Host: the Emerging Media Lab at UBC

Theme: Beyond The Word

Date: February 18, 2022

Zoom Link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/65925522353?pwd=cnhOK0xtUENpRWtqL2NXYlJka3BTZz09

Emerging Media takes us into, through, and beyond where texts take us. This month we’ll see how members of the EML community are helping medical students understand the intricacies of the metabolic system in ways words can’t capture through the 3D Metabolism project, keeping the written documentation on track and up to date for OpenXR development platform StereoKit, and making Shakespeare’s First Folio come alive.

Speakers

Cellular Metabolism in 3D

Dr. Lindsay Rogers, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, UBC and EML Faculty in Residence

and

The 3D Metabolism Team

Biology can be described by chemical reactions functioning together within a complex network termed cellular metabolism. Hundreds of disease states such as diabetes and many cancers can be described by alterations in this metabolic activity. This presentation will focus on the effective visualization of metabolic networks. A complex array of nodes and edges are represented within an interactive 3D landscape. The user interface allows modeling of specific physiological states, visualization of flux, and sourcing of external data. Ultimately, we aim to transform how learners at all levels interact with and comprehend this dynamic network.

Dr. Lindsay Rogers is an Assistant Professor of Teaching within the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department at the University of British Columbia. She received her undergraduate degree from Queen’s University and PhD from the University of British Columbia. Her research interests lie in the fields of environmental science and environmental health where biochemical understanding can elucidate complex and often controversial global issues. She is also leading biomedical visualization projects to develop immersive learning technology and elucidate complex cellular networks.

By collaborating with the UBC Emerging Media Lab, she provided academic leadership to a diverse, interdisciplinary team including Dante Cerron, Software Developer; Kim Nipp, Graphic Designer; Mohsen Movahedi, Jr. Software developer; Rayyan Saiyed, Sr. Biochemistry student and Joshua Yoon, Gr. Medical sciences student.

Documenting a Mixed Reality Engine

Nick Klingensmith, Mixed Reality Academy Lead Engineer at Microsoft,

StereoKit is a code-first Mixed Reality engine, where quality API documentation is a critical core component! StereoKit uses a number of clever tricks to keep docs and samples easy to create and maintain, especially with limited time and resources. We’ll discuss how to keep docs embedded in the code, use live code for samples, generate screenshots, record and playback Mixed Reality inputs for testing, and more!

Nick Klingensmith specializes in tool development, graphics programming, MR, and OpenXR! With over 100 published games, he’s worked on small arcade games, mobile high fidelity GPU pushing titles, all the way to massive networked social games. The tools he’s published on the Unity Asset Store are also used in thousands of games, on just about every modern platform imaginable! Nick works for Microsoft as the engineer for the Mixed Reality Academy team in San Francisco and is the author of StereoKit the Mixed Reality Engine, and the Mixed Reality Lighting Tools.

Digitizing the Shakespeare Folio

Dr. Patrick Pennefather, Assistant Professor, Theatre and Film Department, Faculty of Arts, UBC and EML Faculty in Residence

Pennefather will talk about upcoming opportunities for students to be involved in different digital re-constructions of Shakespeare’s First Folio. These will include photogrammetry, VR, and AR projects centered around a Collaborative Prototyping UBC course integrated with EML that will be offered in the first Summer semester and in the Winter Semester.

Pennefather is an Assistant Professor at UBC Film & Theatre whose research includes the development and investigation of mixed reality projects. His sound design and composition will be part of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Imitation Game, an installation focused on manifestations of AI in Art opening the first week of March.