HR: 1340h
AN: SF13A-0712    [Abstracts]
TI: The SCEC/UseIT Intern Program: Creating Open-Source Visualization Software Using Diverse Resources
AU: * Francoeur, H
EM: francoeu@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Callaghan, S
EM: scottcal@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Perry, S
EM: perry@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Jordan, T
EM: tjordan@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AB: The Southern California Earthquake Center undergraduate IT intern program (SCEC UseIT) conducts IT research to benefit collaborative earth science research. Through this program, interns have developed real-time, interactive, 3D visualization software using open-source tools. Dubbed LA3D, a distribution of this software is now in use by the seismic community. LA3D enables the user to interactively view Southern California datasets and models of importance to earthquake scientists, such as faults, earthquakes, fault blocks, digital elevation models, and seismic hazard maps. LA3D is now being extended to support visualizations anywhere on the planet. The new software, called SCEC-VIDEO (Virtual Interactive Display of Earth Objects), makes use of a modular, plugin-based software architecture which supports easy development and integration of new data sets. Currently SCEC-VIDEO is in beta testing, with a full open-source release slated for the future. Both LA3D and SCEC-VIDEO were developed using a wide variety of software technologies. These, which included relational databases, web services, software management technologies, and 3-D graphics in Java, were necessary to integrate the heterogeneous array of data sources which comprise our software. Currently the interns are working to integrate new technologies and larger data sets to increase software functionality and value. In addition, both LA3D and SCEC-VIDEO allow the user to script and create movies. Thus program interns with computer science backgrounds have been writing software while interns with other interests, such as cinema, geology, and education, have been making movies that have proved of great use in scientific talks, media interviews, and education. Thus, SCEC UseIT incorporates a wide variety of scientific and human resources to create products of value to the scientific and outreach communities. The program plans to continue with its interdisciplinary approach, increasing the relevance of the software and expanding its use in the scientific community.
UR: http://velocity.usc.edu
DE: 9805 Instruments useful in three or more fields
DE: 9820 Techniques applicable in three or more fields
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 7207 Core and mantle
DE: 3210 Modeling
SC: Special Focus: Advances in Data Acquisition, Management, Analysis and Display [SF]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting