Virtual Environments: A New Approach to Doing Science

Rick Stevens
Mathematics and Computer Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory

The emergence of virtual reality technology has introduced an exciting new approach to scientific research and development. Virtual reality environments such as the CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) are allowing researchers to conduct three-dimensional simulations---to go "inside" experimental data and interact with results computed on high-performance supercomputers. Current applications include drug design, simulation of the casting process for car and aircraft parts, and modeling of combustion within commercial boilers. In the future, collaborative virtual laboratories may enable distributed scientific research groups to share unique large-scale experimental facilities such as accelerators, electron microscopes, and light sources. Using emerging high-speed networks like those being developed as part of the I-WAY (International Wide Area Network) project, researchers in different locations will be able to collaborate naturally and effectively over rich virtual environments that support audio, video, and gesture capabilities. Through telescience technology, researchers also may remotely control operations in deep-sea exploratory submarines, space shuttles, and nuclear reactors. Virtual environments present significant technological challenges, but the rewards are clear: new insight; faster understanding of complex, multidimensional phenomena; and increased scientific productivity. Noteworthy examples are the I-WAY project, which focuses on mechanisms to link supercomputers and advanced visualization environments via asynchronous transfer
mode; and the LabSpace project, exploring electronic virtual laboratories to support remote operation and control of scientific experiments.