Purdue Northwest’s visualization center, CIVS, to celebrate 10th anniversary

Members of a northwest Indiana “Canstruction” team used CIVS-created software to help design and build sculptures made entirely out of canned foods in 2015.

Purdue University Northwest’s (PNW) multidisciplinary Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) celebrates its 10th anniversary with an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17 in the CIVS Immersive Theater and Labs, Room 123 in the Powers Building, 6937 Woodmar Ave., on PNW’s Hammond Campus. Light refreshments will be served.

This event is free and open to the public and will include demonstrations of practical, real-world uses of advanced computer technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). While best known for creating virtual simulations of steel and other manufacturing environments and processes, the Center’s open house demonstrations will span the full range of CIVS technological wizardry.

Interactive displays will include virtual forensic science crime scene investigation; game-based cybersecurity attack and defense methods; a distributive Justice game; a virtual 3D flood modeling program based on the Hart Ditch–Little Calumet River basin; and an immersive, 3D virtual fire extinguisher and another safety training simulator with several levels of difficulty for true “adventurers.”

A Purdue Northwest CIVS research engineer navigates a virtual reality environment for a forensic crime scene training program in 2018.

The public is encouraged to join in the celebration, participate in innovative virtual reality developments, and explore upcoming summer camp and other community-directed educational offerings. For more information, contact CIVS at civs@pnw.edu.

Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation

Purdue University Northwest’s CIVS is an interdisciplinary applied research center that combines advanced simulation techniques with 3D visualization and virtual reality technologies to produce innovative solutions in response to real-world industrial, research, and community challenges. Further information about CIVS is available online at CIVS.