Duke Engineering Lab to Focus on Visualization

DURHAM, N.C., April 26 -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has received $1.125 million for a teaching and research laboratory that will focus on developing new ways to present and visualize information.

The Gary W. and Elizabeth D. Dickinson Visual Analysis Center will be part of the school's new $97 million Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences. A groundbreaking ceremony is set for Saturday, and the 320,000-square-foot structure is expected to be completed in August 2004.

A key part of the laboratory will be an arcade with computerized virtual-reality images projected onto the walls, floor and ceiling. The Dickinson Arcade will allow medical researchers to "walk" inside MRI scans of the human body, for example, and engineers will use it as a test bed for acoustic and sensor displays.