Course Timeline and Homework
Course schedule, in and out of class. Subject to change, particularly further in the future.
Timeline Summary
Week 1-2: Course and wiki introduction, Headset handouts and logistics
Weeks 3-4: Plan and start project 1
Weeks 4-9: Project 1; project 1 in-class activities, journal reviews; project status presentations; project tutorials; project 2 planning
Weeks 9-15: Project 2; project 2 in-class activities, project status presentations; journal review, project tutorials and activities
Week 16: Final project presentation preparation
Week 17: Final project presentations
Project 1 Class Activity Dates
(Timing will depend on number each day)
2/20:
2/25:
2/27: vishaka, jose, feiyue
3/04: aarav, connor, mia
3/06: papa-yaw, sofia, colby
3/11: eunjin
Week 1
Class Thursday 1/23:
Lecture Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15mTzuwt18djNzBSvNNUyA5FoU0POjp38/view?usp=sharing
Class motivation, goals, structure, syllabus, wiki (with live showcase)
Introduce data visualization in VR, "augmented" in VR
Introduce everyone
Give a breakdown of the wiki
What was done in previous years
What is expected this year
Where to find everything
Project-oriented structure for class
Introduce how students will be evaluated (rubric of journal, projects, participation)
How to evaluate a piece of software -- a brief explanation
Questions
HW due Monday 1/27 @ 12:00 noon
To take this class you must complete the assignments below by Monday 1/27 @ 12:00 noon
Set up your individual journal page and link it into top-level journal page
Join the course slack workspace and introduce yourself on it (briefly)
Review the course homepage and this page to help give yourself context for the class.
You will need to create your own project concepts and plans during the semester. Review the Project Ideas page to help you understand what that might look like and also the Scientific Data page to help you make sure that you understand some of the kinds of data that are relevant to course projects.
Google Sites has some issues with saving changes. Check out Google Sites Woes to help work around them as you add material
Read some of the wiki and describe in writing nine separate changes you would make to the wiki, each requiring varying amounts of time to complete. These changes should be improvements or additions that will help outside users learn about virtual reality software for science. We're *not* looking for formatting suggestions or changes to course structure. Write about your proposed changes in your journal:
Three changes should each require ~10 minutes to complete.
Three changes should each require ~1 hour to complete.
The final three changes should each require ~10 hours to complete.
Log these changes in your journal.
Complete one of the 10-minute changes.
Read Kenny Gruchalla's bio. He is from NREL and will visit class via zoom on Tuesday. Add your name and at least one question for him to the "board" gdoc we used in class. He will give an introduction to VR assisted research software at NREL
Log a total of 4-5 hours of homework time in your journal; this could include doing some of the following activities:
Read some background papers
Research a piece of collaborative VR software: this could be a game, a framework, or anything else related to collaborative VR
Research data types, data examples, software tools, other institutions doing big-VR visualization work
Do things from Course Activities page
Log time and any issues in your journal
Ponder project ideas (always!)
Week 2
Class Tuesday 1/28:
NREL visitor presentation by Kenny Gruchalla -- be prepared to ask your questions!
Discuss wiki tasks
Introduce project guidelines (i.e. explain milestones, in-class activities, and deliverables), introduce examples of data visualization and collaboration in past projects
Brainstorm project ideas
Distribute headsets
HW for Thursday 1/30:
This involves setting up your Meta Quest 3 and connecting to your paperspace machine
Go to the published wiki and search for "Project" using the search icon in the upper right. Read through at least three previous student projects.
Continue with activities from previous homework
Pick 2-5 potential pieces of software to explore and evaluate for your research project
Using this software and insight from previous projects, create 3-5 potential project ideas in your journal. Be prepared to share concisely (one sentence each) in class. We will ponder their levels of: 1) augmented reality, 2) immersive VR, 3) scientific visualization.
