1. HIGHLIGHTS
CVDI will be a joint collaboration between the Uni-
http://nsf-cvdi.lousiana.edu
versity of Louisiana at Lafayette and Drexel University.
The Center will have 26 participating faculty members THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
from both universities, primarily from Computer Sci-
THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
ence, Information Science and Chemical Engineering.
In the last 5 years, the participating faculty members Center for Visual &
have contributed 233 research publications, 12 li- Center for Visual & Decision Informatics
Decision Informatics
censed products and a track record of bringing over
$20M of research funding. CVDI will be a member An Industry/University
of the National Science Foundation’s successful and Cooperative Research Center
proven Industry/University Cooperative Research
Center (I/UCRC) Program.
Director: Co-Director:
FACILITIES University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Dr. Vijay Raghavan Dr. Xiaohua Tony Hu
The Center’s research will be supported by state-of- Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.
337.482.6603 215.895.0551
the art computing and visualization facilities. These
raghavan@louisiana.edu xh29@drexel.edu
include:
• The Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise,
a visualization facility with a six-sided immersive For additional information or discussion, please contact Vijay
visualization and 3D visualization theatre support- Raghavan or Tony Hu by phone or email. We also welcome you to visit
us at our offices, have us visit your premises or click
ed by 4.1 TB memory SGI Altix 700 machine with
160 CPU cores http://nsf-cvdi.lousiana.edu
• A state-wide distributed High Performance Com-
puting infrastructure supported by a 40GBPs opti-
cal network, called the Louisiana Optical Network
Initiative
• An experimental cloud computing cluster, virtual
reality displays with tracking and haptic devices
• The College of Information Science at Drexel
has a variety of specialized facilities, including a
large server IBM e1350 Linux Cluster- containing
335 computing nodes, each with Dual Intel Xeon
processors- for dedicated to research use

2. OVERVIEW GOALS
Visualization enables humans to intuitively under- CVDI will be the center of excellence in Visual Analyt-
stand, analyze and interpret information. With the ics research. CVDI will be driven by academic experts
growth in the magnitude and complexity of data in various disciplines, world-class visualization and
available through digital media such as the internet supercomputing facilities and the needs of the indus-
and sensor instruments, decision makers in both in- try. While the Center will focus on the basic research
dustry and government are constantly faced with necessary to develop and advance future technolo-
challenges to interpret actionable information from gies, it will also seek additional funding opportunities BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
complex and dynamic data. for applied research to translate research ideas into
products that reflect the needs of its government and As a member of the CVDI Industry Advisory Board, you
The Center for Visual and Decision Informatics (CVDI) industry members. The Center’s goals are to: will have access to the leading-edge developments in
is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/Uni- Visual and Decision Informatics and have an opportu-
versity Cooperative Research Center. The Center’s
mission is to research and develop next generation
1 Accelerate the creation and transfer of
knowledge and technology to industry
nity to provide direction to the Center’s research proj-
ects that directly reflect the needs of your organization
visual and decision support tools and techniques to and commercial products and of potential end-users of the resulting technolo-
enable decision makers in government and industry
to fundamentally improve the way their organization’s 2 Discover, share and leverage synergies
of concepts, technologies and resources
gies. You will also have access to the interdisciplinary
knowledge base from academic researchers and en-
information is interpreted and analyzed. CVDI will needed for industry-relevant Visual and gage with other industry advisory board members to
bring together, analytic, visual and perceptual tech- Decision Informatics research explore potential opportunities. The following are the
niques by advancing the state-of-the-art in the five- highlights of membership benefits:
year-old research field known as Visual Analytics. This 3 Create a future workforce that benefits
the local and national economy by edu-
research will be supported by advanced computing cating a diverse body of students on the • One-stop access to interdisciplinary univer-
and visualization facilities to create Decision-Making interdisciplinary field of Visual and Deci- sity professors, post-doctoral researchers and
Environments (DME) – a framework that will enable sion Informaticss graduate students from partnering universities
users to explore and customize information streams • A well-equipped venue to investigate a re-
In summary, the CVDI’s value proposition is to offer a
in a variety of modalities to gain better insight to that search topic that may otherwise be expensive
low cost, low risk venue for its members from indus-
information. The research at CVDI will span multiple to investigate with your existing staff
try and government agencies to validate their early
industry/government sectors, including:
stage innovations with the involvement of university • Formal periodic project reviews along with
faculty, post doctorate scholars and students. continuous informal interaction and timely
• Healthcare • Financial Services access to reports, papers and intellectual
• Bioinformatics • Homeland Security property generated by the Center, which will
significantly reduce your risk to validate your
• Biomedicine • Emergency Management innovative ideas
• Convenient access to world-class facilities,
including cloud computing, supercomputing
and immersive visualizations
• Recruitment opportunities to attract outstand-
ing graduate students
• Opportunity to network and collaborate with
other industry advisory board members to
explore joint venues of research collaboration
• Leverage R&D investments and access ex-
ternal technologies; The NSF will match one
dollar for every three dollars jointly spent by
government and industry