In sight/Out look
Rensselaer scientists, Selmer Bringsjord, Barbara Cutler, Shekhar Garde and Kenneth Jansen invite the audience for an hour-long presentation of their latest research combining light, images, and media as an integral aspect of their investigation.
Interactive Architectural Daylighting Design — Barbara Cutler, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Experiential Fluid Dynamics — Kenneth Jansen, Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering
Toward Engineering Doppelgängers (and other cognitively robust synthetic characters) — Selmer Bringsjord & Konstantine Arkoudas (faculty investigators) Andrew Shilliday, Joshua Taylor, Micah Clark (GRAs) Ed Charpetier and Alexander Bringsjord (URAs)
Molecularium: Where Molecular Modeling and Simulation meet Education, Animation, and Entertainment Shekhar Garde, Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering Linda S. Schadler, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Richard W. Siegel, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Interactive Architectural Daylighting Design
Barbara Cutler, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Designing with daylight shows great promise for reducing energy demands of buildings, increasing occupant comfort and well-being, and shaping delightful spaces. Complex fenestration systems, such as prismatic and laser cut panels, are emerging as attractive options in architectural design thanks to their ability redirect intense illumination from the sun. However, the non-intuitive interactions with the built environment make it necessary to develop tools that adequately represent these systems' behavior to the architect.
We are building a full-scale interactive design environment which willl debut at EMPAC to simulate and evaluate the illumination and functionality of an evolving architectural design. The user can explore the high-dimensional configuration space of the design to create and edit the geometry, select appropriate materials, and vary the external conditions such as the sun position, weather, neighboring buildings, traffic noise, etc. The simulation results of the current design are projected on movable partition screens and furniture to create a full-scale immersive design environment. The simulation is updated interactively as the user makes adjustments to the design by moving walls, resizing or opening windows, adjusting the virtual blinds and awnings, or specifying alternate materials, etc.
Experiential Fluid Dynamics
Kenneth Jansen, Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Mark S. Shephard, Samuel A. and Elisabeth C. Johnson Jr. Professor of Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
It is commonplace now for engineering experts to use simulation for functional design. Experimental fluid dynamics seeks to make simulations so fast and so easily reconfigurable that non-experts like surgeons and architects can interact/alter the simulation and visualization to iterate to designs that marry experience/form with function.
Toward Engineering Doppelgängers (and other cognitively robust synthetic characters)
Selmer Bringsjord & Konstantine Arkoudas (faculty investigators) Andrew Shilliday, Joshua Taylor, Micah Clark (GRAs) Ed Charpetier and Alexander Bringsjord (URAs)
Many have long held that the touchstone for success in AI is the creation of synthetic beings and other technology that enable you to be in two different places at the same time. Can you be having breakfast on the Taconic Ridge, overlooking Troy and Albany to the west, and the Berkshire Mountains to the east -- and at the very same time be (courtesy of your doppelganger) in Brooklyn Heights, enjoying a view toward Manhattan as you sip your early-morning orange juice? Our recent R&D, to be described and demonstrated October 5, suggests an affirmative answer to this question.
Molecularium: Where Molecular Modeling and Simulation meet Education, Animation, and Entertainment
Shekhar Garde, Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering Linda S. Schadler, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Richard W. Siegel, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Collaborators: Owen Bush (Director), Kurt Przybilla (Procucer), and Chris Harvey (Art Director), Nanotoon Entertainment
Molecularium is a world of atoms and molecules. It is one of the flagship projects of Rensselaer’s NSF-Funded Nanotechnology Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures. Driven by our own enthusiasm about atoms and molecules, and motivated by the need to excite the next generation about the science of atoms and molecules and the world they make, we embarked on a journey to tell the story of atoms in a unique way. The result is the Molecularm project with its digital dome and I-MAX movies in which animated atomic characters tell their story in a way that is musical and magical! The presentation will highlight ‘behind the scene’ science and large-scale modeling and simulations, which not only enrich the visual experience, but have the potential to develop into powerful scientific visualization tools for scientific discovery.