Copy the course learning goals from the syllabus into the top of your journal. For each put two scores at the beginning of the line. The first should be where you are now, with respect to the goal, an the second should be where you hope to be at the end of the semester. Use these scores:
1: novice
2: some experience
3: have practiced this in some real projects
4: feel very comfortable
5: could be an expert mentor
Add at least one additional goal, #9
Here is a start to fill in. It uses with fixed-width font "Courier New" to help with vertical alignment. We will refer back to this at the end of the semester, so try to predict in the "after" column what you will be thinking then.
before after
---- ----
1 | 5 | Goal 0: example goal showing "novice" score before and "expert mentor" after
| | Goal 1: [fill in]
| | Goal 2:
. . .
| | Goal 8:
| | Goal 9: ______________________________
Class Thursday 1/30:
Project ideas discussion
Developer Labs
Make sure to post the Google Earth screenshots in your journal
Update permissions on Google Earth video to Everyone with link can view
We will be reviewing screenshots and video later for completion
Google Earth is one of the most rewarding experiences in VR, so enjoy!
HW for Tuesday 2/04:
Finish activity from class if you have not (always!)
Bezi Lab Development
Install DinoVR on your paperspace machine in preparation for next class
Read DinoVR paper to prepare for in-class activity running the app and reproducing images. The author, Johannes Novotny, will zoom-visit from Austria, so there's a chance to ask questions of him on Tuesday.
Review wiki / web to solidify your 3-5 project ideas
For each project idea:
list three things you will do during the project
list one class activity we might do for the project
list potential deliverables:
Deliverables are what future readers of the wiki will look at and learn from. Examples might be comparative prose about different software packages, a Consumer-Reports style table of evaluations of features and quality of different software, tutorials showing how to use software for data visualization purposes, measurements of how long it takes and how difficult it is for a group to do a tutorial, etc. A good way to make sure you have a deliverable is to say explicitly where it will go in the wiki.
If you are confused or have any questions, feel free to post on the slack or email David or the TA (Melvin)
Brainstorm software evaluation metrics
Continue adding potential software / data to the wiki
Week 3
Class Tuesday 2/04:
First half of class:
20 minutes: Presentation from Johannes Novotny: creator of DinoVR
40 minutes: DinoVR Tutorial
Partners and App Ids:
Eunjin, Colby: 3ab3b83c-0ae8-4390-b806-d54c6d10b43b
Connor, Aarav: 278f1361-eaa5-449a-aa8c-bbba865eba70
Feiyue, Sofia: 2773fced-3ca9-4f0c-a96d-94cf8855fdd5
Jose, Mia: f42bc770-e998-4725-ba9d-5d2fb9e80d3c
Papayaw, Vishaka: ec3172b6-7263-4943-bb09-2b7bfb7ffd59
Complete Feedback Form afterwards
Second half of class:
15 minutes: Pair up and review project titles, and activities. Working together, add deliverables to each potential project. Ask questions if you are not sure what to do. Each student should pick their first-choice project.
identify what you need to learn and do before this first project begins so that you can design it to be successful. The projects will start next week, so you have only one more week for this pre-project work. Check out what we will do on 2/06 to help guide this.
25 minutes: go around room and explain the project that you most want to do, including what we might do in class for it, what wiki deliverables you will produce, and what you need to do before the project. This will be done for each student via a max 1-minute individual oral-only presentation (no slides) followed by slightly longer discussion. Make sure to write down your speaking points for your presentation in the shared Class Activity Board Google Doc.
Document your potential pre-project activities in the wiki before leaving class
HW for Thursday 2/06:
Give feedback (in suggesting mode) on adjacent (before and after you) persons' pre-project plans in activity board
Select one project from your list of potential projects and create a plan for your project. This project plan should include an in-class activity before 3/13, (but the earlier the better) and should have milestones to be delivered on 2/11, 2/13, 2/20 (2/18 is a holiday), 2/25, 2/27, 3/04, and 3/06. The project plan should include activities that span from February to the middle of March.
Continue reading, doing, and logging with any extra time
Class Thursday 2/06:
30 minutes: Pair up with someone you haven’t paired up with before and jointly evaluate your pre-project plans.
