ASU’s Decision Theater Uses Virtual Reality to Plan a Better Future for Arizona

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Imagine being able to soar over Tempe’s skyline and inspect its buildings – before they’ve been built. Consider having the ability to peer through multiple layers of rock to assess the state of our groundwater resources. Or picture being able to shrink down to microscopic size and explore the workings of a human brain – on a mission to discover the best way to operate on an aneurysm.

For the faculty and staff working at the ASU Decision Theater, these journeys through time and space are all in a day’s work as they partner with local policymakers and researchers to translate the complex issues surrounding urban development, water conservation and disease control into computer models and simulations. By viewing these virtual reality presentations, public administrators and business leaders can better understand the potential implications of their policies and make more informed decisions.

“Arizona State has a long history of doing work in the area of computer graphics and visualization,” states Rick Shangraw, executive director of the Decision Theater. “And when President Crow came in 2002 he took a look at that and said ‘let’s see if we can make that accessible to the community by adding policymakers into the process.’ So we took this computer science expertise and brought the community into that environment to help solve problems.”

One of these community problems was introduced by the Decision Theater’s first client, the East Valley Water Forum (EVWF), a group of tribal, public, and private water agencies and stakeholders involved in creating a regional groundwater management plan to sustain local water resources. Although the EVWF knew Arizona’s population growth could threaten the state’s groundwater reserves, its ability to show this problem was originally limited to reports and charts.

In response, Decision Theater helped translate the EVWF’s data into 3-D models of groundwater aquifers that can be projected onto the theater’s 260-degree faceted screen. These models let the EVWF visualize the current state of Arizona’s groundwater resources and then create computer simulations of how different water policies will deplete or sustain aquifers in the future. Being able to use simulations encourages members to collaborate by proposing alternate scenarios and discussing the types of policies they should create based on the way each scenario plays out.   

These computer models will also be used to explain complex water conservation issues to city council members and other political decision makers when the EVWF proposes its groundwater management plan. According to Gary Graf, the theater’s strategic initiatives manager, the theater’s ability to show 3-D models of how drought conditions will change the shape of groundwater aquifers can have a strong impact on a viewer’s understanding of the need for new water conservation policies.  

“Oftentimes just filling your peripheral vision with the screen space changes the way you perceive the information that’s presented,” he states. “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve shown something to groups that come in here and got the comment of ‘Oh, I never thought of it that way before.’ It literally changes the way our brain cells work. And that’s important, in trying to come up with good solutions and good answers.” 
 
Shangraw agrees, noting the Decision Theater should be seen by the community as a continually growing “tool kit” of information generated by alliances between ASU researchers and outside groups.

“The theater helps integrate three important elements in the decision making process – visualization, simulation, and collaboration,” he says. “It allows us to visualize some of the issues around a problem set, forecast or simulate possible alternatives to solving that problem, and then get decision makers together to collaborate on the solution.”

Currently the Decision Theater is involved in twenty additional projects with organizations that address issues ranging from public health to land use. Many of these partnerships enable ASU to provide multi-disciplinary support by teaming its faculty and staff with outside organizations to create more effective computer models.

One such project has partnered the Decision Theater with state epidemiologists of the Arizona Department of Health Services who are interested in understanding how cases of West Nile Virus emerge in Arizona and how they might be able to modify their response to the virus. To aid in this effort, ASU faculty with expertise in epidemiology, statistics, and math have joined the project team to help translate the department’s data.

As a result of this collaboration, ASU and the Arizona Department of Health Services have created a 3-D spatial model that can analyze complex visual and statistical epidemiological data, helping public health officials determine what policies and mitigation strategies can increase public health and safety.

Other projects include a 3-D geographically accurate model of Tempe that can be used to visualize buildings that have been proposed, permitted, or are under construction to see the impact they will have on the community. Assessing these virtual structures has helped city officials adopt height restrictions and facilitates discussions with developers.  

Recently, ASU has been exploring other possible uses for its theater. A current demonstration reveals the theater can create 3-D models of human brains using data from MRI scans, allowing surgeons to segment out key pieces of a diseased brain and determine a path to a tumor or aneurysm with the least impact on a patient. In the future, the Decision Theater staff hopes more government and commercial organizations take advantage of such potential applications.

“Our job is to work with groups in the community and help them sort through the issues of whatever problem they’re dealing with,” says Shangraw. “We tailor the work we do in the theater to the needs of all of our clients.”

Decision Theater works with many organizations to create computer models and collaboration techniques that help solve business and community problems. Project pricing is based on the number of hours required by Decision Theater staff to create each presentation. ASU faculty can also use the facility to enhance their research programs and promote ASU research to the broader community. Find out how you can take advantage of the many resources Decision Theater offers by visiting its web site.

Michael Jung, ASU in the Community feature writer
Michael.Jung@asu.edu
(480) 965-0335

To learn more about how ASU is engaged with the community, please visit ASU in the Community’s Program Database which connects you to a wide variety of specific ASU outreach efforts.