Kansas State University: One Year with VisionPort

2022-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

It has been almost a year since Kansas State University brought the VisionPort platform into their Hale library. I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Jeff Sheldon, Associate Director of the Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab, to discuss how the school has been using the platform.

It’s no surprise to hear that the Architecture, Planning and Design (AP) students have taken to VisionPort immediately. Being originally designed around displaying geographic information system (GIS) data, the platform allows users to fly over and through city streets and see buildings in 3D, as well as travel around the world looking for areas of possible real estate development. Many of our clients also use VisionPort to give panoramic, three-dimensional tours of building interiors, to show future tenants properties right from their office and brainstorm design possibilities.

In addition to the AP Design students, VisionPort has found itself being used to immerse students in their education with an incredible National Geographic presentation that features 360° videos including swimming with sharks and getting up close to sea lions and elephants in their natural habitats, as well as presentations about the moon landing, and even the reconstruction of the Hale library after a fire in 2018.

An extremely innovative application KSU has come up with is using the VisionPort system to create a quiet space for students. During exam weeks, the platform is used to create a calming environment, displaying relaxing scenes to help students alleviate stress and promote good mental health.

“Ultimately, people don’t expect this sort of device in a library and VisionPort has helped change the longstanding narrative that a library is just about books.”

It’s always great to hear about VisionPort being a catalyst for collaboration among students and faculty. Students are encouraged to work together to bring their projects to life on VisionPort and share tips and tricks they’ve learned by working with our content management system.

Interview

End Point Dev: How has VisionPort aided the evolution of the Hale Library?

Jeff Sheldon: VisionPort, as a feature of the new Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab in Hale Library, has helped evolve the University’s library space in several ways. As a visualization tool, VisionPort allows our students, faculty, and visitors to experience rich immersive presentations in a way they haven’t before. Featuring the same Google products we see in classroom instruction, at scale and in high resolution, also affords students an unexpectedly different perspective from what they experience more traditionally on a small screen or in washed-out projections. This has been especially valuable amidst the pandemic, which has transformed expectations to the virtual almost as a default.

Ultimately, people don’t expect this sort of device in a library and VisionPort has helped change the longstanding narrative that a library is just about books.

What types of presentations have students and faculty been creating with VisionPort?

The presentations our students and faculty have been most excited about feature video across our entire 7-panel display and 360° integration for photos and videos. Some have experimented with data visualization and location-to-location journeys, but an overwhelming number have been drawn to the simple navigation controls to use locations and sites as visual aids during group presentations and as a complement to other examples they wheel in.

What are some ways in which Google Earth is being utilized with VisionPort?

Google Earth’s ability to roll onto the screen and zoom into specific locations has the effect of taking viewers on a journey. You can read that in the faces of those watching as a destination unfolds or the promise of a demonstration materializes in front of a tour group. We have quite a few guests visit their hometowns to reminisce and share stories with others, access remote sites to plan for travel, wander the streets of historic figures, and to experience the cultural and socioeconomic influences on a community.

What content on the VisionPort have students been most excited about?

That’s a tough one to narrow down. There have been a few unexpected moments during some of our featured 360° videos where a visitor will turn the camera view around and be charged by an elephant or sniffed by a lion. Seeing such an experience result in a yelp or jump is thrilling.

What fields of study are being presented most frequently?

Kansas State’s Architecture, Planning and Design (AP Design) students are regulars, but we’ve also fielded student presentations from our history and language departments. A number of ad-hoc classes have worked on presentations as well, but there are many curious about the act of how to visualize and present data to different audiences and who enjoy the process of exploration, but aren’t always looking to produce a specific outcome to share. We create accounts for those students to access the system and learn from their peers and the stock examples.

How are panoramic images being used on the VisionPort?

We’re very interested in panoramic and 360° images for the sake of storytelling. One example has been to tell the history of Hale Library in the aftermath of the 2018 fire it endured. Another has been to show the ruins of culturally significant sites some of our students have visited. We’ve also worked with faculty members to produce wellness videos during exam weeks, such as a calming aquarium or nature scene.

Conclusion

We are always happy to hear first-hand experiences universities are having with the VisionPort platform and we are honored to be able to contribute to the education experience.

Thank you to Mr. Sheldon for the great meeting. We look forward to hearing how KSU innovates with VisionPort over the next year!

For more information about VisionPort, email sales@visionport.com or visit www.visionport.com.

Auburn University and VisionPort: How the World Gets Its Water

2022-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

The IBT Water Project at Auburn University, headed by Associate Professor P.L. Chaney, has done outstanding work illustrating in a GIS format how cities around the world get their water. The Geoscience department has mapped how water is captured and distributed in Australia, Egypt, India, Mexico, Kazakhstan, and the western USA.

The department chose the Central Arizona Project to turn into an interactive presentation on the VisionPort platform.

Starting at the Mark Wilmer Pumping Plant, water is pumped from the Colorado River towards over a dozen plants and lifted up over 2,000 feet in elevation across a series of “stair-steps” before it reaches its final destination near Tucson, where it is then distributed across the state to where it is most needed.

This data displayed on their VisionPort, installed in a custom wood case in their library, allows students to see the entire journey in a 3D environment spanning seven 65-inch displays. The presenter can take them to each stop and explain the functions of the many plants, check gates, and turnouts along the way.

Numerous departments at Auburn University have had success turning their presentations into engaging experiences on the VisionPort platform and I look forward to seeing and reporting on what their students and faculty do next.

For more information about VisionPort, email sales@visionport.com or visit www.visionport.com.

VisionPort at University of Tokyo, New York office: An Exhibition for Peace on August 6th and 7th

2022-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

Ground Zero, Hiroshima, Japan – August 6th, 1945. Visualized by the lab of Professor Hidenori Watanave.

Technology and education go hand in hand, and the VisionPort platform is being used every day to make that connection.

We are extremely honored to be able to contribute to the first exhibition at the University of Tokyo’s New York office, “Convergence of Peace Activities: Connecting and Integrating by Technologies”.

It is said that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it, and in that vein, the exhibition, drawing from the work of Professor Hidenori Watanave, will be using the VisionPort platform to educate viewers on the realities of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on the date of the 77th anniversary of the first nuclear weapon used in war.

The team has been collecting and colorizing photographic material from the aftermath of the bombings for over 10 years. The exhibition will combine that work with interviews and writings from survivors on a GIS canvas to allow attendees to see what it looked like and to hear from those who were there.

The lab will also be presenting the work they have been doing covering the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Day by day they collect the latest images from the war, identify the locations of the events and use geospatial data to map and present it in an interactive, 3D environment.

Invasion of Ukraine, provided by the labs of Professors Hidenori Watanave and Taichi Furuhashi.

The exhibition will serve to show us where we have been and where we are now, in hopes of being a “convergence,” a place to connect and use all of our available information and technologies so that we may begin a new era of understanding and in turn, peace.

The exhibition will also feature work done by Co-Op Peace Map, Mainichi Newspaper and the University of Kyoto.

The educational work that the University of Tokyo is doing with the VisionPort platform is inspiring and we look forward to being there to see it in memoriam of that fateful day.

Register here and join us for this viewing on August 6th and 7th at the University of Tokyo’s New York office located at 145 W. 57th St., 21st Floor, New York, NY 10019.

For more information about VisionPort, email sales@visionport.com or visit visionport.com.

Images and photography provided by the University of Tokyo, the department of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the lab of Professor Hidenori Watanave, and the lab of Professor Taichi Furuhashi.

VisionPort Success at Auburn University

2021-12-24T00:00:00+00:00

Auburn University’s Liquid Galaxy/VisionPort installation was the first of its kind, built into a stunning wooden cabinet. A technological showpiece that is a highlight of Auburn’s campus, the VisionPort platform is used to showcase incredible imagery and presentations created by students and faculty alike.

Auburn’s Liquid Galaxy/VisionPort is located on the first floor of the RBD (Ralph Brown Draughon) Library. As stated on Auburn’s Library webpage, “It provides a one-of-a-kind platform for 3D geospatial visualization, panoramic images, video, tours, and more in a shared immersive environment. Auburn holds the distinction of being one of the few institutions in the Southeast to make this unique and innovative resource available to its patrons.”

Chris Mixon is Auburn University’s Information Technology Specialist in the Media & Digital Resource Lab. He works closely with University groups to develop content, and also works with End Point’s support team as needs arise. As Chris has shared, “we are doing great things with this platform!” Among other projects, Chris is working with instructors and students in Urban Design Studio (CPLN 7200) and Science Communication (ESSI 7150) to display their work on the VisionPort platform.

Auburn University’s Liquid Galaxy/VisionPort is also used for Creative Explorations in Technology and Design programs geared toward 7th–11th graders. This program is focused on increasing digital literacy and building valuable technical skills as these middle and high school students prepare for the next stage of their lives.

A Liquid Galaxy/VisionPort exhibit honoring native Alabama author and educator Dr. Wade Hall by Auburn University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives Department.

We look forward to continuing to support Auburn University in leveraging the VisionPort platform for great educational uses.

To learn more about VisionPort/Liquid Galaxy installations in custom cabinets, flat floor-mounted grids, two rows of screens, and other unique configurations, see my earlier article Custom cabinets for the Liquid Galaxy.

Read more about VisionPort in general at www.visionport.com.

Liquid Galaxy at Kansas State University

2021-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

End Point recently installed a Liquid Galaxy system in Kansas State University’s Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab! The seven-screen Liquid Galaxy will provide students with engaging, immersive, and user-friendly educational experiences. It will be a great asset to the Innovation Lab, enhancing a collaboration space used for meetings, webinars, presentations, and seminars. The Liquid Galaxy enables data visualization, map viewing via Google Earth, GIS, and more.

During the installation, End Pointer Josh Harless had the opportunity to work very closely with K-State’s team to ensure the system met their expectations and vision, such as by adjusting the screen angles multiple times to perfect viewing positions.

K-State experienced a terrible fire at Hale Library in 2018. Liquid Galaxy fit into their plans as they rebuilt in the aftermath. In an interview with Dr. Sheila Yeh about her role in reinventing K-State’s library, Dr. Yeh commented that “Information technology has been the catalyst for much of the transformation we find in today’s academic libraries.” She added that digital and information technologies such as the Liquid Galaxy are “enablers” that offer “new opportunities for interdisciplinary studies, serendipitous discoveries, and knowledge creation.”

The Liquid Galaxy also features on the Sunderland Foundation’s Innovation Lab website, described as a “multi-room, open space [that] can be used for meetings, training, webinars and presentations. It features whiteboards, video displays, seating and table space. The wall mounted video displays can be hooked up to laptops. The Liquid Galaxy multi-panel display can be used for remote experiences, data visualization, GIS and map viewing.”

We are excited to support Kansas State’s Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab, and to support their growth and further use of their Liquid Galaxy. If your university is interested in how a Liquid Galaxy system could enhance learning and research via immersive experiences, please contact us today!

A Moon Landing and the Education of Our Children

2019-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

As Liquid Galaxy flows from city to city, a big museum in small-town Kansas welcomes its newest exhibit to the collection. Amidst authentic NASA artifacts and real remnants of the space program, an array of seven screens glows in the shadow of the full-size replica of the lunar module that put man on the moon. In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the monumental mission, Liquid Galaxy arrives right on time to educate and awe patrons of all ages.

“Jim and I had a great time experimenting with it…and while we were doing so, we talked with three different guests—one couple and two singles—who said how much they appreciated us adding it. What Jim and I appreciated was the variety of content that we can see teachers using when they have classes here.” —Mimi Meredith, VP of Development, Cosmosphere Museum, Hutchinson, Kansas

In the initial stages of installation, passersby cocked their heads in curiosity as large displays were lifted onto their mounts and the form of Liquid Galaxy emerged. The scene dramatically changed as the screens came to life and images of Earth and the Moon flew across the screen to the delight of children and adults alike. Witnessing the joy and wonder of these museum guests was by far the most rewarding aspect of participating in the installation. But it also got me thinking about the education of our children. To see kids get excited about science, space travel, and engineering was refreshing and ultimately a wonderment to witness. Just as we had Liquid Galaxy up and running a crew of space camp cadets rounded the corner and we smiled as their eyes widened.

Video failed to load

Immediately a barrage of questions: What is it? Where did it come from? How can you use it? Can we play games on it? But the biggest question I heard among the volley was: What can we learn from it?

This question not only overwhelmed me with a sense of joy, but also instilled a feeling of hope for our planet’s future. Inquisitive by nature, children remain the last hope for our society. How and what we teach them is of the utmost importance. Encouraging and feeding that sense of insatiable curiosity is, in my opinion, our last line of defense against ourselves if we wish to continue living on the crust of this tiny blue marble hurtling through space.

Another observation that I made during the installation was the way patrons of different ages responded to the controls of the Liquid Galaxy. The six-axis joystick, called a SpaceMouse (formerly known as SpaceNavigator), allows the user to navigate the planet in “free-flight.” I found myself explaining the controls much more to older members of the public whereas kids and other younger campers would come up and intuitively begin using the system.

From the moment the system was operational until the time we left, there was no doubt in my mind that the addition of Liquid Galaxy to the Cosmosphere Museum highly encourages teaching through high-tech methods. Because Liquid Galaxy allows one to convey a narrative with a broad array of customizable formats, educators are able to teach history and science with accessible modern technology. It is through these means that the power of Liquid Galaxy in the hands of an educational institution is demonstrated.

Today’s youth is growing up and developing in a digital age surrounded by technology and information. Educational programs such as those at the Cosmosphere Museum in Hutchinson, Kansas are instrumental in allowing kids to control the flow of information they receive, and sift through it. This results in young, powerful, and creative minds moving to understand how the world works and promotes individual thinking that propagates progress. Hopefully, this continuous investment of responsibility in our children can result in a brighter future for generations to come.

This exhibit was made possible by the generous donation of Brian McClendon and Beth Ellyn McClendon.

For more information on Liquid Galaxy, visit: www.visionport.com.

For more information on the Cosmosphere Museum, visit: cosmo.org

Designing a Computer Science Program for Free (or Cheap)

2017-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

This blog post is for people like me who are interested in improving their knowledge about computers, software and technology in general but are inundated with an abundance of resources and no clear path to follow. Many of the courses online tend to not have any real structure. While it’s great that this knowledge is available to anyone with access to the internet, it often feels overwhelming and confusing. I always enjoy a little more structure to study, much like in a traditional college setting. So, to that end I began to look at MIT’s OpenCourseWare and compare it to their actual curriculum.

I’d like to begin by acknowledging that some time ago Scott Young completed the MIT Challenge where he “attempted to learn MIT’s 4-year computer science curriculum without taking classes”. My friend Najmi here at End Point also shared a great website with me to “Teach Yourself Computer Science”. So, this is not the first post to try to make sense of all the free resources available to you, it’s just one which tries to help organize a coherent plan of study.

Methodology

I wanted to mimic MIT’s real CS curriculum. I also wanted to limit my studies to Computer Science only, while stripping out anything not strictly related. It’s not that I am not interested in things like speech classes or more advanced mathematics and physics, but I wanted to be pragmatic about the amount of time I have each week to put in to study outside of my normal (very busy) work week. I imagine anyone reading this would understand and very likely agree.

I examined MIT’s course catalog. They have 4 undergraduate programs in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science:

6-1 program: Leads to the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Science and Engineering. (Electrical Science and Engineering)
6-2 program: Leads to the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is for those whose interests cross this traditional boundary.
6-3 program: Leads to the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering.(Computer Science and Engineering)
6-7 program: Is for students specializing in computer science and molecular biology.

Because I wanted to stick what I believed would be most practical for my work at End Point, I selected the 6-3 program. With my intended program selected, I also decided that the full course load for a bachelor’s degree was not really what I was interested in. Instead, I just wanted to focus on the computer science related courses (with maybe some math and physics only if needed to understand any of the computer courses).

So, looking at the requirements, I began to determine which classes I’d require. Once I had this, I could then begin to search the MIT OpenCourseWare site to ensure the classes are offered, or find suitable alternatives on Coursera or Udemy. As is typical, there are General Requirements and Departmental Requirements. So, beginning with the General Institute Requirements, lets start designing a computer science program with all the fat (non-computer science) cut out.

General Requirements:

I removed that which was not computer science related. As I mentioned, I was aware I may need to add some math/science. So, for the time being this left me with:

Notice that it says

one subject can be satisfied by 6.004 and 6.042[J] (if taken under joint number 18.062[J]) in the Department Program

It was unclear to me what “if taken under joint number 18.062[J]” meant (nor could I find clarification) but as will be shown later, 6.004 and 6.042[J] are in the departmental requirements, so let’s commit to taking those two which would leave the requirement of one more REST course. After some Googling I found the list of REST courses here. So, if you’re reading this to design your own program, please remember that later we will commit to 6.004 and 6.042[J] and go here to select a course.

