# Presentation: 614077

## Research Plan Presentation

***Cornelius Toole, Jr.***
***Louis Stokes Mississippi Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to the Doctoral Program***
***Department of Computer Science***
***Jackson State University***
***September 16, 2004***
***Program Director:******	****** Dr. James Perkins***
***Research Advisor: Dr. Loretta A. Moore******	***

## Outline

***Advisor***
***Areas of Interest ***
***Career Objectives ***
***Academic Preparation***
***Research Experience***
***Topic Areas Overview ***
***Research Plan***
***Methodology***
***Activities / Coursework***
***Needed Preparation***
***Prospective Doctoral Programs***

## Advisor - Dr. Loretta Moore

***Educational Background***
***PhD., Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1991***
***M.S.,  Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1986***
***B.S.,   Computer Science, Jackson State University, 1985***
***Current Appointment***
*** ******Associate Professor and Chair of Computer Science Department ( 1998 – present )***

## Advisor - Continued

***Academic and Industrial Experiences***
***Auburn University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA Kennedy Space Center, AT&T Bell Labs***
***Research Interests***
***Intelligent systems, data fusion, graphics and image processing, information assurance, computer security***

## Academic Preparation

***Began Computer Science Program at JSU Fall 1999***
***Began Art Program at JSU mid-semester Fall 1999***
***Courses Overview:***
***Java, C, C++ programming***
***Data Structures, Discrete Structures, Programming Languages, Computer Architecture, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Data Mining, Computer Ethics, Senior Project***
***Biology, Chemistry, Physics I & II ***
***Trigonometry, Calculus I II & III, Probability and Statistics I & II***
***Graphic Design, Drawing, Computer Art***
***BS Computer Science May 2003***

**Notes:**
Chose to become a computer scientist because of varying interests
Felt computer science would allow me to pursue any one (or more) of them throughout my life
Computer graphics and visualization became the first areas of interest in computing
Became art/computer science double major as an undergraduate
Wished to integrate knowledge bases of these disciplines along with others

## Areas of Interest

***Computer Graphics and Visualization***
***Interface Design***
***High Performance Computing***

## Career Objectives

***Complete Master’s Degree in Computer Science at Jackson State University***
***Enter  & complete PhD program in Computer Science***
***Attain academic/research appointment***
***Conduct research and development in the areas of information/scientific visualization and new media tools ***
***Form R&D lab***
***Creation of coalitions between academia and industry in visual computing***

## Research Experience

***Student Research Assistant in JSU Computer Science Department, spring 2001 – fall 2002***
***Topic: Machine Vision, Image Processing, & Smart Camera***
***Advisor Dr. Loretta Moore***
***Student Research Intern at the Computations/Engineering Directorates at LLNL, summer 2001***
***Topic: Smart Camera***
***Project Manager Doug Coffland ***
***Advisor Virgil Kohlhepp***
***Student Research at the Engineering Directorate at LLNL, summer 2002***
***Topic: Smart Camera***
***Project Manager: Doug Coffland***
***Advisor: Virgil Kohlhepp***

## Research Experience cont'd

***Student Research Intern at Geo-Structures Laboratory at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ERDC, summer 2003***
***Topic: Protective Structures***
***Division Chief: Frank Dallriva***
***Advisor: Matt Hosseley***
***Student Research Guest at Center for Science and Engineering Education / Computing Sciences Division at LBNL in the Visualization Group, summer 2004***
***Topic: Visualization of Discrete Ordinates Method Radiation Transport Data***
***Mentor: John Shalf***

## Undergraduate Research Experience

***Advisor -Dr. Loretta Moore***
***Began research, which was funded by LLNL, on image processing, machine vision, and artificial intelligence at JSU Spring 2001***
***Preparation for research experience at LLNL to work on collaborative project***
***Wrote a report on machine vision techniques and applications***
***Continued this work until the Spring of 2002***

**Notes:**
Internship at Lawrence Livermore National Lab lead to become interested in research and development
Sought to create more intuitive software tools through this integration
Chief goal is to research and develop tools, processes, and devices that allow people to work, play, and learn more effectively
 Intent to do visualization research is the next step in this process

