I am currently working for Virginia Tech Research Computing as the Director of Visual Computing. It a great mix of managing visualization facilities, training faculty and students, and helping develop visualizations for the lastest computational science and eDesign. I am also an Affiliate Research Professor in the Department Computer Science where I teach an occasional class such as Intro to HCI or Media Computation.

My favorite areas of R&D are:

• Graphics and Interaction Design (Visualization and Virtual Environments)
• Prototyping, Modeling, Asset Management
• Server and client-side scripting and programming :
    Perl, PHP, Java, C++, UNIX, ECMAscript/JavaScript,
• Information Integration and Content Production:
   X3D, VRML,  XML, XSLT, SQL, HTML

I am investigating cognitive approaches to interactive visualization in virtual environments. Specifically, I am interested in perception and information design for embedding and coordinating multiple information types inside 3D environments. Recent work highlights the use and advantages of open standards such as XML and X3D for "Information-Rich Virtual Environments".

In conjunction with Virginia Tech Research Computing, we are applying our methods to the visualization of simulation data from VT's high-performance computing facilities such as System X. For example, Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Energetics of Space Structures, immune system simulations. In addition, we are focuing on the further improvement of visualization services, informatics softwares, and international standards.

Doctoral Dissertation:
Display Techniques in Information-Rich Virtual Environments
examines the effects of percetual cues in representing heterogenous data sets

Advisors: Dr. Doug Bowman and Dr. Chris North
Committee: Dr. Scott McCrickard, Dr. Ken Livingston, Dr. Don Brutzman

Virginia Tech Department and Computer Science and
Center for Human Computer Interaction

Courseware
and Training

• Web3D 2008 - Co-Located with SIGGRAPH; General Chair
• IEEE VR 2007 Workshops Co-Chair; Organizer: "Future Standards for Immersive VR"
• Web3D 2007 Program Co-Chair
• Web3D Symposium 2006 Chair: Tutorials, X3D User Interface Working Group
• Virginia Tech Computer Science Instructor: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction 2006
• Web3D Symposium 2005 Tutorials: Engineering Virtual Environments with X3D, Techniques of Perception with X3D, User Interface Workshop; Program Committee
• Web3D Symposium 2004 Workshops: User Interface, Medical; paper presented; Program Committee,
• Web3D Symposium 2003 paper presented
• Virginia Tech - Information Visualization with X3D , CS-2204: UNIX
• Web3D Symposium 2002 courses:
  Web3D Graphics Publishing with X3D: Ppoint; Coursenotes Doc
  X3D Architecture & Overview: Ppoint
• SIGGRAPH 2001, 2002 - Introducing X3D,
• SIGGRAPH Local Chapters: San Francisco 2001, Boston: April 10 2002
• Stuttgarter FilmWinter 2001 Techniques of Perception in VRML

Polys, Nicholas F. “Publishing Paradigms with X3D” In: Information Visualization with SVG and X3D, (eds.) Chanomei Chen and Vladimir Geroimenko, Springer-Verlag, 2005.

Journals

Polys, Nicholas F., Bowman, D.A., and North, C., “The Role of Depth and Gestalt Cues in Information-Rich Virtual Environments” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Elsevier (submitted 3/2007)

M. Shapiro, K. A. D., K. Lee, E. Delgado-Eckert, A.S. Jarrah, R. Laubenbacher, N.F. Polys, V. Hadinoto, D. Thorley-Lawson, “A Virtual Look at Epstein-Barr Virus Infection: Simulation Mechanism”. Journal of Theoretical Biology. (forthcoming 2008)

D.A. Thorley-Lawson, V. H., K. Luzuriaga, A.S. Jarrah, R. Laubenbacher, K. Lee, N.F. Polys, E. Delgado-Eckert, M. Shapiro, K.A. Duca, “A Virtual Look at Epstein-Barr Virus Infection: Biological Interpretations”. PLOS Pathogens Vol. 3, No. 10, e137 doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.0030137; 2007.

Bowman, D., Chen, J., Wingrave, C., Lucas, J., Ray, A., Polys, N., Li, Q., Haciahmetoglu, Y., Kim, J., Kim, S., Boehringer, R., and Ni, T. New Directions in 3D User Interfaces. International Journal of Virtual Reality 5, 3-14; 2006.

Polys, Nicholas F., Kim, S., Bowman, D.A. “Effects of Information Layout, Screen Size, and Field of View on User Performance in Information-Rich Virtual Environments.” Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds 18:1; 2007.

Polys, Nicholas F. and Bowman, Doug A., "Desktop Information-Rich Virtual Environments: Challenges and Techniques." Virtual Reality 8(1), 41-54; 2004.