So, now on to the General Institute Requirements Laboratory Requirement. We only need to choose one of three:

- 6.01: Introduction to EECS via Robot Sensing, Software and Control
- 6.02: Introduction to EECS via Communications Networks
- 6.03: Introduction to EECS via Medical Technology

So, to summarize the general requirements we will take 4 courses:

6.004
6.042[J]
One course here
6.01:, 6.02:, or 6.03:

Major (Computer Science) Requirements:

In keeping with the idea that we want to remove non-essential, and non-CS courses, let’s remove the speech class. So here we have a nice summary of what we discovered above in the General Requirements, along with details of the computer science major requirements:

As stated, let’s look at the list of Advanced Undergraduate Subjects and Independent Inquiry Subjects so that we may select one from each of them:

Lastly, it’s stated that we must

Select one subject from the departmental list of EECS subjects

a link is provided to do so, however it brings you here and I cannot find a list of courses. I believe that this link no longer takes you to the intended location. A Google search brought up a similar page, but with a list of courses, as can be seen here. So, I will pick one from that page.

The next step was to find the associated courses on MIT OpenCourseWare

Sample List of Classes

So, now you will be able to follow the links I provided above to select your classes. I was not always able to find courses that matched by exact name and/or course number. Sometimes I had to read the description and look through several courses which seemed similar. I will provide my own list in case you’d just like to us mine:

Conclusion

So there you have it, please feel free to comment with any of your favorite resources.

Liquid Galaxy Success at U.S. Embassy’s Cultural Center

2017-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

The U.S. Embassy to Jakarta features a high-tech cultural center called “@america”. @america’s mission is to provide a space for young Indonesians to learn more about the United States through discussions, cultural performances, debates, competitions and exhibitions.

Since Google generously donated it six years ago, @america has had a Liquid Galaxy deployed for use at the center. Not until recently, however, has @america taken advantage of our Content Management System. This past year, End Point developed and rolled out a revamped and powerful Content Management System for the fleet of Liquid Galaxies we support. With the updated Content Management System, End Point’s Content Team created a specialized Interactive Education Portal on @america’s Liquid Galaxy. The Education Portal featured over 50 high quality, interactive university experiences. Thanks to the CMS, the Liquid Galaxy now shows campus videos, university statistics, and fly-tos and orbits around the schools. The campus videos included both recruitment videos, as well as student-created videos on topics like housing, campus sports, and religion. These university experiences allow young Indonesians the opportunity to learn more about U.S. Universities and culture.

@America and the US Embassy report that from December through the end of January, already more than 16,500 Indonesians have had the opportunity to engage with the Education Portal while visiting @america. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to help the US Embassy use their Liquid Galaxy for such a positive educational cause.

Liquid Galaxy systems are installed at educational institutions, from embassies to research libraries, around the world. If you’d like to learn more about Liquid Galaxy, please contact us here.

Liquid Galaxy Uses at UNC Chapel Hill

2016-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

An article was posted on The Tech Broadcast last week that featured the UNC Chapel Hill Center for Faculty Excellence’s Faculty Showcase. The faculty showcase included a fantastic presentation featuring the many ways students and faculty use their Liquid Galaxy, and discussed other opportunities for using the system in the future.

Exciting examples cited of great classroom successes making use of the Liquid Galaxy include:

