource center embedded in an art and design school that intrinsically facilitates transdisciplinary study.”
And, all of that — the collections and the systems, the expertise and the excitement — will be on display as part of the RI EPSCoR symposium facility tours April 12.
NSF/EPSCoR Proteomics Shared Resource Facility at Brown
Established in 2007 with funds from the founding grant for RI EPSCoR, the proteomics facility brought state-of-the-art instrumentation and expertise to Rhode Island’s scientific community. Additional support for the center came from the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), the Rhode Island Research Alliance (RIRA), and Brown University.
Manager Mandar Naik oversees the facility located in Providence at 70 Ship Street, inside Brown University’s Laboratories for Molecular Medicine, just blocks away from the upper, narrow reaches of the Providence River. Inside, various instruments carry out steps, from separation and characterization of proteins to identifying interactions between different proteins or proteins and other substances, explains Naik.
“We are a shared facility, a shared platform,” he says. “We can handle various kinds of requests from people in a variety of fields. We also can provide basic training for users, but they have to conduct their own experiments.”
Users, who are responsible for bringing their own consumables, can access an online equipment schedule for availability and the fee structure. Discounted rates are available to scientists in the RI EPSCoR and Brown communities.
The afternoon tour on April 12 for symposium attendees offers the chance to see what instruments are available and ask questions about the opportunities for research projects.
“The users are at the forefront,” Naik says. “We work around their requirements and we’re always open to providing input to research, any kind of queries.”
Story and photos by Amy Dunkle
Rhode Island EPSCoR is funded by the National Science Foundation under EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Award #OIA-1655221 (Sept. 2017-Aug. 2022). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.