Use this Project Evaluation Rubric:
Below are a set of questions that should help in evaluating project ideas. Answer each with one of:
strongly disagree
disagree
neither agree nor disagree
agree
strongly agree
The questions are “The proposed project …”
clearly identifies deliverable additions to our VR Software Wiki
involves passthrough or “augmented” in VR
involves large scientific data visualization along the lines of the "Scientific Data" wiki page and identifies the specific data type and software that it will use
has a realistic schedule with explicit and measurable milestones at least each week and mostly every class
explicitly evaluates VR software, preferably in comparison to related software
includes an in-class activity, which can be formative (early in the project) or evaluative (later in the project)
has resources available with sufficient documentation
Capture reasoning for high and low scores and ways that the project can be modified to improve any low scores.
40 minutes: Each person should present to the class a 2-minute evaluation of their partner's project. Essentially, it should discuss the answers to the questions discussed, both positive and negative with the goal of getting additional confidence about the evaluation and any additional suggestions.
HW for Tuesday 2/11:
Put project plans into wiki page linked from journal.
Post DinoVR screenshots in Class Activity Board from last Tuesday under DinoVR Screenshots.
If you have more screenshots, feel free to make more rows in table.
Please make sure to put screenshots in activity board for future activities as well!
Prepare 3 minute project descriptions with powerpoint (must be a .pptx or .ppt file) slides sent to Melvin AT LEAST 24 hours ahead (due Monday 10:30a!) with title, brief motivation, in-class activity, wiki contributions/deliverables, schedule/milestones.
Presentations are always due 1 full day before class (day before @ 10:30) unless otherwise specified
Write your revised final project plan in your journal. Link it in the appropriate spot at the top.
Evaluate your project plan using the following rubric:
Note that these first project should have milestones for 2/11, 2/13, 2/20, 2/25, 2/27, 3/04, and 3/06. Second projects will begin on 3/11 and go through the end of the semester. Here is an evaluation rubric for projects:
Project Evaluation
Below are a set of questions that should help in evaluating project ideas. Answer each with one of:
strongly disagree
disagree
neither agree nor disagree
agree
strongly agree
The questions are:
o The proposed project clearly identifies deliverable additions to our VR Software Wiki
o involves passthrough or “augmented” in VR
o The proposed project involves large scientific data visualization along the lines of the "Scientific Data" wiki page and identifies the specific data type and software that it will use
o The proposed project has a realistic schedule with explicit and measurable milestones at least each week and mostly every class
o The proposed project explicitly evaluates VR software, preferably in comparison to related software
o The proposed project includes an in-class activity, which can be formative (early in the project) or evaluative (later in the project)
o The proposed project has resources available with sufficient documentation
Week 4
Class Tuesday 2/11:
Project presentations -- three minutes each (plus likely substantial discussion and questions). Include results from your first milestone!
Begin class with timed practice presentations to peer.
These may fill entire class.
Finally, you can have some slides!
Primary thing to show is concrete schedule, including things you'll be evaluating/trying, in-class parts, and wiki parts you'll be adding.
HW for Thursday 2/13:
Prepare journal for in-class review. Journals will be evaluated according to the following rubric:
Activities logging rubric -- fill in in your journal
Activities logging rubric
key for each criterion:
5 == exceeds expectations
4 == meets expectations
3 == mostly solid with some gaps
2 == shows some progress
1 == some attempt
0 == not found
Criteria:
Journal activities are explicitly and clearly related to course deliverables
deliverables are described and attributed in wiki
report states total amount of time
total time is appropriate
Using the above rubric, evaluate your journal and include your self-evaluation in your journal
Melvin will provide nongraded feedback on your journal by Thursday 2/20
Meet 2/11 and 2/13 milestones of project
Work on project and log hours in journal
Fill in class activity in the wiki timeline for the class time you would like.
