Two students, Cherryle Heu and Roderick “RJ” Tabalba, have clinched the grand prize in the (AGU) . Their user-friendly data visualization tool is aiding Hawaiʻi ranchers in navigating the challenges of drought.

Heu, a master’s student in the and Tabalba a PhD student in the , created an easy-to-use customizable dashboard, which visualizes rainfall and temperature data from the (HCDP).

Judges of the competition gave glowing reviews including, “This high-quality submission is worthy of the Visualization award, as the tool has impressive interactive components, enabling users to build bespoke dashboards to analyze rainfall and air temperature.”

The HCDP was developed as a part of the Hawaiʻi EPSCoR Change Hawaiʻi project to provide the state with high-quality reliable climate data and information.

“The HCDP is a groundbreaking website and made this data available to the public. It’s publicly available for anyone to see and access,” said Heu. “The tool that RJ has developed allows anyone to access and manipulate a wealth of real-time data and create it into information they need for themselves whether they are ranchers, conservationists, forecasters or researchers.”

Power of collaboration

Collaboration and co-creation were essential at every stage of this project. Working closely with resource managers in collaboration with the , Heu and others as a part of the stewardship team helped to facilitate knowledge exchange and co-production of drought data and products based on community needs.

The power of collaboration was further demonstrated by Heu and Tabalba鈥檚 multidisciplinary approach that combined geoscience and computer science to develop their data visualization tool.

“I took the opportunity to enter this competition with another student, Cherryle, who was already using the HCDP. It was a good match-up. She had the knowledge, use cases and background to create tools,” said Tabalba. “Cherryle really filled in that gap of knowledge. Climate is different in Hawaiʻi, it might be raining in one area and not raining in the next. It really motivates the need that farmers need to have their custom-made dashboard.”

Presenting to NASA

Heu and Tabalba were awarded a total of $6,000 to attend this year’s AGU Annual Meeting in December in San Francisco and to support additional professional development activities. They will also have the opportunity for exclusive career advice and support from a professional career consultant and to present their grand prize winning project to NASA and AGU in December and at AGU headquarters in Washington, D.C. in early 2024.

Tabalba looks forward to graduating in 2024 and working in industry with a top IT company. He plans to take the skills he learned by receiving feedback from others to gain new perspectives and elevate his own work. Heu, who finds her field extremely fulfilling, plans to complete her degree and continue creating impactful work that others find useful.

—By Maria Dumanlang

New findings reveal the spread of a fungal disease killing off hundreds of thousands of mature ʻōhiʻa trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) on Hawaiʻi Island could be exacerbated by the presence of ungulates or animals with hooves. A geographer at the , along with colleagues from the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, published a collaborative study that closely examines .

Lead investigator of the study, Ryan Perroy, an associate professor of at 东精影业 Hilo, specializes in remote sensing and was integral in obtaining aerial imagery to detect ʻōhiʻa mortality at an individual tree level. The study鈥檚 co-authors collected field samples and conducted laboratory testing using data from impacted areas within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) and the Laupāhoehoe Forest Reserve.

The spatial patterns of ʻōhiʻa mortality observed across all four sites included in the study show significant differences in areas with and without ungulates, suggesting that ungulate exclusion is an effective management tool to lessen the impacts of ROD in forested areas in Hawaiʻi.

“The results from this work show us that the impacts of ROD can vary across the landscape,” said Perroy. “We hope this information can be useful in managing and caring for our native forests.”

Learn more about 东精影业鈥檚 work with rapid ʻōhiʻa death

Perroy leads the 东精影业 Hilo Spatial Data Analysis & Visualization Research Laboratory alongside Timo Sullivan and Daniel Duda. They all joined forces with a Hawaiʻi Island-based research team, which includes David Benitez, an ecologist at HAVO; Flint Hughes, an ecologist at the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry; and Lisa Keith, Eva Brill and Karma Kissinger, plant pathologists from the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center.

The researchers discovered the number of suspected ROD trees in unfenced areas were significantly higher (more than 50 times greater for one location) than those found in fenced areas that prevent hoofed animal access.

