CCT Research Group Recreates University in Second Life
LSU is located on an island, Nicholson Hall backs up to a beach retreat and the Quad houses a fountain and seating area where professors and students can meet. These are not attributes of the University here, but they are some features of LSU in Second Life.
Researchers within CCT Cultural Computing Focus Area have spent the past semester creating LSU in Second Life, a popular virtual environment where users interact with each other through 3-D avatars.
CCT will officially unveil LSU in Second Life and provide a tour on Thursday, May 8 at 11 a.m. in the CCT Training Room, Johnston Hall Room 338. The tour is open to media and interested participants.
“A key focus of our center is exploring ways we can use new applications as resources for interdisciplinary research,” said CCT Director Ed Seidel. “Virtual environments are an excellent opportunity for us to expre how to collaborate in ways we previously could not.”
LSU School of Music Professor Stephen David Beck heads the Cultural Computing Focus Area at CCT, which focuses on how emerging computer applications impact the arts and humanities.
“As Second Life and other virtual environments become more popular, they will have implications for computational science, social science, business, the arts, mass communication and many other areas,” Beck said. “LSU in Second Life offers a portal for us to experience these changes together.”
LSU architecture students worked with Beck’s group to create LSU in Second Life, ensuring the campus’ buildings and structure retained a familiar feel.
“In visiting other university virtual campuses in Second Life, we noticed many of the students did not feel the campus was the same,” Beck said. “That sense of connectivity is very important to students who may feel uncomfortable in a virtual environment, so we wanted to keep roughly the same elements and design as LSU in real life.”
The Second Life campus is mainly limited to buildings of the Quad and the second quadrangle behind Thomas and David Boyd Halls. Since all locations in Second Life are on islands, LSU features oceanfront property in the design.
The campus features Memorial Tower, which users can scale with their avatars for an aerial view of the campus. Class and teaching space is available in Dodson Auditorium, and Atkinson Hall offers a display area where students can showcase original art they design for Second Life. Nicholson Hall is home to CCT’s visualization laboratory, which features an immersive environment to study coastal modeling, hurricane simulations and other areas of scientific visualization. The Greek Amphitheatre sits behind Coates Hall, and will be the site of live concerts streamed into Second Life from the School of Music.
“In the future, this could develop as a way for professors to host classes that experiment with traditional course structure, and it will become a way students can test how to digitally capture and recreate original work,” Beck said.
Pats on the Back:
• Ian Taylor's band performed at Teddy's Juke Joint in Zachary on April 23. To view a clip of his performance, visit http://www.cct.lsu.edu/~gallen/IanTaylor_TeddysJukeJoint_April2008
• For the second semester in a row, LSU students captured the top prize in the video game design course’s final class game marathon. The judges for the competition, which took place between LSU students and their counterparts at the University of Illinois-Chicago on Friday, May 2, unanimously selected LSU's Plan C as the winner. The team members were Josh Mayer (lead), Devin Ourso (programmer), Josh Wascom (programmer) and Nicholas Scheurich (visiting artist.) A joint LSU and UIC team won third place, and a third LSU team received honorable mention. Congratulations to all the students for their hard work throughout the semester!
CCT in the News:
5/5/08
Video game design students show off today
Daily Report
LSU video game design students today host a video-game marathon for their last day of class, which the students "attend" by way of high-definition video streaming broadcast from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
http://www.businessreport.com/archives/daily-report/2008/may/02/515/
Upcoming Lectures:
• Visions for Quantitative Biology Lecture Series: Ulrich Hansmann, Michigan Technological University, will deliver a lecture titled, “Is Silco Approach to Protein Folding?” on Wednesday, May 7 at 2:30 p.m. in the Life Science Building Annex Auditorium room A101.
• IT Eminent Lecture Series: Frank H. Shu, University Of California-San Diego, will give a lecture on the topic “Two Cultures: Higher Education and Science/Technology Planning in the United States and Asia” Tuesday, May 13 at 2:30 p.m. in Coats Hall room 145. There will be a reception following the lecture at 3:30 p.m. This event is co-sponsored by CCT and the Department of Computer Science.
• IMPORTANT: Anyone organizing a lecture OR EVENT should first check with Karen Jones for available dates to avoid having multiple lectures/events on the same day. Also, coordinate with your Focus Area lead so that CCT can get the best attendance possible. There may be open slots in a standard lecture series that needs to be filled.
Please Note:
• This Thursday, May 8, is the deadline to register for the CCT End-of-Semester Crawfish Boil that will take place Monday, May 12. Please e-mail Events Manager Karen Jones at kjones@cct.lsu.edu and let her know whether you plan to attend and if you would prefer crawfish, a hot dog or a veggie burger. Please pass this invitation along to your students.
• The Spring 2008 semester ends this Saturday, May 10, with the conclusion of finals. Please be aware of your student workers’ plans for the Summer 2008 semester.
• ALL CCT Meetings for the spring are scheduled as follows: May 21, June 18 and July 16. All meetings are held at 3 p.m. in 338 Johnston Hall. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend.
• Registration ends May 12 for the SC08 summer workshop that will take place June 8-14 at LSU, “Integrating Computational Science into the Undergraduate Curriculum.” Please visit http://www.cct.lsu.edu/SC08educate for more information.
• Please review your meeting room reservations for CCT facilities. If your reservation extends beyond a five-month period or continues indefinitely, it will be removed. For further information, please review CCT Policy Statement # 18 at http://www.cct.lsu.edu/site133.php .
• If you have any news for the CCT Weekly, please e-mail PR Manager Kristen Sunde directly at ksunde@cct.lsu.edu.
Upcoming Grant Deadlines:
Note: Please see the CCT deadline Web site, as many NSF deadlines are listed here: http://www.cct.lsu.edu/about/grants/deadlines/events.php
Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering
May 14, 2008 10:15 a.m.
A Portion Of $1,900,000.00 available
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08544/nsf08544.htm?govDel=USNSF_25
International Research and Education: Planning Visits and Workshops
May 20, 2008 10:15 a.m.
A Portion Of $1,500,000.00 available
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04035/nsf04035.htm
Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP)
Letter of Intent
May 30, 2008 5:00 pm
At Most $1,000,000.00 available
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08545/nsf08545.htm?govDel=USNSF_25
Publish Date:
05-06-2008