Class Thursday 2/13:
Mia's Project 1 Presentation
Group Discussion and Evaluation
Group Discussion and Evaluation
Melvin's Formative In-class Activity Summary
Week 5
No Class Tuesday 2/18: Long weekend
HW for Thursday 2/20:
Continue work on project and contributions to the wiki
Complete installation steps for both Paraview and Ben's Volume Rendering applications in Paraview + Ben's Volume Rendering tutorial
Remember to also download the vtk file for Paraview
Partners (2/3 each) and App Ids:
TODO: Generate IDs here
<Partner>: <AppId>
Class Thursday 2/20:
Paraview + Ben's Volume Renderer tutorial
Complete Feedback Form afterwards
Google Earth Software Evaluation Case Study
HW for Tuesday 2/25:
Prepare 3 minute project update with powerpoint (must be a .pptx or .ppt file) slides sent to Melvin and David via email AT LEAST 24 hours ahead (due Monday 10:30a!) (pictures, videos, and other eye candy encouraged!) Focus on your milestones past and future to show where you are with your schedule and what modifications you might need to make. Media must be embedded in the presentation (no external links)
Edit the homework entry before your activity below to indicate any preparation others should do before class. Class time will be very tight, so try to have it focused on things that can't be done ahead.
Bring charged headsets to class!
Week 6
Class Tuesday 2/25:
Present project updates
In-class activities
HW for Thursday 2/27:
Work on projects
Class Thursday 2/27:
In-class activities
Vishaka Nirmal - Interaction patterns for visualization in AR
HW for Tuesday 3/04:
Work on projects
Week 7
Class Tuesday 3/04:
In-class activities
Connor Flick - Manhattan Congestion Pricing Data
HW for Thursday 3/06:
Work on projects
Class Thursday 3/06:
In-class activities
HW for Tuesday 3/11:
Work on projects
Week 8
Class Tuesday 3/11
In-class activities
HW for Thursday 3/13
Evaluation
Make sure journal is up-to-date and has your current deliverables, wiki contributions, and presentation/in-class activity links when applicable.
Make sure each of your screenshots are on the Activity Board.
Write a short self-evaluation of your progress in class along with the grade you deserve as an email to Melvin and David. The syllabus lists grading criteria for the class. We will look at hours logged, quality and scope of wiki contributions, class participation, and your project process and results.
After you send your evaluation, Melvin and David will reply with their evaluations of your progress along with your grade up until this point sometime between Thursday's class (3/16) and Tuesday via email.
Finish first project
Prepare presentation for first project for next two classes
Max 5 minutes for presentations
Your contributions to the wiki
Some contributions will report on easily accessible information
Some should include more active evaluation and analysis of collaboration, science, and VR
Contributions that compare software are particularly interesting
Your deliverables + photos & videos (please include some media!)
If you think something is worth presenting, it should probably be in the wiki!
Any takeaways + challenges;
Maybe some thoughts about how your path deviated from its original course
Anything you've learned
Your ideas for second projects
PPTX to David and Melvin via email by 10:30a Wednesday
Class Thursday 3/13
Project 1 Presentations
HW for Tuesday 3/18
Read the Seven Scenarios Paper. Please make sure you know the seven scenarios and how they apply to your evaluations and wiki deliverables.
Draft of project 2 plan in journal for others to review. Explicitly state how you've used the principles outlined in the Seven Scenarios paper to design your project; feel free to reference sections of the paper that motivated your thinking.
Be prepared to discuss second-project ideas you are considering -- slides/visuals could be appropriate
Week 9
Class Tuesday 3/18
Presentation overflow
7 scenarios paper and project 2 plan discussion pairwise activity
Activity Board
HW for Thursday 3/20
Send Project 2 Presentations to Melvin and David by 9AM Thursday morning!
Target: 3 minutes or less!
Two slides (brief because we have to get through everyone before spring break!)
slide 1: title, name,
left side: very concise description
right side: wiki results listslide 2: dates and specific milestones and in class activity description
Write your revised project 2 plan in your journal
Evaluate your project plan using the rubric from project 1:
Note that your project should have milestones for 4/01, 4/03, 4/08, 4/10, 4/15, 4/17, 4/22, 4/24, 4/30, 5/01.
