Pierre Boulanger

University of Alberta

The way in which we interact with computers is changing the way science can be done.

Immersed in this revolution is Pierre Boulanger, professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta.

Boulanger has helped expand the traditional boundaries of computational experiments to create real-time, full-sensory environments as virtual testing grounds.

“I always dreamt of a tool like this where it would allow me to truly create this virtual lab if you like,” Boulanger says. “So now it is my chance to do it.”

Boulanger, in partnership with University of Alberta geophysicist Moritz Heimpel, has applied this to a simulation experiment measuring the earth’s magnetic field. The goal of the project is to understand how the magnetic field changes and interacts with other processes.

The research team took code used to simulate the basic physics of the earth core and with the power of a supercomputer were able to transform the batch applications into a real time visualization experience without any major changes to the original code.

“The advantage of that is you can actually do virtual experiments and we can visualize in real time. We can actually

manipulate and transform solutions,” says Boulanger. “And because you can do that, you can save a lot of resources and start a new way of interacting with a super computer.”

In the past, researchers were restricted to running a computation, waiting possibly for hours or days while it

processes and only then could you observe the results. If by bad luck they assumed the wrong initial parameters, the

entire process would be for nothing.

“When you do it real-time, you can basically change on the fly the parameters and see the effect of one parameter on the properties of your simulation,” Boulanger says.

The full effects of this innovative interaction will be tested in another upcoming project – the creation of a virtual wind tunnel.

“We are really creating something equivalent to a physics experiment,” Boulanger says.

He is currently in the process of building the software for this experiment, and plans to add various modalities to enhance the sensory experience. Aside from visual components, they will also add auditory and tactile rendering to allow a person to both hear and feel the air pressure in the tunnel.

“You’re using all your senses to get insights into these complex equations you’re solving in the computer,” Boulanger says.

The idea is to eventually enable universities to easily connect to these simulation servers, input their code and have access to immersive, high-end visualization simply and rapidly.

“Years ago, things like this were impossible,” Boulanger says.

The Edmonton group is one of the first in Canada to tackle this form of virtual experimentation for large physics problems and Boulanger credits much of that to the WestGrid resources they use.

“The time is right in the sense that we now have fast networks, high-performance computers and powerful real-time graphic rendering machines on the desktop to do this work,” he says. “We have amazing infrastructure with WestGrid, so it’s really all coming together.”