30 September 2015

Broaden the Impact of Your Research with CADENS

Richard Fienberg

Richard Fienberg American Astronomical Society

This announcement is posted on behalf of Donna Cox, University of Illinois:

Does your research generate, analyze, and/or visualize data using advanced digital resources? Visualizations of your work could reach millions of people, amplifying its greater societal impacts. CADENS (The Centrality of Advanced Digitally ENabled Science) is looking for scientific data to visualize or existing data visualizations to weave into larger documentary narratives in a series of fulldome digital films and TV programs aimed at broad public audiences.

“The ability to generate and analyze giant data sets has produced a paradigm shift across all fields of inquiry. Compelling visualizations of these data will connect with broad audiences and provide insight into a wide range of natural phenomena,” says Donna Cox, director of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

CADENS provides a unique opportunity for researchers employing advanced digital methods to integrate their research findings into a story of interest to the public. Input from writers, museum distributors, educators, and other stakeholders helps determine subject matter, and CADENS has already completed one of 12 documentaries: Solar Superstorms narrated by actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

“Digital fulldome planetariums are the fastest-growing immersive theater format today,” said Mike Bruno, fulldome show producer/distributor. “Demand is high for programs with AVL’s brand of dramatic, cinematic, and scientifically accurate visualizations. We expect to reach millions of viewers worldwide over the life of these films.”

The process for selecting scientific data and visualizations to be included in CADENS projects is unlike typical proposal-review procedures. This selection process involves visualization experts, a science advisory committee, and other stakeholders in an ongoing process to consider a variety of science stories.

“We anticipate topics ranging from census analyses to pandemic modeling, earthquakes, lifecycles of stars, severe weather, and deep mysteries inside our planet,” said Thomas Lucas, producer/director of more than 30 major science documentary films. “We hope to open people’s eyes to whole new ways of seeing the world, and to show the passion of scientists on the verge of profound discoveries.”

This is a National Science Foundation-supported project led by Donna Cox, director of the AVL — which has created data-driven visualizations seen by millions of people in productions for planetariums, museums, and science television programs — at NCSA and professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The co-investigators are Thomas Lucas; Bill Kramer, leader of the Blue Waters NSF project; John Towns, leader of the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) NSF project; and Robert Patterson, NCSA/AVL. Spitz Creative Media will be a key contributor and distributor. A distinguished Science Advisory Committee composed of individuals across disciplines and professional societies will advise the project. An independent STEM team will externally evaluate and report on the project.