A course offered at UNC, Geography 121 People and Places, requires its students to sift through data sets and spend time in the GIS lab/research hub making maps using the data they’ve collected. The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate understanding of diversity within particular geographic entities. The students use the Liquid Galaxy to present their findings. Examples of studies done for this project include studies of fertility, infant mortality, income inequality, poverty, population density, and primary education.
A group of students working in lab found that the household income of a particular municipality was many times greater than all surrounding municipalities. By looking around on the Liquid Galaxy, they discovered an enormous plantation in a very rural area. They were then able to understand how that plantation skewed the data from the entire municipality.
While studying a web map, students found that average life expectancy dropped by a decade within a very short distance. They decided to look at the Liquid Galaxy to see whether they could make any conclusions by viewing the area. By using the Liquid Galaxy, the students were able to think about what the data looks like, not just statistically but on Earth.
A Geography teacher had a lecture about the geography of Vietnam. The teacher used the Liquid Galaxy to give the class a tour of Vietnam and show how the different areas factored into the course. The teacher asked the class where within Vietnam they’d like to go, and was able to take the students to the different geographical areas on the Liquid Galaxy and tell them in detail about those areas while they had the visual support of the system.
A geography class called The Geography of Latin America focuses on extractive industries. The class discusses things like agriculture in South America, and the percentage of land in Brazil that is used for soy production. The faculty reports that seeing this information in an immersive environment goes a long way in teaching the students.
Urban planning students use the Liquid Galaxy when looking into urban revitalization. Uses for these students include using the system to visit the downtown areas and see firsthand what the areas look like to better understand the challenges that the communities are facing.
Students and faculty have come to LG to look at places that they are about to travel to abroad, or thinking about traveling abroad, in order to prepare for their travels. An example given was a Master of Fine Arts student who was a sculptor and was very interested in areas where there are great quantities of rocks and ice. She traveled around on the the Liquid Galaxy and looked around in Iceland. Researching the system on the Liquid Galaxy helped to pique her interest and ultimately led to her going to Iceland to travel and study.

During the faculty showcase, faculty members listed off some of the great benefits of having the Liquid Galaxy as a tool that was available to them.

The Liquid Galaxy brought everyone together and fostered a class community. Teachers would often arrive to classes that utilize the Liquid Galaxy and find that half the students were early to class. Students would be finding places (their homes, where they studied abroad, and more) and friendships between students would develop as a result of the Liquid Galaxy.
Liquid Galaxy helps students with geographic literacy. They are able to think about concepts covered in class, and fly to and observe the locations discussed.
Students often bring parents and family to see the Liquid Galaxy, which is widely accessible to students on campus. Students are always excited to share what they’re doing with the system, with family and with faculty.
Faculty members have commented that students that don’t ask questions in class have been very involved in the Liquid Galaxy lessons, which could be in part because some students are more visual learners. These visual learners find great benefit in seeing the information displayed in front of them in an interactive setting.
From a faculty standpoint, a lot of time was spent planning and trying to work out the class structure, which has developed a lot. Dedicating class-time for the Liquid Galaxy was beneficial, and resulted in teaching less but in more depth and in different ways. The teacher thinks there was more benefit to that, and it was a great learning experience for all parties involved.

Faculty members expressed interest and excitement when learning more about the Liquid Galaxy and the ways it is used. There was a lot of interest in using the Liquid Galaxy for interdisciplinary studies between different departments to study how different communities and cultures work. There was also interest in further utilization of the system’s visualization capabilities. A professor from the School of Dentistry spoke of how he could picture using the Liquid Galaxy to teach someone about an exam of the oral cavity through the LG. Putting up 3D models of the oral cavity using our new Sketchfab capabilities would be a perfect way to achieve this!

We at End Point were very excited to learn more about the many ways that Liquid Galaxy is being successfully used at UNC as a tool for research, for fun, and to bring together students and faculty alike. We look forward to seeing how UNC, among the many other research libraries that use Liquid Galaxy, will implement the system in courses and on campus in the future.

Liquid Galaxy for the Daniel Island School

2014-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

This past week, End Point had the distinct pleasure of sending a Liquid Galaxy Express (the highly portable version of the platform) to the Daniel Island School in Charleston, South Carolina. Once it arrived, we provided remote support to their staff setting up the system. Through the generous donations of Mason Holland, Benefitfocus, and other donors, this PK-8 grade school is now the first school in the country below the university level with a Liquid Galaxy on campus.

