U of I virtual technology program aids microbiology research 

What if doctors could perform surgery from thousands of miles away? Or an architect could walk into a virtual building plan and move beams and joists to test for structural integrity? What if you could meet with potential business partners online, shake hands and physically feel it?  

Those are just a few of the long-term implications of the work being done by the University of Idaho’s Virtual Technology and Design department – a program in the College of Art and Architecture on the bleeding edge of virtual reality, where complex sets of data like building specs or disease pathology are transformed into interactive 3-D models that allow students, businesses and researchers to gain new insights into the information they work with.  
“Clearly every industry is faced by the fire hoses of data coming at them,” said VTD program director Brian Sumption.
“And any time you can apply a tool that helps you understand the complexities of that data set and reveal the essence and the patterns that are there, that’s essential.”
Sumption and fellow professors Brian Cleveley and John Anderson are all architects, but they work with pixels instead of bricks.
While Sumption’s work is focused on motion capture technology that makes it possible to “grab” and manipulate virtual objects using flesh-and-blood movements (“Wii on steroids,” as he calls it), Cleveley builds virtual environments, like Second Life, in which people from around the world can interact through walking, (sometimes) talking digital representations of themselves. Anderson’s emphases are in the biomedical and microbiological areas, modeling and studying organisms in a “virtual Petri dish.”
Cleveley’s work with the U of I’s virtual campus on Second Life – called “Idahonia” – has attracted interest from private companies like IBM.com and TMP Worldwide, both of which were represented at an entirely digital fashion show held online in late January. University recruitment is already taking place at Idahonia, as well as classes and group discussions.
“We’re seeing, as we move through this, other entities are engaging with us,” Cleveley said. “As we explore the how, people are out there using it. And that’s brilliant.”
While they differ in focus, the areas of research in the VTD program are all essentially about the same thing: radically increasing the amount of interaction and control we have over both technology and information.
“We all understand that the intersection of technologies that are around us today are increasingly playing a role in human activities, production and consumption,” Anderson said. “That intersection is affecting education. It’s affecting social services. It’s affecting how we access and connect with each other. We see it every day.”

Microbiology impact – Toxoplasma gondii
A potent example of where that intersection could impact society is in the field of microbiology. Students in the VTD program – many of whom are earning the only Bachelors of Science in VTD degrees offered in the country – have worked with Anderson and Gustavo Arrizabalaga, a researcher and professor, respectfully, at the U of I, on a project to “virtualize” and study the parasite Toxoplasma gondii (TPG).
One of the most common parasites in the world, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates as many as 60 million U.S. adults carry TPG in their bodies. While few show symptoms, the parasite, which causes Toxoplasmosis, can be fatal to those with compromised immune systems and is especially threatening to pregnant women and their unborn children.
But despite the widespread presence of TPG, researchers know relatively little about how it is able to invade the cell, replicate itself and destroy it all while avoiding detection.
Arrizabalaga, an MIT and Stanford-educated professor of microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry, has been studying the parasite for years, but didn’t consider the use of 3-D virtual modeling until a chance meeting with Anderson.
“It came out, of all places, at a birthday party for John’s daughter, who at the time was turning four,” Arrizabalaga said.
Anderson expressed interest in applying VTD principles to biomedical problems, and Arrizabalaga shared some videos of TPG. Both saw the implications not only for research but for teaching.
“The main focus that I was trying to bring to the interaction was from a teaching perspective,” Arrizabalaga said. “How the parasite gets into the cell, is not a simple event – it involves a lot of things. …To explain that is not simple using 1-D imaging.”
Using data supplied by Arrizabalaga’s team, Anderson and his VTD students produced a richly rendered video model of TPG’s invasion cycle. The result not only earned VTD a semifinalist ranking in the 2007 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, but gave Arrizabalaga and his fellow researchers new questions to ask about how TPG operates.
“When you’re trying to visualize it and also explain it to people so they do the imaging to portray the event, you can get a sense of the gaps in the knowledge,” he said. “…We know a lot about what’s happening as far as the parasite getting in, but as far as what is happening to the skeleton of the host cell as the parasite enters, we know very little.”
For Anderson and his fellow VTD faculty members, the TPG virtualization was proof of the discipline’s wide-ranging applications.
“We have virtual models that now we can test uniquely by adapting and changing the data that is found in the research labs,” Anderson said. “…You start to see unknowns, areas that you need to investigate a little further.
“Scientists think chemically, we think physically,” he added. “During the collaboration it spawns new research because our questions are completely different questions than a scientist would be asking.”

Long-term benefits
Mark Hoversten, dean of the U of I’s College of Art and Architecture, said the implications of applying VTD principles to industries like biomedicine, architecture, planning, even sports medicine “blows my mind.”
“It’s pretty far-reaching. We’re pretty excited about it,” he said. “…It’s really very impressive. I came out of the private sector mid-career – I guess that’s fresh enough [for me] to keep that in mind. I immediately saw that this is an area that absolutely has private sector applications.”
Anderson agreed, but noted that the technology is only in its infancy. But it doesn’t take much of an imaginative leap to see Sumption’s motion research, applied in a virtual environment like Cleveley’s, combined with Anderson’s complex modeling to envision a virtual world with capabilities every bit as tangible as those in the “real.”
“We’ve barely begun this process,” he said. “We’re talking about predicting markets, business virtualization. … The virtual infrastructure we are all very aware of – that’s where the new economy will be. It really is an untapped market.”

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