• Related 东精影业 News story: Tracking the spread of Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death on Kauaʻi, October 12, 2020

ROD was first discovered on Hawaiʻi Island in 2014 and has since obliterated hundreds of acres of once sprawling ʻōhiʻa. It is also found on Kauaʻi, Maui and Oʻahu. The deadly disease is caused by two invasive fungi, Ceratocystis huliohia and Ceratocystis lukuohia, and, if left unstopped, could irreversibly change Hawaiian ecosystems and cultural traditions by diminishing the keystone native tree in Hawaiian forests.

Study enhances ROD data collection

Based on collected aerial imagery, the researchers developed a rating system based on tree canopy condition to identify ʻōhiʻa that may be infected. They developed a custom imaging system for helicopter mapping operations, which enables a much wider surveying scale.

Using this system, the researchers quickly generate and share suspect tree candidate locations with partner agencies to rapidly detect new mortality outbreaks and prioritize field sampling efforts. The studies revealed disparities between sites, illustrating challenges to definitively determine the cause of ʻōhiʻa mortality from aerial imagery alone. The integrated approach of imagery, field sampling and lab work proved better at effectively discerning causative factors.

This research identifies effective strategies for HAVO and other protected areas, where study co-author Benitez considers ROD to be a top threat to native forests and ecosystems. “The focal sites include forests near the summit of Kīlauea, including Nāhuku and the ʻŌlaʻa Tract rainforests and the Kahuku Unit,” Benitez explained. “We are very excited about this collaborative research, and the resulting technologies such as a safer and more cost effective airborne mapping system which can pinpoint ROD outbreaks across vast areas on all Hawaiian Islands.”

Need for feral animal control

An unexpected event at one of the study sites showed the impact feral pigs caused after they breached a fenced area. Suspect ROD tree densities in the area rose from practically none to nearly three trees per hectare (nearly 2.5 acres) highlighting the need for ungulate control.

“There are lots of remaining questions that still need to be addressed relating to ungulate species-specific behavior and impacts (pigs vs. goats vs sheep vs. cattle), differences between domesticated and feral animals, and lots of remaining questions regarding non-ungulate factors we think play a role in ʻōhiʻa mortality, from boring beetles to storm events,” said Perroy.

The paper also illustrates the importance of removing infected trees to suppress ʻōhiʻa mortality levels across affected regions.

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—Story by Susan Enright

Geographers at the recently completed a pilot project with the County of Hawaiʻi Department of Planning to help modernize the county鈥檚 public access program. Shoreline public access locations and associated permitting documents were digitized in a pilot geospatial database by 东精影业 Hilo geographical data experts and 东精影业 Hilo students and recent graduates.

The collaborative project focused on the South Kona district but includes a feasibility analysis for extending the project to an island-wide scale.

Ryan Perroy, an associate professor of geography who founded the 东精影业 Hilo research laboratory, said the work features a partnership between 东精影业 Hilo and the county on a project that benefits the local community and gives university students experience in the real world.

“This project highlights the ability of 东精影业 Hilo to contribute to local governance by using our expertise in geospatial technology to improve an existing antiquated system for accessing information,” said Perroy. “In this case, files and permits associated with public access issues.”

The pilot project鈥檚 purpose was to digitize paper files and link them to an interactive map interface, so that county planners can simply click on a few lines on a map on screen and access relevant files instead of having to physically pull and pore over physical paper documents.

“So this means some major time savings that will allow them to better and more quickly serve the public when there are queries about public access,” Perroy explained.

Public access project

The project will help the county fulfill its mandate to give the general public access to specific areas for activities related to valued cultural and natural resources. An updated and more comprehensive public access inventory management system will better enable the Department of Planning to execute its public access mandates in the areas of planning, permit vetting, implementation and enforcement. This is especially important for the issuance of land-use permits for developments such as subdivisions and certain developments within the Special Management Area.

