VIRTMorph Symposium and Workshop at the 2019 International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology; July 21-25, 2019; Prague, Czech Republic

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

This award partially supports travel for participants in a symposium and workshop at the International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM), a triennial meeting of the International Society of Vertebrate Morphology to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, in July 2019. The symposium and workshop bring together scientists and software developers to advance the use of virtual reality (VR) for the purposes of both research and teaching in the field of functional morphology. Progress in the morphological sciences has been impeded by the difficulty of understanding and quantifying three dimensional structures from two dimensional images, for example photographs and illustrations, and from the opacity of most structures, which generally makes it impossible to see inside organisms without dissecting them. A major leap forward came from the development of three-dimensional (3-D) radiographic methods, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, which enable 3-D data of differences in density to be acquired noninvasively, visualized, and manipulated. A novel, and perhaps similar, leap forward comes from software and hardware developments that enable these data to be studied and quantified using virtual reality. Scientists can virtually step inside or walk around a virtual organism, and better understand the relationships of individual structures to the whole organism. Because these data and visualizations are digital, they are advancing the ways scientists share and archive data and develop teaching tools. The symposium will bring together scientists from across the globe who are using VR to advance understanding of structure and function in a range of organisms, and will expose other scientists to the use of multiplayer platforms to collaborate in real time and over long distances. Training at the workshop will enable scientists to publish VR-ready data on their websites and in existing repositories, to bring mobile VR experiences into classrooms and museums, and to make better use of scientific collections. VR will help researchers use a ubiquitous modern tool - the smartphone - to bring immersive, scientific experiences to the public. Advances in scientific understanding often follow technological innovations that afford researchers new insights into complex problems. VR promises to do this for the complex, three-dimensional morphology that is at the heart of organismal biology. The VR environment is superior to examining individual research specimens, especially of rare or endangered species, because virtual objects can be digitally sliced, rotated, and scaled up at will. The VIRTMorph symposium and workshop to be held at the international ICVM meeting will advance the study of functional morphology by illustrating how the understanding of complex anatomy can be facilitated using virtual reality. The workshop will familiarize scientists with VR software and hardware so that a transition to the use of this powerful new tool can occur smoothly and effortlessly. Scientists will learn how to use VR to set up a web framework for digital meetings, and thereby will facilitate international collaborations. It will enhance the ability of scientists to communicate research results to the public in effective ways. Anticipated outcomes include a collaborative white paper, to be published in a scientific journal, that will detail how recent innovations in VR may best be used for research in functional morphology and for outreach. A Beginners Guide to Using VR in Biology will be produced, and a tutorial series and posting board will be established on the principal investigator's website to more broadly disseminate the workshop training. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.