Digital Discovery
With initial funding from the Office of the President and Knowledge Enterprise, the newly established Digital Discovery Initiative (DDI) at Arizona State University is poised to revolutionize observational scientific research. It will bridge the gap between technological advances like virtual reality, remote sensing and data visualization and the need for expertise to reproduce natural environments in a virtual way.
The advent of technologies (and technological expertise) to reproduce natural environments in a virtual way offers new opportunities for observational scientific research. ASU established the Digital Discovery Initiative (DDI) in March 2023 to design, develop, and implement virtual reality strategies for research and professional training purposes. Although DDI is in its early stages, our aspiration is to establish ASU as a world leader in low-latency telerobotic research and observational research using extended reality virtual environments (XR-VEs), modalities we refer to here as telescience and metascience. Ultimately, we envision the Digital Discovery platform as enabling an entirely new approach to scientific inquiry.
During its first year of existence, the Digital Discovery Initiative established a core group of faculty, staff and student researchers who have established advanced strategies to acquire photogrammetric datasets for natural environments; have developed pipelines to convert these datasets into very high-resolution 3D models; and have started rendering these models as immersive virtual environments using Dreamscape software.
The Team
DDI Researchers have developed relationships with a variety of external university, corporate and governmental collaborators to leverage immersive virtual reality research for the scientific exploration of environments as varied as coral reefs and the cratered surface of the moon.
Dr. Kip V. Hodges
Director
Hodges came to ASU in 2006 to be the founding director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and served in that capacity until 2013. A fellow of both the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union, he has served on the Planetary Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council, and currently chairs the Advisory Committee on Geosciences for NSF. He is chairman of the editorial board for the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal Science Advances. Hodges directs the Group 18 Laboratories.
Dr. Jnaneshwar Das
Assistant Research Professor
Das holds the Enrique Behar Assistant Research Professorship at the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and is a core faculty member at the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science. As an expert in environmental robotics, Das focuses on developing innovative solutes for optimal data collection and analysis across diverse ecosystems. As the director of the Distributed Robotic Exploration and Mapping Systems (DREAMS) Laboratory, Das leads research that advances cutting-edge methodologies in sampling, modeling, and predictive analysis.
Dr. Robert LiKamWa
Associate Professor
LiKamWa is an Associate Professor at ASU, appointed in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering (AME) and the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. LiKamWa directs Meteor Studio, which explores the research and design of software and hardware for mobile Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and visual computing systems and their ability to help people tell their stories.
Jack Haehl
Lead XR Developer
Haehl is a passionate creative technologist dedicated to unveiling the invisible and enhancing the visible. Haehl is experienced in hardware-software integration, rapid prototyping, and driving impactful projects from concept to completion. Haehl is working toward his B.S. in Computer Science with a Minor in Physics at ASU. He has a Certificate in Computer Gaming.
Lauren Gold
VR Programmer
Gold is a Graduate Student AR/VR Developer and Researcher at the ASU School of Arts, Media & Engineering, and the School of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering and at Meteor Studio. Gold is Team lead on Planetary Visor, a VR experience that immerses one in rich scientific data on Mars with unique tools to perform scientific analysis. She leads JMARS AR, an immersive collaborative workspace for planetary terrain viewing and annotating. Gold obtained an M.A. in Media, Arts & Sciences and a B.S. in Digital Culture (Media Processing) at ASU.
Brenda Day
Program Manager
Day is a DDI Program Manager at the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration. Day has experience working as a PM for the School of Sustainability in the Global Futures Laboratory and Fulton Engineering. Day worked as an Environmental Planning Manager for Maricopa Association of Governments, the largest regional metropolitan planning organization in Arizona. Day obtained a B.S. in Biology with Environmental Specialization at ASU and an A.A.S. in Ecology, Evolution, Systematics and Population Biology at MCC.
The Partners