Conference Proceedings

N.W. John, M. Aratow, J. Couch, D. Evestedt, A.D. Hudson, N. Polys, R.F. Puk, A. Ray, K. Victor, Q. Wang, “MedX3D: Standards Enabled Desktop Medical 3D.“ Medicine Meets VR (MMVR) 2008.

Polys, Nicholas F., Shapiro, Michael., Duca, Karen, “IRVE-Serve: A Visualization Framework for Spatially-Registered TimeSeries Data”. The Web3D 2007 Symposium, ACM SIGGRAPH, 2007.

Polys, Nicholas F., “Parallel Realities? The Requirements of Web3D and Immersive VR”. Workshop on Future Standards for Immersive VR, Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality, IEEE Press. 2007. Report and Proceedings Here

Polys, Nicholas F., & Ray, Andrew, “Supporting Mixed-Reality Interfaces through X3D Specification”. Workshop on Mixed-Reality Interface Specification, Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality, IEEE Press. 2006.

Murthy, U., Burbey, I., Kwon, G., Polys, N., Vincent, P., and Pérez-Quiñones, M. (2006). “Re-finding from a Human Information Processing Perspective”. SIGIR Workshop on Personal Information Management, Seattle, ACM Press.

Polys, Nicholas F., Kim, S., Bowman, D.A. “Effects of Information Layout, Screen Size, and Field of View on User Performance in Information-Rich Virtual Environments” Proceedings of ACM Virtual Reality Software and Technology 2005. Monterey, CA: ACM SIGGRAPH. 2005.

McCrickard, S., Wahid, S., Lee, J., Polys, N. “Use and Reuse in Information and Interaction Design” Proceedings of HCI-International 2005, Las Vegas, Nevada. LEA Associates. 2005.

Polys, Nicholas F., Bowman, Doug A., North, Chris. “Information-Rich Virtual Environments: Challenges and Outlook”. Proceedings of NASA Virtual Iron Bird Workshop (Day 2, paper, ppt & video), NASA Ames 2004. http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/vib/

Polys, Nicholas F., Bowman, D., North, C., Laubenbacher, R., Duca, K., “PathSim Visualizer: An Information-Rich Virtual Environment for Systems Biology”. Proceedings of the Web3D 2004 Symposium, ACM SIGGRAPH 2004.

Polys, Nicholas F., North, C., Bowman, D., Ray, A., Moldenhauer, M., Dandekar, C., “Snap2Diverse: Coordinating Information Visualizations and Virtual Environments”. Proceedings of Visualization and Data Analysis, International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) 2004.

Bowman, D., North, C., Chen, J., Polys, N., Pyla, P., and Yilmaz, U., Information-Rich Virtual Environments: Theory, Tools, and Research Agenda. in Proceedings of ACM Virtual Reality Software and Technology. 2003. Osaka, Japan: ACM SIGGRAPH. 2003

Polys, Nicholas F. “Stylesheet Transformations for Interactive Visualization: Towards a Web3D Chemistry Curricula”. Proceedings of the Web3D 2003 Symposium, ACM SIGGRAPH. 2003.

Brutzman, Don, Kass, Michael, Polys, Nicholas F. “X3D Content Examples, Editing, Conformance Suite and Software Development Kit”. Sketches and Applications, ACM SIGGRAPH 2001.

Posters

Polys, N.F., Duca, K.A., North, C., Bowman, D. , Laubenbacher, R. “Information-Rich Virtual Environments for Biomedicine.” Poster. Computational Cell Biology, Lennox MA, 2005.

Polys, N. F., Duca, K. A., Laubenbacher, R., Bowman, D. A., North, C. “Interactive Visualization of Biological Databases using Information-Rich Virtual Environments”, Poster. Digital Biology: The Emerging Paradigm, NIH 2003. http://staff.vbi.vt.edu/pathsim/NIHposter.pdf

Other Publications

Polys, Nicholas F., Shupp, Lauren , Volpe, J., Glina, V. and North, Chris (2006) “The Effects of Task, Task Mapping, and Layout Space on User Performance in Information-Rich Virtual Environments“. Technical Report TR-06-12, Computer Science, VT.

Burbey, I., Kwon, G., Murthy, U., Polys, N. and Vincent, P. (2005). “Human Information Processing with the Personal Memex”, CORR-the Computing Research Repository: http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.HC/0606107 .

Harris, Sally, “PathSim: Scientists model interaction of viruses and immune system”, Virginia Tech Research Magazine Fall 2004. http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/fall2004/PathSim.html .