Perroy is principal investigator with a team of geospatial research specialists; 东精影业 Hilo alumni Shawna Blackford and Eszter Collier from the lab are critical contributors. This first phase was done in coordination with two county land-use planners, Kamuela Plunkett and Rob Leasure. Plunkett earned his master of arts in heritage management in 2018 from 东精影业 Hilo.

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—Story by Susan Enright

An interactive 3D projection-mapped model of Oʻahu developed by students, showing layers of data for the state鈥檚 plan to run on 100-percent renewable energy by 2045, generated lots of buzz at a national energy conference in February in Washington, D.C.

“A dozen or more states were interested in adopting the technology,” said Chris Yunker, energy systems and planning branch manager for the . “Assistant Secretary of the Office of Electricity Bruce Walker had come by and he showed interest for the [Department of Energy] to adopt the technology itself.”

Walker tweeted from the 2019 NASEO Energy Policy Outlook Conference in February, “Checking out the 3D modeling capabilities at the Hawaii Visualization Energy Nexus booth at the @NASEO_Energy Conference. As we continue to provide technical assistance to Puerto Rico, tools like this can help determine the best types and locations of generation. #NASEOOutlook19”

The student-built project is called the Hawaiʻi Advanced Visualization Environmental Nexus (HAVEN). It can show land ownership, and photovoltaic and windmill buildouts over time, among other data projected across a topographical map of the island of Oʻahu. The team has 3D models for data visualization on other islands in the state, too.

HAVEN was developed by a team of 东精影业 惭腻苍辞补 students at the (LAVA), under the supervision of LAVA Director Jason Leigh.

• James Hutchison—undergraduate, main developer
• Nurit Kirshenbaum—PhD student, tangible computing advisor
• Ryan Theriot—MS student, visualization
• Kaila Foltz—undergraduate, graphic design (user interface and banner)
• Kari Noe—MS student, graphic design (HAVEN logo)
• Serena Kobayashi—undergraduate, physical structure
• Tyson Seto-Mook—MS student, docent who did the demo in Washington, D.C.

“It was done not just by me, so that鈥檚 an important thing. It鈥檚 a collaborative effort,” said HAVEN main developer James Hutchison, a 东精影业 惭腻苍辞补 computer science undergraduate student. “It鈥檚 great. I鈥檓 definitely proud of it.”

HAVEN supports thousands of pages of data from the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office and Hawaiian Electric Industries. It was developed to help decision makers and stakeholders with the energy planning process, with funding support from the state energy office, Department of Energy and the .

“It would make me feel really good that I would have a hand in the future of renewable energy and trying to get away from coal,” said graduate student Ryan Theriot, who did the open-source visualization coding for HAVEN.

Now that the the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has also shown interest in HAVEN, this 东精影业 student invention could end up having a significant impact across the nation and possibly beyond.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

In honor of the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars, engineering graduate student Noel Kawano and computer science student Ryan Theriot created a 3D immersive visualization project—Star Wars Squadron and Tatooine.

Users can battle with lightsabers or dogfight through a universe filled with starfighters, TIE fighters and an armada of star destroyers.

The (research and fun) possibilities are endless now that 东精影业 惭腻苍辞补 is home to the best hybrid visualization system in the world that combines immersive virtual reality with ultra-high-resolution display walls. The , which stands for cyber-enabled Collaboration Analysis Navigation and Observation Environment.

“We wanted to take advantage of the [Destiny-class CyberCANOE鈥檚] capabilities and make something really cool,” Kawano said.

CyberCANOE users can go under the sea, explore outer space and probe microscopic elements of the human body without leaving campus.

Computer and Information Sciences Professor is the system鈥檚 creator. His students were deeply involved in the design and construction of the CyberCANOE with investment and partnership from the and the .

With 256 megapixels, the cylindrical CyberCANOE is the ultimate tool for scientists and researchers to visualize big data at resolutions that are 100-times better than commercial 3D displays. The diameter is 16 feet, and the walls are eight-feet high.

