The University of Illinois offers a world-class computing environment for this development. Beyond the ordinary facilities of a leading university. This constitutes a significant opportunity to exploit the most advanced computing education, research and development. Existing university facilities for high-end 3D include specialized Silicon Graphics workstations, both at NCSA and the Imaging Systems Laboratory. Brian Orland directs the Imaging Systems Lab. with a ten-year record of visualization for environmental appraisal.
Recent work includes the development of collaborative environmental modeling over the Internet.
Varkki George is nationally known for his work in multimedia and hypermedia applications, computer-aided instruction, and spatial modeling. Roy Campbell directs operating system development, high-speed networking, and visualization projects at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is author of numerous internationally known developments in high performance computing. Projects have included the national Gigabit network development, and Vosaic, a video-based internet interface. Proposal SmartCity will integrate design expertise to create virtual environments, and research and development expertise to develop the modeling and evaluation aspects of those environments. Both environmental modeling and GIS studies are well supported within our units, enabling piggybacking of technical assistance and student instruction.