## Undergraduate Research Experience: Smart Camera

- Camera/Sensor

## Undergraduate Research Experience: Smart Camera

***Summer 2001***
***Project Manager – Doug Coffland***
***Advisor – Virgil Kohlhepp***
***Research experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to work on Smart Camera collaborative project***
***Activities***
***System configuration, systems support, video capture, machine vision software debugging and testing, developed Windows drivers***
***Presented work at ACM Mid-Southeast Region Conference and Science and Engineering Alliance Symposium***

**Notes:**
Internship at Lawrence Livermore National Lab lead to become interested in research and development
Sought to create more intuitive software tools through this integration
Chief goal is to research and develop tools, processes, and devices that allow people to work, play, and learn more effectively
 Intent to do visualization research is the next step in this process

## Undergraduate Research Experience: Smart Camera @ JSU

***Fall 2001 – Spring 2002***
***Continued work from Summer 2001***
***Prepared paper on this work***
***Presented at the Science and Engineering Alliance Symposium, October 2001, in Gaithersburg, MD***
***Presented paper at ACM Mid-Southeast Region Conference, Nov. 2001, in Gatlinburg, TN***
***Continued Smart Camera research in preparation for another experience at LLNL for Summer 2002 ***

## Undergraduate Research Experience: Smart Camera

***Summer 2002***
***Project Manager – Doug Coffland***
***Advisor – Virgil Kohlhepp***
***Continued work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Smart Camera collaborative project***
***Activities***
***Ported video control software to Linux for video capture***
***Presented work in Student Poster Symposium at LLNL***

**Notes:**
Internship at Lawrence Livermore National Lab lead to become interested in research and development
Sought to create more intuitive software tools through this integration
Chief goal is to research and develop tools, processes, and devices that allow people to work, play, and learn more effectively
 Intent to do visualization research is the next step in this process

## Undergraduate Research Experience: Smart Camera

***Fall 2002***
***Presented work from Summer 2002 at ACM Mid-Southeast Region Conference, November 2002, Gatlinburg, TN***
*** ******Won 3******rd****** place in Best Student Paper Category***

## Undergraduate Research Experience: Protective Structures

***Advisor – Matt Hosseley***
***Division Chief – Frank Dallriva***
***Research experience Summer 2003 at Geo-Sciences/Geo-Structures Laboratory at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering and Development Research Center to work on Protective Structures Project***
***Wrote software for analysis of explosives test data***
***Such a tool would be used in the determination of blast area safe zones***

**Notes:**
Internship at Lawrence Livermore National Lab lead to become interested in research and development
Sought to create more intuitive software tools through this integration
Chief goal is to research and develop tools, processes, and devices that allow people to work, play, and learn more effectively
 Intent to do visualization research is the next step in this process

## Graduate Research Experience: Radiation Transport

***Part of a scientific team interested in discovering the cause of supernovae***
***Radiation transport involved in key processes taking place in supernovae***
***Radiation transport describes processes that occur when the properties of protons are altered by scattering, absorption, and reemission of the matter through which the protons are passing ***

## Graduate Research Experience cont’d

***Graduate Research Experience cont’d***

***Equation extremely difficult to solve because of the integration on an angle***
***Scientist uses Discrete Ordinates Methods to circumvent this***
***DOM divides the domain into regions called ordinates through discretization***

- Integro-differential form of Boltzmann Radiative Transfer Equation

- Discretization of integration over an angle by quadrature sums times appropriate weights at finite points in interval

## Radiation Density Visualization

## Radiation Density Relief

## Time Derivative of Radiation Density

## Summer Research Summary

***Provide scientist with tools to explore radiation transport data***
***Interest in remote distributed visualization***
***Chose this work in order to gain experience in scientific visualization and to better understand needs and challenges of visualization first***

## Scientific Visualization: Definition

***Visualization is a method of computing. It transforms the symbolic into the geometric, enabling researchers to (more effectively) observe their simulations and computations. Visualization offers a method for seeing the unseen. It enriches the process of scientific discovery and fosters profound and unexpected insights...***
***-B. McCormick, T. DeFanti, and M. Brown***

## Scientific Visualization Rationale

***Has promise as method of interpretation and navigation through huge amounts of data ***
*** ******It is estimated that 50% of the brain's neurons are associated with vision. "The purpose of [scientific] computing is insight, not numbers."***
***- Richard Hamming,1982. ***