The Destiny-class cost about $250,000 to build and is actually the seventh and best CyberCANOE Leigh has built in Hawaiʻi over the past couple of years. His Laboratory for Advanced Visualization Applications (LAVA), where the Destiny-class CyberCANOE is housed, is planning to hold an open house in August 2017.

You could say the world’s best hybrid 3D visualization system is the apple of Noel Kawano’s eye. It should be. The masters in engineering student and a handful of others at the designed and built the immersive virtual reality environment with ultra-high-resolution display walls.

“I know every little bolt, every little nut and screw. There’s like thousands of pieces,” said Kawano, “I know every little detail of it.”

It’s called the , or CyberCANOE, under creator and Professor Jason Leigh.

“[The students] did everything from the design of the structure to coming up with the specs for the computer to developing the software that had to be used to drive the system. Even designed custom 3D printed parts so that we could align all of the displays together,” Leigh said.

The research tool enables visualization of big data and the immersive 3D environment with 256-million-pixel resolution needs the computing power equivalent to 32 of the latest 4K TV sets. The $250,000-project was funded by the and the . Information and computer science masters student Jack Lam eventually realized the CyberCANOE would need eight computers, much more power than he was used to.

Lam said, “Being able to work on this set up is a dream.”

Undergraduate computer science major Ryan Theriot designed the all-important software for researchers and scientists to put their projects into the Destiny-class CyberCANOE.

“It teaches you a very good toolset in being able to work as a team in a very real world setting, instead of just in a classroom,” he said.

Interested in developing software for the Destiny-class CyberCANOE?

After you’ve helped to build the best hybrid data visualization environment in the world, what’s next? For some students it’s pitching the intellectual property to investors for possible commercialization.

“Our pitch is that we’ve taken tried, true systems…and we’ve made it 10-times better and we’ve done it here in Hawaiʻi, all built by students,” Kawano said, “We definitely have the wow factor.”

And they want the University of Hawaiʻi’s world-class researchers to use the Destiny-class and the next generation of CyberCANOEs to explore scientific worlds from inside the earth to deep space and beyond.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

You can now go under the sea, explore outer space and probe microscopic elements of the human body without leaving campus. The 3D, immersive possibilities are endless now that the is home to the best hybrid visualization system in the world that combines immersive virtual reality with ultra-high-resolution display walls.

It’s called the , which stands for cyber-enabled Collaboration Analysis Navigation and Observation Environment. Professor Jason Leigh is the system’s creator. He says he built what was the best system in the world in 2012 and was motivated to build something better when he moved to Hawaiʻi.

“东精影业 has a lot of amazing scientists which have a lot of data available,” Leigh said. “Because we have so much resolution on Destiny and we have so much computing power to drive that, we have a real cool opportunity, a unique opportunity, to visualize data with the best lens possible, to look at this information in much deeper ways than we could have before.”

With 256 megapixels, this CyberCANOE is the ultimate tool for scientists and researchers to visualize big data at resolutions that are 100-times better than commercial 3D displays.

Interested in developing software for the Destiny-class CyberCANOE?

The Destiny-class cost about $250,000 to build and is actually the seventh and best CyberCANOE Leigh has built in Hawaiʻi over the past couple of years. He’s involved students from day one with investment and partnership from the National Science Foundation and the .

东精影业 Academy for Creative Media System Director Chris Lee said, “We just found ourselves really sympatico about how we saw technology changing both the students and the university and ultimately Hawaiʻi’s economy in the future.”

Up next, even better CyberCANOEs for 东精影业’s Experimental Program to Support Competitive Research, or EPSCoR’s, fresh water sustainability research and for the .

Leigh said, “Just as we continue to build higher resolution instruments for looking at the stars, for looking at the earth, this is the same kind of thing.”

You could say Leigh and his students are boldly going where no one has gone before and they are encouraging the research community to join them for a ride in the latest, greatest CyberCANOE.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

The “CreaTable” is a one of a kind interactive table top display designed and built by Noel Kawano, an electrical engineering student at the . The CreaTable resides in the or LAVA belonging to Professor Jason Leigh.