From Claire Silanowicz, who coordinated the installation:

Mason Holland was introduced to the Liquid Galaxy system while visiting the Google Headquarters in San Francisco several months ago. After deciding to donate it to the Daniel Island School here in Charleston, SC, he brought me on to help with the project. I didn’t know much about the Liquid Galaxy at first, but quickly realized how cool of a project this was going to be. With some help, I assembled a team of about 8 Benefitfocus employees to help with installation and long-term implementation. Benefitfocus is full of employees who are so passionate about innovative technology, and Mason’s involvement with Benefitfocus was a perfect way to connect the company to the community. We had one meeting before the installation date to go over the basics and a few days later 5 of us were at the school unpacking boxes and assembling the 7-screen display. Once it was completed and turned on, we were all in awe. We went from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Duomo in Florence, Italy in a matter of seconds. We traveled to our homes and went to see our office building on street view. After going back to the school in the days to follow, I realized we only touched the tip of the iceberg. The faculty at the school had discovered the museums and underwater views that Google has managed to capture.

The Liquid Galaxy isn’t known for revolutionizing the way children learn, but I firmly believe it is going to do just that at the Daniel Island School. The teachers and faculty are so excited to incorporate this new technology into their curriculae. They have a unique opportunity to take this technology and make it an integral part of their teaching. I hope that in the future, other elementary and middle schools can have the Liquid Galaxy system so that teachers all over the country can collaborate and take advantage of everything it has to offer!

STEM education is becoming ever-more important in the fast economy of the 21st century. With a Liquid Galaxy these young students are exposed at a very early age to the wonders of geography, geology, urban development, oceanography, and demographics, not to mention the technological wonderment the platform itself invokes with the young minds: with seven 55" screens mounted on an arced frame, a touchscreen podium and a rack of computers nearby, the Liquid Galaxy is a visually impressive piece of technology regardless of what is being shown on the screens.

This installation is another in a string of academic and educational deployments for the platform. End Point provides 24-hour monitoring and remote support for Liquid Galaxies at Westfield University in Massachusetts, University of Kansas, The National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, and the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco and a host of other educational institutions. We also work closely with researchers at Lleida campus in Spain and the University of Western Sydney in Australia. We know of other Liquid Galaxies on campuses in Colorado, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Israel.

We expect great things from these students, and hope that some may eventually join us at End Point as developers!

Liquid Galaxy installation at Westfield State University

2014-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

This past week End Point installed its newest Liquid Galaxy installation at Westfield State University. The unveiling on April 23rd featured a talk from local glass artist Josh Simpson (whom I have long admired) and a video conference with his wife Cady Coleman, a NASA astronaut. I volunteered to head up the installation effort for two reasons really: First, I was excited to have another Liquid Galaxy in an academic setting, and second, I am originally from western Massachusetts and I couldn’t resist the prospect of some home cooked meals courtesy of my mother.

I arrived at Westfield State to a small army of people who helped me with every aspect of the installation from creative electrical wiring to campus security kindly giving my car a jump. The team at Westfield made this installation a breeze and all the smiling faces made it easy to put in the extra effort to finish in time for the opening. As always I got great remote support from my End Point colleagues during the installation process.

Once the Liquid Galaxy started to take shape the excitement of the students who happened to be passing by was certainly a motivating factor, but the greatest perk was getting to show my parents and their friends what it is exactly that I have been working on for over a year now. Explaining or describing a Liquid Galaxy, or even showing videos of it, gives you only a rough idea of what it is. Actually standing at the system’s podium and controlling the Galaxy is the only way to grasp how incredible a tool or toy it can be. I know the GIS professors at Westfield would describe the system as a tool, but for me its greatest quality is that it is also a toy that engages and challenges you to think about your world in a different way. The Liquid Galaxy draws you in and encourages you to explore the world in a way that you haven’t done before. My work for End Point has focused on supporting the systems and extending the statistics we gather from them. It is easy to forget what these systems do and the incredible interactions people have with them on a daily basis. That being said, I am excited to help the professors and students at Westfield extend the functionality of their system by helping them load custom content and think of ways they can use the system in an education setting. One of my friends pointed out that Liquid Galaxy is combining fun and learning (a scary thought, I know) and as someone who struggled in traditional learning settings, this is something I used to daydream about during my lecture/note taking classes.

The unveiling went well and everyone present found something different to call their favorite, be it Google Art Project or Grand Canyon Street View or simply finding their favorite vacation spot in Google Earth. A couple of local news sources covered the opening: 22 News WWLP and ABC 40 WGGB both aired segments featuring the installation. I would like to thank all the student and staff at Westfield State who were so hospitable to me during my short time on their campus. I am also excited to see the new ways in which they use the Liquid Galaxy.

An example work glass artist Josh Simpson.