Class Thursday 3/20
Project 2 proposal presentations
Week 10
Class Tuesday 3/25 (No Class - Spring Recess)
Class Thursday 3/27 (No Class - Spring Recess)
Week 11
HW for Tuesday 4/01
Continue working on project 2
Schedule time preferences for project 2 in-class activities
Review seven scenarios paper and choose 3 evaluation questions that apply to your project 2
Class Tuesday 4/01
Seven scenarios activity
Peer journal evaluation
HW for Thursday 4/03
Consider the levels in Bloom's Taxonomy below as you deepen understanding of the knowledge you have put into the wiki and planning to put in the wiki. This is often used to capture learning in education, but it makes sense in any context involving learning about new things.
Class Thursday 4/03
Bloom Taxonomy, seven scenarios, software evaluations, and wiki insights
Week 12
HW for Tuesday 4/08
Class Tuesday 4/08
In-class activities
HW for Thursday 4/10
Create progress report and send to David and Melvin. Media must be embedded in the presentation (no external links) and presentation must be in .pptx format!
Class Thursday 4/10
(no headsets needed)
Project 2 progress update presentations
End-of-semester logistics discussion
HW for Tuesday 4/15
Week 13
Class Tuesday 4/15
In-class activities
Project 2 progress report overflow
End of semester logisitics discussion
HW for Thursday 4/17
Class Thursday 4/17
In-class activities
HW for Tuesday 4/22
Week 14
Class Tuesday 4/22
In-class activities
HW for Thursday 4/24
Start preparing your project 2 presentations, flash talks, and thinking about public demos (see entry for Class 5/09)
Class Thursday 4/24
In-class activities
HW for Tuesday 4/29
Continue working on your project 2 presentations and flash talks
Week 15
Class Tuesday 4/29
In-class activities
HW for Thursday 5/01
Send Melvin a 3 minute project 2 end presentation powerpoint. Details are outlined on Week 16.
Continue working on flash talks and demos
Finish any feedback forms from Tuesday
Class Thursday 5/01
Project 2 end presentations
HW for Tuesday 5/06:
Copy over your HackMD or any external site tutorial posts into a separate wiki page and link that at the top of your journal
Make your Google Form results public and link them at the top of your journal
Make sure your journal is up to date with hours logged (should be ~130+), links, wiki contributions
Final evaluation of journals will be immediately after public presentations
HW for Tuesday 5/06
Print out an 8.5x11 or full-sized draft of your poster. Be prepared to rehearse a presentation from your poster for next class.
Send flash talk powerpoint to Melvin. Details are outlined below:
Week 16
Class Tuesday 5/06
For our last class before finals we will review poster drafts, and rehearse full-semester flash talks -- both will help prepare you for the final public presentations (see Class 5/18 for more info). Since those will still be over a week away, it's ok to have some placeholders.
Final Poster Draft Format Options
8.5 x 11 physical poster. This will serve as a smaller sized draft of your final poster and will give you practice presenting from it.
Full sized physical poster. If your draft is complete, you can present from a full sized physical poster. Details for printing are outlined below. You should only choose this option if you're confident that your draft is complete so that usage of ink and paper are kept to a minimum.
Final Poster Guidelines
Size
The poster should be in landscape orientation -- wider than high. 42'' wide by 30'' is a pretty good size if you are printing from Room 475.
Creation
You can use the software of your choice to create the poster, but we recommend Powerpoint, Photoshop or Figma. You'll want to resize your slide / photoshop canvas to the actual size of the poster (e.g. 42'' wide by 30'' height, more details about printing size are in the section below). For Powerpoint, this can be done using the resize slide feature. For Figma, you'll want to make sure that the aspect ratio of your frame matches the aspect ratio of your print. Please be careful not to make a blurry poster. Images should be high-enough resolution that they are ~200-300 DPI when printed. Text should not be turned into an image. Ensure that images are high enough resolution when scaled to the correct size. For Figma, I've found that (6918 px, 3032 px) is a good pixel size. This can be rescaled to 42'' by 24.5'' poster size when printing.
Scope
Since the format of the public presentations is similar to a science fair/research symposium, one way to think of a poster is as a set of sections that you can use to complement what you want to say. The gist of your presentation should be understandable by your poster alone.
