Scientific and Engineering Research Visualization (SERV)

Overview

SERV is an investment by ASU in ASU faculty, making effective visualization, a powerful research accelerator, much more accessible.

A good way to describe SERV is to start by enumerating what it is not:

  • Funding for research in visualization
  • Attempting to advance the state-of-the-art in visualization

Rather, SERV is:

  • Providing state-of-the-practice visualizations to support ongoing ASU research in many disciplines
  • Addressing the difficulty in funding such visualizations through outside sources
  • Showcasing important ASU research, especially in the area of sustainability

Visualizations can take one or more of the following forms:

  • 3D computer graphics display on the desktop
  • Surround-screen, virtual reality display at Decision Theater
  • High resolution digital images and movies
  • Professional quality posters

SERV demonstrates ASU's commitment to supporting researchers, and at the same time, improves visibility of that research in the external community

Motivation

While research in the domain of scientific visualization is well represented at ASU through the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM), many research efforts in other domains would greatly benefit from state of the practice scientific visualization. This second category – leveraging existing scientific visualization techniques – is much more difficult to fund through outside sources, precisely because it does not advance the art of computer graphics. However, when applied appropriately and effectively, these standard techniques can add value to existing research programs.

In general, scientific visualization can help research efforts in three ways:

  • Validating an algorithm or process under development
  • Yielding insight into a data set or experimental sample
  • Communicating results through compelling images and animations

This last item, outreach, will foster interdisciplinary research by communicating – with a picture – the essence of each researcher’s results to other ASU colleagues.