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October 20, 2011 |
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The Art of Science — Visualize the Possibilities
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Kelly Gaither is a major driving force in HPC visualization, development of large “superdisplays” comprised of large, tiled viz-walls in dealing with large data and parallel systems. As Director of Visualization at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), she currently hosts one of the world's largest scientific visualization “SciVis” systems, and is helping to mature many programs and techniques now broadly recognized as another critical pillar in scientific method and discovery.
Kelly brings data to life. And she brings life to science. At the academic level, she is providing fellow researchers with state-of-the-art tools and strategies to analyze their results with higher degrees of fidelity and granularity delivered through multi-dimensional “Technicolor” mediums, perpetually moving the HPC community toward improved understanding. While graphics and simulation have matured greatly over the last several decades, “SciVis” continues to be a revolutionary discipline. A complex field Kelly is pioneering on every front, advancing new insights and breakthrough approaches to the genius of giant problem solving.
This year, she is bringing her professional passion to a broader audience in her role as chair for the upcoming SC11 Scientific Visualization Showcase - a first of its kind in the conference's 24-year history. Keeping with Seattle's edgy scene and creative vibe, Kelly will treat SC attendees to an artful experience through her “SciVis” showcase. The Beauty of Science will debut state-of-the-art digital display, real time renderings, data simulations and eclectic experiments to stimulate the right brain and ultimately influence our deeper explorations into the art of science.
What is most enticing about this year's “SciVis” vignette is the concerted effort in abstracting the science and technique from its analytical interpretation. Kelly makes data vivid …tangible and textured…visual…stimulating...enticing…visceral…art. And, while “SciVis” is a common practice, from remote visualization to large projection and cave displays to observe “data” in depth and motion, Kelly's innovative endeavors promise to reach far beyond the scientific realm and spur imagination.
At a societal level, it is Kelly's deep personal commitment to bridging communities to the sciences, paralleling this year's “Connecting Communities through HPC” conference theme. As part of her leadership role as scientist, evangelist and educator, Kelly is a member of the Technology Advisory Committee for the Austin-based Girlstart program. Girlstart is one of the nation's few community based K-12 programs dedicated to equipping girls for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-based success, from elementary through secondary and post-doctoral education, and developing pathways for STEM-focused careers — bridges and paths Kelly understands intimately.
Kelly's art is, in fact, one of the few sciences and disciplines that enables an audience, like the Girlstart participants and others outside of the traditional HPC community, to understand the sciences in a more profound way. By offering the observer a new way to interact and become intimately engaged, the science becomes an art form. Kelly's SciVis efforts hold great promise primarily as one of the single greatest teaching formats to give the research community at large new outlets to extend their traditional research reach to the masses — regardless of whether the observers themselves have received any form of classical education or otherwise. “SciVis” is a format that allows a scientist to visually articulate highly complex work and to explain results through an art format, or electronic canvas, which is easier for an untrained eye to comprehend and creates a perceptual experience for the observer. For the populous, this new delivery mechanism of the sciences can be far more compelling and provide a better understanding of research than the more analytical and complex explanation itself.
Kelly Gaither is an innovators delight, championing a major transformation in the sciences by marrying analysis with visual thinking to illustrate calculations, proofs, trends, tendencies and distributions — best articulated through visual interpretations. What Kelly is bringing to SC11, science, the community and beyond is the ability to take left-brained complexity and translate it into the right-brained language — a true art of science.
– CE Stevens
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Sponsor
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Scientific Computing Highlights
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HPC Webcast Series GPU Computing: Designing flexible systems for rapid evolution Power and Cooling: Compute More, Consume Less |
HPC Source Visualization: Rendering High-performace and High-quality Graphics Power & Cooling: Achieving the Next Level Storage:
Taming the Data Torrent |