Leigh and two co-investigators just got a grant from the National Science Foundation to build the best data visualization and virtual reality system in the nation. He designed the current top system called the CAVE2 when he was at the the .

• Related: December 14, 2015

The University of Hawaiʻi’s new system will be called the Cyber-enabled Collabration Analysis Navigation and Observation Environment or CyberCANOE. That’s where the CreaTable and Kawano come in.

Over the summer, Leigh asked him to build a coffee table for the LAVA lab, but not just any coffee table. Something that would be suitably interactive and would inspire creativity in the lab’s students.

Kawano rose to the occasion, designing the CreaTable using autocad and building it out of extruded aluminum pieces in three days.

“It was kind of like a learning experience for me and I also built something really cool for the lab and Jason’s students,” said Kawano.

While the CreaTable is definitely cool, like an enormous iPhone with a huge touch screen that angles on gas shocks, it’s serving an even greater purpose.

“The fundamental knowledge that he learned to build this table is exactly what we need to build the new CyberCANOE,” said Leigh.

Kawano will be going from this summer project to helping to design and build the best data visualization and virtual reality system in the nation. Fitting, really, when you understand the vision for the CyberCANOE.

“If you think of the really hard problems in the world today, it’s not about just the chemistry problem or the physics problem or the biology or the education problem, it’s really all these things interconnected,” said Leigh. “And so the CyberCANOE sort of provides that platform for these other disciplines to think differently, work together in different ways that they never thought of before.”

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

More on the CyberCANOE

The will be home to the best data visualization system in the United States, thanks to a major research infrastructure grant from the (NSF).

The NSF provided $600,000 and the added $257,000 for a total of $857,000 to develop a large CyberCANOE, which stands for Cyber-enabled Collaboration Analysis Navigation and Observation Environment. The CyberCANOE is a visualization and collaboration infrastructure that allows students and researchers to work together more effectively using large amounts of data and information. It was designed by Professor Jason Leigh, who is also the founder and director of the (LAVA) at 东精影业 Mānoa.

东精影业’s CyberCANOE represents the culmination of over two decades of experience and expertise for Leigh, the grant’s principal investigator, who developed immersive virtual reality environments while at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the .

Exceeding capabilities

The 东精影业 CyberCANOE will provide an alternative approach to constructing ultra-resolution display environments by using new and completely seamless direct view light emitting diode displays, rather than traditional projection technologies or liquid crystal displays. The net effect is a visual instrument that exceeds the capabilities and overcomes the limitations of the current best-in-class systems at other U.S. universities.

“This comes at the best time for Hawaiʻi as the number of students interested in information and computer science is skyrocketing. Last year about 170 freshman computer science students entered the program, this year we will receive 270,” said Leigh. “The University of Hawaiʻi’s CyberCANOE will give these students access to better technology than what will be available on the continent.”

The new 2D and 3D stereoscopic display environment with almost 50 Megapixels of resolution will provide researchers with powerful and easy-to-use, information-rich instrumentation in support of cyberinfrastructure-enabled, data-intensive scientific discovery.

Increasingly, the nation’s computational science and engineering research communities work with international collaborators to tackle complex global problems. Advanced visualization instruments serve as the virtual eyepieces of a telescope or microscope, enabling research teams and their students to view their data in cyberspace, and better manage the increased scale and complexity of accessing and analyzing the data.

“I’m highly excited about this multidisciplinary collaboration between information and computer sciences, the Academy for Creative Media System and electrical engineering,” said co-principal investigator and 东精影业 Mānoa Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering David Garmire. “It will advance the state of the art in research infrastructure for information-rich visualization and immersive experience while providing unique opportunities for the student body.”

Creating new opportunities in computer science research

At least 46 researchers, 28 postdocs, 833 undergraduates and 45 graduate students spanning disciplines that include oceanography, astrobiology, mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, biomedical research, archeology, and computational media are poised to use the CyberCANOE for their large-scale data visualization needs. The CyberCANOE will also open up new opportunities in computer science research at the intersection of data-intensive analysis and visualization, human-computer interaction and virtual reality.

东精影业 System’s Academy for Creative Media (ACM) founder and director Chris Lee, who is also a co-principal investigator on the grant, said, “ACM System is thrilled to be able to continue to support Jason Leigh and his team in securing a second NSF Grant. This new CyberCANOE builds upon the two earlier ‘mini’ CyberCANOEs, which ACM System fully financed at 东精影业 Mānoa and 东精影业 West Oʻahu.”

The new CyberCANOE, which is expected to be built in about three years, will enable Leigh’s advanced visualization laboratory to provide scientific communities with highly integrated, visually rich collaboration environments; to work with industry to facilitate the creation of new technologies for the advancement of science and engineering; and to continue ongoing partnerships with many of the world’s best scientists in academia and industry. With the CyberCANOE, the lab will also support the country’s leadership position in high-performance computing and in contributing advancements to complex global issues, such as the environment, health and the economy.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

Potential investors got to see some of the exciting developments at the at a technology showcase in October. The presentations included:

• 鈥淐测产别谤-CANOE 3D virtual reality environment鈥� by Jason Leigh, 东精影业 惭腻苍辞补 professor of
• 鈥淎natomical 3D models on the zSpace virtual reality platform鈥� by Jesse Thompson, technical director for anatomical imaging at the
• 鈥淭elescope mirror technology for the solar industry鈥� by Professor and MorphOptic co-founder Jeff Kuhn
• 鈥淩ealistic brain phantom for MRI research and development鈥� by 东精影业 惭腻苍辞补 graduate students Kyoko Fujimoto and Trent Robertson

The event was sponsored by 东精影业鈥檚 , 东精影业 惭腻苍辞补鈥檚 and .

Guests included entrepreneurs, potential investors, intellectual property attorneys, defense contractors and other parties interested in licensing 东精影业 innovations.

Photos from the event

View photos on the .

鈥擝y Kelli Trifonovitch

Modern science is increasingly data-driven, collaborative in nature and international. Large-scale simulations and instruments produce petabytes of data, which is subsequently analyzed by tens of thousands of scientists scattered across the globe.

The and the are partnering on a project led by to accurately understand the current use of scientific data networks, while planning for the required capacity of international network circuits.

NSF grant funds network traffic analysis

The has awarded a grant of $5 million for the five-year project called NetSage. The project is an open privacy-aware network measurement analysis and visualization service designed to address the needs of today’s international networks. NetSage will monitor and visualize all the network traffic flowing over the National Science Foundation’s next generation, high-speed, international and national research networks.

Co-Principal Investigator Jason Leigh, director of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s , explained that the NetSage project is similar to an automobile traffic map that people depend on to get to work in the morning.

NetSage aids in visualizing network problems

Leigh said, “NetSage will be used to figure out whether there is congestion or outages and what the cause is, so that problems can be quickly fixed and future networks can be better planned.”

东精影业 Mānoa’s share of the grant is $1 million over five years. Hawaiʻi’s role is to work with all the network partners around the world to visualize the international network map using the enormous amount of data that will be collected. In addition the project aims to develop the next generation of networking engineers through internship opportunities working with under-represented students in Indiana and Hawaiʻi.

NetSage was funded by the National Science Foundation Award #1540933.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

About three dozen students at the and the are participating in 东精影业’s first joint video game development class. The gaming industry is a profession with a bright future. According to the , the video game industry added $6.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2012.

东精影业 Mānoa student Andrew Guagliardo is interested in a career in animation and says the opportunity to learn video game development in a collaborative environment is exciting. “It’s really awesome the way it’s set up, because you have the programmers working with the artists,” he said. “If I want to collaborate with people on the mainland, I’m basically learning how to do that through this class.”

The dual-campus class is made possible by a new tool at each site called the CyberCANOE, which stands for the Cyber-enabled Collaboration, Analysis, Navigation and Observation Environment.

