News Library
. . . BROUGHT TO LIFE BY UB
Published on March 9, 2000
© The Buffalo News Inc.
Whatever the outcome of the Peace Bridge debate, the University at Buffalo has provided a lesson in community involvement that shouldn't pass unnoticed.
Working late and diverting much of the resources of a major computer-research center for a full month, UB is offering the public a chance to see just what competing bridge proposals look like and what impacts they would have on the river and on West Side neighborhoods. Better than any artists' static renderings or engineers' drawings, the large-screen computer animations available for viewing at the North Campus' Center for Computational Research let viewers equipped with electronic 3-D glasses stand on the shoreline and view the bridges, drive across them or circle them in a helicopter -- like flight through virtual reality. The stunning application of technology to a heated community debate is a first for this area, and a nationwide model. It's also further proof that UB leadership, from President William R. Greiner on down, is committed to forging university-community partnerships. "When we first looked at the project, we found that this was on such a large scale it was not something we could just turn around very quickly. It would dominate our whole production for weeks," said IBC Digital President Ben Porcari, whose firm partnered with the center and UB's Virtual Reality Lab on the project. "But after we discussed it with CCR and UB, they felt strongly that this was a way for the university to use its technology to support the community." The research computers, normally used for such things as visualizing the insides of molecules, now add needed visualizations to a complex public review process. Public usage has been gratifying; daily traffic on the center's Web site, which posts both still views and animated "movies" for those who can't make the appointment-only 3-D viewings, has soared from about 800 to 10,000 contacts a day and peaked at 20,000 just after a Buffalo News story on the system. The review is in its final days, but the center is still accepting viewing appointments (645-6500 or via e-mail at info@ccr.buffalo.edu). Its Web site can be accessed by computer at http://ccr.buffalo.edu.<
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