FACT SHEET
New Mexico Innovators Join Forces on Fulldome Research
About UNM's Advanced Graphics Lab
The Advanced Graphics Lab (AGL) was founded by UNM assistant professors Pradeep Sen (Electrical & Computer Engineering Department) and Joe Kniss (Computer Science Department) in fall 2006 with the mission of researching the science and technology of computer graphics and digital media. Aside from the two faculty members, the lab hosts a set of associated researchers, visiting professors, and eight full-time graduate students.
The AGL team does research in areas as diverse as high-end rendering, computational photography, computer vision, and visualization. Research by Dr. Sen and his students has been published at SIGGRAPH, the leading conference in computer graphics, as well as peer-reviewed journals such as ACM Transactions on Graphics, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, and the Eurographics Computer Graphics Forum.
The video-game development program that Sen started through AGL is ranked one of the top 50 video-game development programs in the country in Princeton Review's April 2010 issue and in Gamepro magazine. Sen plans to leverage the success of his game development program to build a team of students that can develop content for the Fulldome and Immersive Technology project.
About the UNM ARTS Lab
The ARTS Lab -- Art, Research Technology & Science Lab -- has been involved in fulldome research and production since its inception in 2004. It is UNM's state-of-the-art facility for interdisciplinary research in digital media, and it actively develops creative relationships connecting art, science, business and technology in New Mexico's unique environment. Its vision is to be a catalyst for education and research that will grow and sustain an advanced media industry in New Mexico. Formed in response to the state's Media Industries Strategic Plan, it supports innovation and growth in film, new media, simulation, telehealth, game technology, image processing, scientific visualization, national security applications, and new markets for content.
The ARTS Lab maintains a Digital Media Garage, which is a black-box space outfitted to support performance, experimentation and research in digital graphics, sound, and real-time immersive projection systems. It includes a 15-foot-diameter hemispheric domed projection surface, a Vicon motion-capture system, a 30' x 40' green screen studio, and an AV production suite.
DomeFest, ARTS Lab's annual festival and conference, brings together artists and researchers from around the world to see and discuss work that expands the medium and helps build the fulldome community. In addition to this annual juried show, ARTS Lab produces fulldome work, most recently a sequence from the NSF-funded "Tales of the Maya Skies." The Fulldome and Immersive Technology project builds on this work and on industry relationships to develop new content and display capability for fulldome and other potential environments.
UNM Computer Science Emeritus Professor Ed Angel, a co-leader in the Fulldome and Immersive Technology project, is co-founder and former director of the ARTS Lab,
About the Santa Fe Complex
The Santa Fe Complex is a private, nonprofit think tank known for its work with complexity science. Its mission is to create a collaborative workspace that fosters applied complexity science through interdisciplinary education, outreach, and development of innovative technologies to address real-world problems, enable social cooperation, and create economic opportunities.
Thanks to the influence of the Santa Fe Institute, which pioneered much of the research into complex systems, Santa Fe is internationally known for its complexity-science-based businesses. The Complex taps the wealth of talent in New Mexico's scientific and technological community, much of it nurtured by the presence of two major national laboratories in the state.
The Complex also works with New Mexico's expansive arts community, in which the growing use of computers and other intelligent electronics are blurring the distinction between traditional arts and new technology. Exchanging ideas across this boundary opens the door to new and innovative ways of looking at the world.
The Complex's Redfish Group and Los Alamos Visualization Associates will contribute to the Fulldome and Immersive Technology project.
About the Institute of American Indian Arts
IAIA's New Media Arts Department offers a rigorous and comprehensive program of study that trains students in all aspects of digital media. Students learn the principles from which new media have evolved as well as the tenets of the digital environment. Classes use the latest, industry-standard hardware, software and development tools to further their own creative ideas and stories.
IAIA serves tribes locally and nationally through liberal studies and professional degree programs that provide Native students with general knowledge and critical skills to make personal and career decisions throughout their lives. IAIA is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and is one of only three Congressionally chartered U.S. institutions of higher education.
About UNM's Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
With 32 tenured and tenure-track professors, the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department in UNM's School of Engineering is the largest ECE department in the state of New Mexico.
The department's two graduate programs, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering, are ranked among America's Best Graduate Schools by U.S. News & World Report, the only such programs in New Mexico that are ranked. Both undergraduate programs are accredited by the national Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
The department has a range of 16 research concentrations and offers graduate degrees in 14 areas; it confers more than 100 degrees annually; and it has an average enrollment of about 400 students.
ECE@UNM is celebrating its centennial in 2010.
About UNM
The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. It is North America's only institution designated both by the U.S. Department of Education as Hispanic-Serving and by the Carnegie Foundation as a research doctoral university "with very high research activity," the highest level of research that Carnegie designates.
About NSF's Partnerships for Innovation
The National Science Foundation's "Partnerships for Innovation" support research that both spurs technological innovation and creates economic development for the state by commercializing technology and developing workforce skills.
PFI brings together colleges and universities, state and local governments, private-sector firms, and nonprofit organizations. These organizations form partnerships that support innovation in their communities by developing the people, tools, and infrastructure needed to put new scientific discoveries to practical uses.
The goals of the PFI program are to:
1. Stimulate the transformation of knowledge created by the national research and education enterprise into innovations that create new wealth, build strong local, regional, and national economies, and improve the national wellbeing;
2. Broaden the participation of all types of academic institutions and all citizens in NSF activities to more fully meet the workforce needs of the national innovation enterprise; and
3. Catalyze or enhance enabling infrastructure necessary to foster and sustain innovation in the long term.
PFI partnerships may focus on a specific technology, industry, or geographic area, and may request total budgets from NSF of up to $600,000 for 2 to 3 years. Proposed partnerships must include academic institutions and private-sector organizations. Partnerships that include state/local government are strongly encouraged. Each partnership uses the specific educational and economic strengths of its community to advance local economic and educational opportunities.
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Contacts –
PFI: Consortium for Fulldome and Immersive Technology Development:
UNM Advanced Graphics Lab
Pradeep Sen, PhD
Assistant Professor
UNM Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
psen@ece.unm.edu
505-277-1412
UNM ARTS Lab
David Beining
Associate Director of Immersive Media
http://domefest.org/
dbeining@unm.edu
505-362-2614
UNM ARTS Lab
Eric Renz-Whitmore
Program Coordinator
whitmore@unm.edu
505-277-2253 or 227-1086
Santa Fe Complex
Molly Seibel
Press Contact
molly.seibel@sfcomplex.org
505-216-7562
Institute of American Indian Arts
Staci Golar
Communications and Marketing Director
505-424-2351
sgolar@iaia.edu