## Principles of Scientific Visualization

***Principles of Scientific Visualization***

***The scientific investigation model as it relates to scientific visualization***

## Distributed Systems: Computational Grids

***Distributed systems***
***Linking resources in a geographically remote manner***

***Can support the execution of large-scale, resource-intensive, & distributed applications***

## Distributed Systems: Computational Grids

***Example of an e-ChemLab enabled by grid technology***

***Distributed Systems: Computational Grids***

***Spring 2004 special topics course on grid technology***
***Instructed by Drs. Geoffrey Fox, Bryan Carpenter, and Marlon Pierce from Indiana University***

## Distributed Visualization Architecture: DiVA 

## Distributed Visualization: Motivation

***Resources and capabilities for visualization are dispersed. ***
***Large data store may be at one site***
***Special display system at another***
***High graphics performance processing capabilities may exist at a rendering farm in another site***
***What if we could create a system to take advantage of all these capabilities in an application that works seamlessly as a single machine?***
***Remote distributed visualization (RDV) can enable this***

## Distributed Visualization

***Applications***
***Particle Physics***
***Astronomy***
***Genomics***
***Bioinformatics***
***Computation Biology***
***Any scientific domain that generates huge amounts of data and can take advantage of high performance computing***

## Distributed Visualization Architecture: Remote Distributed Visualization

***Key Problem Areas in Remote Distributed Visualization***
***New Network Transport and Communications Protocols***
***Job Control***
***Brokering of Grid Services for Visualization***
***Common / Unified Data Formats***
***New Visualization Algorithms***

## RDV: Need for a Broker

***Possible to manually configure a RDV application on limited number of machines in a distributed environment***
***Infeasible with many ( hundreds ) of machines and components not to mention that one would have to know all the info about each component***
***This needs to be automated – could be done by an agent called a broker***

## Visualization Services Broker

- A Broker provides services for:
- Service/Component Discovery & Location
- Performance Prediction / Modelling
- Optimal Configuration
- Application Invocation
- Permissions Granting / Acquisition
- Recording Performance History / Configuration Refinements

## Research Plan

***Tentative Thesis Topic Area***
***DiVA – Distributed Visualization Architecture***
***Brokering for Visualization Grid Services***
***Research Goal***
***To develop and implement components that provide brokering services for distributed visualization applications***
***This work's main focuses are studies in visualization, and distributed computing.***

## Research Plan cont'd

***Currently in literature review***
***DiVA research is being conducted at:***
***Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory***
***Carnegie Mellon University***
***Louisiana State University***
***Becoming familiar with grid computing frameworks***
***Studies of various visualization techniques***

## Research Plan: Methodology

***Implement visualization components as grid services***
***Implement performance models and profiles for each component***
***Implement components for service location***
***Implement components for optimal configuration selection***
***Implement agent to invoke visualization pipeline application***
***Implement methods to monitor and refine application performance***

## Activities / Coursework

***Activities / Coursework***

## Publication Plans / Professional Development

***ACM Mid Southeast Region Conference in Gatlinburg, TN, Nov 2004 – present paper on work at LBNL***
***Overset Symposium in Huntington Beach, CA, Oct 5 -7, 2004***
***Winter 2004 ***
***Publications on visualization brokering grid services***

## Preparation Needed

***Mathematics***
***Reinforcement of calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, set theory and logic, and probability & statistics***
***Numerical analysis***
***Computer Graphics***
***Computer Animation***

## Preparation Needed

***Neural Networks***
***Algorithm Design and Analysis( reinforcement )***
***Parallel Programming***
***Distributed Computing***
***Web\Grid Services***

## Proposed Doctoral Programs

***University of California Davis Computer Science Program***
***Kwa Liu Ma, PhD***
***Scientific Visualization / Information Visualization***
***University of Illinois Chicago Computer Program***
***The Electronic Visualization Laboratory***
***University of Florida Computer Science Program***
***Paul Fishwick***
***Aesthetic Computing***

## Acknowledgements

***My parents***
***My wife***
***Jackson State University Computer Science Department Faculty and Staff***
***Dr. Loretta Moore***
***Dr. James Perkins***
***The National Science Foundation and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation***
***The Office of Science of the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory***