Contact: Nichole Phillips, (213) 740-3237 nicholep@imsc.usc.edu
AUDIO TECHNOLOGY PAPER WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD-"The Influence of Reverberation on Multichannel Equalization: An Experimental Comparison Between Methods" by IMSC key investigator Prof. Chris Kyriakakis and Sunil Bharitkar, was awarded the Best Paper Award at the highly regarded Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in November in Pacific Grove, CA. For more information on IMSC's Immersive Audio Lab, go to http://audiolab.usc.edu.
IMSC's REVIEW BOARDS MEET, LEARN OF NEW SPONSORS-IMSC's Board of Councillors (BOC) and Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) met in November and reviewed IMSC's programs, providing advice and counsel. They heard presentations by IMSC faculty on the Center's three vision projects-in communications, education and entertainment-and discussed them in breakout sessions. They also viewed 25 demonstration projects presented by IMSC students. Board members also heard presentations on how three new IMSC sponsors-ChevronTexaco, Korean Air and Pratt & Whitney-will move IMSC technologies into two major industries-oil and airlines. The three companies are among the first to join IMSC's new sponsor program. For more information on member programs, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/industry/categories.html and contact Dr. Isaac Maya, IMSC's Director of Industry and Technology Transfer Programs, at (213) 740-2592.
NEW FEDERAL HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WILL INCLUDE IMSC PROJECTS-IMSC will participate in a new research center on homeland security that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is establishing at USC. IMSC investigators will research and provide support in immersive visualization and information management. In November, the Department announced plans to establish the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events as the first homeland security research center in the nation. The Center will emphasize the protection of the nation's critical infrastructure systems, including electrical power, transportation and telecommunications. The School of Engineering and School of Policy, Planning and Development will be the main leaders in the Center.
In addition, IMSC key investigator Prof. Suya You and IMSC Director Ulrich Neumann received a grant from the National Imagery Mapping Agency for research on rapid 3D modeling from laser scans. Prof. You will be the Principal Investigator, and Prof. Neumann will be the co-Principal Investigator.
IMSC also has two grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and others on QuakeSim, a project on computer modeling for earthquake prediction. Prof. Dennis McLeod, IMSC's Strategic Scientist and a key investigator, is a co-Principal Investigator.
IMSC RESEARCHER PARTICIPATES IN ELECTRONIC GAME CONFERENCE-Key IMSC investigator Prof. Albert "Skip" Rizzo, a clinical psychologist who heads the Center's virtual reality environment projects, participated in the inaugural Electronic Digital Game Expo presented by the USC School of Engineering's Information Technology Program in November. He described how VR technologies used by the gaming industry are also being developed for treating psychological disorders. For information on IMSC's virtual environments projects, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/humanfactors/.
IMSC IN THE NEWS-In the November issue of Prism magazine of the American Society for Engineering Education, Prof. Dennis McLeod, IMSC's Strategic Scientist and a key investigator, described the QuakeSim project (cited above).
Additionally, IMSC's BioSIGHT project, directed by IMSC key investigator Wee Ling Wong, was cited in the December email newsletter of Eduventures, a Boston consulting firm in the education field. The BioSIGHT project focuses on interactive visualization for science education. The Eduventures article spotlighted BioSIGHT's Interactive Streaming Storyboard, which assists teachers in creating visually compelling interactive lessons and supports users in telling stories with streaming media. For more information on the storyboard tool, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/research/project/storyboard/index.html.
The Integrated Media Systems Center is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center at the University of Southern California.