Applied Visualization Lab - Asheville, NC

Current Production: Water in WNC

The Applied Visualization Lab is premiering its climate and visualization expertise on the global stage at the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth in San Francisco June 5 - 9 to demonstrate technological tools that enable better understanding of Earth’s systems and how human actions affect the environment.
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Sample Animations and Images

About the Applied Visualization Lab

The Applied Visualization Lab is a public/private/non-profit collaboration established to cultivate the momentum of environmental, digital media, information technology, and entrepreneurial resources in Western North Carolina. Our mission is to create compelling and intuitive interactive visual interfaces from complex data and concepts to increase understanding by civic leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, students and the general public.

Applied Visualization opens a new frontier to understanding complex data

The Challenge

Like most of the world, Western North Carolina is currently facing substantial challenges. Of particular concern to WNC are issues pertaining to the environment (such as air quality, land use, flooding), energy infrastructure (how to increase renewable energy usage), and economic development (creating meaningful and sustainable careers and training for WNC citizens).    The key barrier in resolving these issues is a striking lack of public understanding. Though energy, environment, and economics are intimately interrelated, they are too often mistakenly addressed as separate and unrelated. Communities, policy makers, and entrepreneurs must recognize and understand the interconnections between these issues before effective, assertive solutions can be implemented.

The Opportunity

Increasingly, entrepreneurs, educators, scientists, and policymakers are turning to information visualization tools to better understand complex issues and data. These multimedia tools are revolutionizing communication, education, and decision making by providing intuitive interfaces to significant and disparate bodies of information. By making complex data more understandable and accessible, visualizations are making it possible to identify previously unrecognized patterns and relationships. The consequences of social, environmental and policy decisions can be explored in real-time allowing for scientifically informed decision-making.

The Solution: The WNC Applied Visualization Lab

The WNC Applied Visualization Lab is a public/private/non-profit collaboration established to cultivate the momentum of environmental, digital media, information technology, and entrepreneurial resources in Western North Carolina. It is bringing together and leveraging advancements in the diverse and emerging fields of geographical information systems, data visualization, education technology, multimedia production, interactive computer graphics, and immersive display environments. By facilitating multi-disciplinary collaboration between entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, media artists, educators, and policy makers, the Applied Visualization Lab is poised to become a leading supplier of effective visualization tools and techniques to address the world’s most pressing economic and environmental challenges.

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