There are 5 examples of posters from the past here: Final Posters. Think about their visual layout and how you could present from them. Melvin and David are happy to give feedback on the posters before next week, and we will also do so after class to help you refine them for the public demos.
Flash Talk
Please prepare a flash talk of 40 seconds for Tuesday's (5/09) class. Send Melvin a powerpoint slide or a small number of slides with timings. Melvin will ensure that the total time for your slides is 40 seconds, and they will advance automatically. There will be an additional 5 seconds between speakers to transition.
This flash talk for Tuesday's class will also be presented at the public demo, and as such, should be directed at a broader audience. Your flash talk should include an overview of your work during the semester, your public demo, and your poster. Think of the flash talk as a bite-sized pitch to attract people to stop at your poster and learn more about your project.
Poster Printing instructions:
The poster printer (HP Designjet Z5200) is in Room 480 and is connected to a Mac
Log into the 480 computer using your department username and password.
Office hours for the printer are 8:30am - 5:00pm on weekdays.
Once you log onto the computer, make sure your poster is in PDF format (either save it as a PDF or have it as a PDF already)
Open up the pdf in Adobe Acrobat Pro (you'll likely want to upload your poster to Google Drive, sign into Google on the Mac, and then download it)
Each user will need to define a custom page size under the print menu -> page setup -> page size -> manage custom sizes. The paper roll is 42 inches wide, that can either be height or length:
Be sure to select HP DesignJet Z5200 Postscript as your target printer If the poster is coming out sideways or too small or whatever hit the red button before too much paper gets wasted. Then double check settings and try again.
Once printed, you'll want to crop your poster using the mat cutter:
Week 17
HW for Wednesday, 5/14
Prepare and Finalize Project Presentations + Demos
Write a self-evaluation as an email (due Wednesday 12PM) to David and Melvin. Look back at the expertise levels you set out for yourself for the learning goals on the syllabus and copy your entries into an email. Copy each learning goal and give a score based on your current expertise levels. Ex:
before after
---- ----
1 | 5 | articulate VR visualization software tool goals, requirements, and capabilities
1 | 5 | construct meaningful evaluation strategies for software libraries, frameworks, and applications; strategies include surveys, interviews, comparative use, case studies, and web research
1 | 5 | execute tool evaluation strategies
1 | 4 | build visualization software packages
1 | 4 | comparatively analyze software tools based on evaluation
1 | 4 | be familiar with a number of VR software tools and hardware
1 | 4 | think critically about software
3 | 5 | communicate ideas more clearly
1 | 3 | explore how VR could be used collaboratively
Write a few sentences about how your current expertise levels fare against your expected levels, and what you learned during the course. Also, write your expected grade and justification, keeping in mind the following grading rubric:
15% class attendance and participation
15% feedback survey design, creation, collection, and analysis contributions
20% in-class activity quality
10% in-class activity results analysis
15% weekly journal of activities and findings
25% overall final wiki contributions
Finish revising Final Journal + Wiki Contributions (due Wednesday 12PM)
Make sure your journal is up to date with 140+ hours logged, links to wiki contributions, tutorials, feedback form results, flash talks, public demo instructions, and PDFs of posters
David and Melvin will be evaluating journals, wiki contributions, posters and public demos for final grade and responding to self evaluations immediately after final presentations.
[CRITICAL ATTENDANCE] Class Saturday 5/10 Time: 3:30-5p Final Presentations!
Please come to CIT 101 at 3:15p by the latest to set up posters and demos.
The final public presentations will have each person presenting a 40 second flash talk in front of a projector about their project to the audience. That will happen at 3:45. The rest will be done in a science-fair like format: each person will stand in front of their posters on easels and invite passersby to hear their project presentation and try out their interactive VR demo. Make sure to bring your headsets and print your full sized posters early!
Class Final Projects
Virtual Reality for Collaborative Data Visualization
Wednesday, 5/10/25, 3:30-5p
CIT 101
[pictures]
3:45-4:00pm: flash talks presented with slides in CIT 101.
3:30-3:45 and 4:00-5:00pm: posters and live demos.
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