The CyberCANOE is a visualization and collaboration infrastructure that allows students and researchers to work together more effectively using large amounts of data and information. It was created by hire Jason Leigh, who is also the founder and director of the (LAVA), and funded by the (ACM). Leigh is teaching the class jointly with 东精影业 West Oʻahu Assistant Professor Josiah Lebowitz.

Leigh is the inventor of the CAVE2 virtual environment at the . CAVE2 consists of a 2-D and 3-D 320-degree panoramic, virtual reality environment made up of 72 flat screen LCD panels, 20 speakers and 36 high-speed computers. 东精影业’s CyberCANOEs are the next generation of this virtual environment.

Space for Mānoa’s first CyberCANOE was provided by the campus’ Information Technology Center while 东精影业 West Oʻahu’s CyberCANOE is located in the ACM Computer Lab in the 东精影业 West Oʻahu Library. Funding for both CyberCANOEs, a total of almost $100,000, came from the University of Hawaiʻi System’s Academy for Creative Media.

ACM Director Chris Lee said, “ACM was always designed as an industry catalyst and you can’t have an industry unless you are creating the workforce.”

However, there is much more to 东精影业’s CyberCANOEs than video game development.

According to Leigh, multi-screened computer environments can be used for any class that needs the screen space for data-intensive research in almost any discipline, from astronomy to oceanography.

“Whether it’s video games, planning a new city or going to outer space, the idea behind the CyberCANOE is to use data visualization to allow people to be more creative, solve more challenging problems and come to better solutions with greater confidence,” Leigh said.

Leigh is building a larger CyberCANOE at 东精影业 Mānoa, and it will be made available to researchers and students in various disciplines at all 10 University of Hawaiʻi campuses. He hopes to have it up and running by the end of 2015. He also has a grant proposal in to build an even bigger third CyberCANOE at the campus. More exciting voyages lie ahead for 东精影业 and its CyberCANOEs.

A researcher at the who specializes in economic geography has generated mapping data showing the possible effects if or when the current lava flow in lower Puna cuts off the highway and then reaches the shore.

• 东精影业 Hilo Stories, September 15, 2014

Mark Kimura is an affiliate faculty member of the , and when the and started discussing worst case scenarios of the current lava flow, he saw a need for easily accessible information about demographics and businesses in Puna that would help the community make important decisions. He started posting his maps and analysis on a Facebook page called .

“The more I read comments (on my Facebook page), the more firmly I’m convinced that education is crucial across the island both geographically and demographically,” says Kimura. “I try my best to make my graphics both accurate and concise at the same time, but there are limits for that effort. The existence of 东精影业 Hilo is also crucial in a situation like this. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without my access to 东精影业 Hilo’s resources, mainly software licenses, and connections with other scientists and staff.”

For his analysis, Kimura is using geographic information systems or GIS, which are computer systems designed to capture and analyze spatial or geographical data. For many of the images, he is using a GIS tool called Esri Community Analyst, which he learned as a former postdoc and member of the 东精影业 Hilo . Esri is used by organizations and communities around the world that are using GIS to increase spatial literacy, protect the environment, assist with disaster response, and support humanitarian affairs. With this computerized tool, Kimura created the maps of Puna and pulled up the statistics.

Kimura says the making of the maps is helping him to grow as a scientist and as a person.

“To be honest, I’m a bit scared of possible impacts my (Facebook page) may have on people,” he says. “The responsibilities that come with the information I share feel too much at times. But my salary for the past three years has been paid by tax payers, so if I can help people using my skills and resources, I have to do this. After reading people’s comments by people who live in the affected area and those who have their loved ones living in lower Puna, I can’t stop.”

Kimura wishes to add this disclaimer: The information did not go through the peer review process, so he does not claim accuracy of the graphs. He notes that he does his best in the hopes that this will provide people in lower Puna and the rest of the world with some insights.

—via

The is now a leader in data visualization.

“Which is basically techniques for turning data, into imagery, to help people make sense of these large amounts of data,” said Jason Leigh, a 东精影业 Mānoa professor.

东精影业’s new prominence in the futuristic field is thanks to the successful recruitment of Leigh, the university’s second hire.

• 东精影业 news story:

Leigh came from the where he was an internationally recognized leader in data visualization. He helped develop Cave Automatic Virtual Enviromment (CAVE) and CAVE 2: a 2-D and 3-D, 320-degree panoramic, virtual reality environment made up of 72 flat screen LCD panels, 20 Ambisonic speakers and 36 high-speed computers.

“You step into it and it is projected with three-dimensional computer graphics and objects appear, or data appears, as if they were real, floating in front of you,” said Leigh. “So the computer helps you make those picture, make those connections between all of the different pieces of data that you are trying to fuse.”

CAVE 2 is being used in medical research, chemistry, automobile design, to name just a few. Leigh has secured funding to build a smaller prototype of the next generation of the technology at 东精影业 Mānoa. It will be called the Cyber-CANOE.

“It stands for collaborative, analytics, navigation and observation environment,” said Leigh, adding that 东精影业 is perfect for the Cyber-CANOE because of its world renowned programs like oceanography and astronomy. For example, data visualization can be used to quickly and better analyze massive amounts of data being collected by 东精影业 oceanographers.

“They can literally swim in this virtual ocean and observe their data as it is being collected,” said Leigh. “I mean, that is one of the voids on this campus, right? And so I am filling that crucial void right now.”

The ultimate goal is to build a Cyber-CANOE on each island, connected with high-speed networks that will enable faculty and students to share information, data and classes across the state and the world.

“The CANOE sort of works really well as a metaphor because these were the vessels of discovery for the Polynesians,” said Leigh. “And now these electronic CANOEs are the vessels of discovery for Hawaiʻi to explore the new data age.

In a big boost to the (HI²), visualization expert Jason Leigh will be joining the at the in spring 2014.

Leigh is currently a professor of computer science and director of the and , where he also holds an appointment in the .

“We have identified big data visualization as a critical area in which we need to grow capacity to support the Hawaiʻi Innovation Initiative and 东精影业’s own research aspirations,” said 东精影业 Interim President David Lassner. “Jason is one of the best anywhere, with a proven track record of successful innovation and deep collaboration with leading scientists within his institution and around the world.”

Leigh’s software is the de facto standard for driving ultra-high resolution display walls around the world, which are fast becoming the lenses through which insight and innovation from big data science and engineering collaborations are brought into focus.

His most recent invention, CAVE2, represents the next generation of the highly successful CAVE immersive virtual reality environment that was also developed at the Electronic Visualization Lab. CAVE2 combines the benefits of both scalable-resolution display walls and virtual-reality systems to create a seamless 2D/3D environment that supports both information-rich analysis as well as virtual-reality simulation exploration at a resolution matching human visual acuity.

The timing of a long-intended career move to Hawaiʻi became right with the focus of the new innovation initiative. Leigh has already been working with 东精影业’s and its Director David Karl, and will be expanding on that collaboration once he arrives.

“I am looking forward to working with my new colleagues in the ICS department and throughout the 东精影业 system to apply cyberinfrastructure and visualization technologies to improve research and scholarship in support of human insight and understanding,” Leigh said.

Larry Smarr, founding director of the and chair of the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure applauded 东精影业’s hiring of Leigh.

“Jason is a world-class innovator with a remarkable ability to collaborate with his colleagues in academia and industry alike,” Smarr said. “Jason has been extremely helpful to us in San Diego, so I know he will be indispensable to Hawaiʻi’s goal of developing an innovation economy.”

Leigh is a Fellow of the Institute for Health Research and Policy and he has held research appointments at and the . In addition to his research expertise in large-scale data visualization and virtual reality, his work encompasses high performance networking, human augmentics and video game design. He also enjoys personal interests in Kendo, ʻukulele and Samoan language and culture.

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National media coverage of Jason Leigh

• , February 26, 2011
• NSF Science Now, December 20, 2012
• February 23, 2012
• , March 3, 2005