Explore the groundbreaking research conducted at the IRC over the years, where creativity meets cutting-edge technology. From interdisciplinary collaborations to artistic innovations and technological advancements, this gallery showcases the diverse projects that have shaped our understanding of the intersection between art, science, and technology. Dive into past and recent research, highlighting ideas’ evolution and innovation’s impact on the creative and digital landscape
Current Research
The Polar Ice Museum
The Polar Ice Museum is a series of artworks using polar data to create meaningful public engagement on the topic of climate change.
Hand Alphabet: A Virtual Tool for Hand Movement Training
Combining neurophysiology and psychology researchers create a virtual reality (VR) interactive system that reconnects neurophysical movement to those who have suffered damage to their hands.
Celebrating Culture for Economic Growth
A decade-long collaboration in West Baltimore uses culture, networks, and art to drive community-led economic empowerment and development.
Infinite Transformations: A Space for Transcendence
This bioart exhibition installation and live interdisciplinary performance uses sound, poetry, dance, fermentation, DNA augmentation and animation.
REVLR: Understanding Education Through VR
REVLR uses immersive 3D visualization to help rethink complex societal challenges by reshaping how media influences our collective understanding.
Seeing The Whole Challenge
REVLR helps future teachers see the whole challenge of student achievement through interactive, 3D visualization of cultural, historical, and systemic factors.
Recent
Black Power in DC
Explore Black Power in DC through an immersive StoryMap, blending history, geography, and powerful visuals to uncover untold stories.
Early Baltimore
Dive into the past with an interactive 3D journey through Baltimore’s 1815 landscape, exploring its iconic buildings, history, and untold stories from the War of 1812 era.
Hash Functions for GPU
Experience cutting-edge 3D technology, exploring natural forces shaping environments, and how the Imaging Research Center masters lifelike, real-time rendering.
Losing Winter
In 2019, Lynn Cazabon collaborated with the IRC to create an augmented reality [AR] project that shared personal stories of emotional loss during winter from around the world, aiming to raise awareness about climate change.
Ecomimesis
This VR and installation explores how plants, like horseweed, respond to environmental changes, using photogrammetry, 3D modeling, and virtual reality.
Virtual Buffet
This project creates a VR dining hall to study food choices, blending modeling, photogrammetry, and psychology.
2010-2019
360 Panorama Engine
The IRC is creating an in-house solution for interactive 360° panoramas, offering secure, flexible, and seamless viewing across all devices and browsers.
Archivist
Archivist: Cleaving Among the Houses is an anti-war video by John Sturgeon, blending multiple DV sequences into a single HD frame.
Augmented Reality: UMBC Master Plan Update
The IRC visualized UMBC’s 2009 Master Plan with 3D animations, motion tracking, and augmented reality, showcasing future campus developments.
Baltimore Art+Justice
The IRC helped develop the Baltimore Art + Justice Project, an online platform connecting artists, organizations, and collaborators for social justice.
Big Public Objects
The IRC’s “Big Public Objects” project explored how public monuments influence community development and attitudes, informed by Cindy Kelly’s book.
Brightwater Plaza
Jann Rosen-Queralt’s art master plan for the Brightwater Treatment System used sculptural elements to represent water flow and treatment processes.
Cranes in Motion
Cathy Cook’s “Cranes in Motion” project combines documentary footage and animation to explore crane migration, behavior, and ecology.
Dome Explorer
The IRC developed an iPad app for NAS’s Great Hall, offering an interactive, educational experience of its painted mural.
Hoarder Crab Digital Puppet
Professor Searls and animator Tomlinson collaborated with the IRC to create a digital puppet app for live performance and animation, meant for telling environmental stories.
NASA Earth Science Animation
From 2008-2014, the IRC partnered with NASA/Goddard to create Earth Science animations, involving UMBC students and recent graduates.
NASA/Goddard Visualizations
From 2006-2014, the IRC partnered with NASA/Goddard to create high-definition visualizations for satellite missions exploring Earth and the solar system.
NASA Multimedia and Visualization
Between 2007-2014, the IRC collaborated with NASA/Goddard, producing earth science animations, visualizations, and multimedia content for satellite missions.
Parisiennes: Women and the City in French Cinema
Dr. Nicoleta Bazgan’s 2012 IRC project created a digital atlas mapping women’s journeys in French cinema, focusing on Paris.
Playing Pericles: Shakespeare for Social Change
Playing Pericles combined live action, animation, and real-time chroma-keying to create an immersive, collaborative theater experience with unique visuals.
See Intuit: Intuitive Insight in Your Mind and Brain
See Intuit explored innovation by using fMRI and EEG data to illustrate how intuition helps the brain solve problems beyond linear reasoning.
Shabamanetica
Zoetropes for the 21st Century, Eric Dyer’s interactive artwork, combines spinning sculptures with strobe lighting to animate images, blending cultures and technologies.
Solar Dynamic Observatory Interactive
The IRC partnered with NASA/Goddard to create a 3D interactive model of the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) satellite, engaging three former UMBC students.
Symphony Interactive
Symphony Interactive (SI) transforms live symphony experiences by delivering real-time insights and multimedia through an engaging iPad app.
The Art of Transformation
Art of Transformation empowers communities to reshape Baltimore’s narrative through collaborative storytelling, digital mapping, and interactive community-driven art.
UMBC 2018 Facilities Master Plan
The IRC created real-time 3D visualizations for UMBC’s 2018 Facilities Master Plan, enhancing campus planning with virtual reality.
USDemocrazy
Discover how political cartoonist Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher used humor and art to ignite teen political engagement through USDemocrazy.
Video Wall Test Demonstration for BWI
In 2016, the IRC collaborated withthe Maryland Aviation Administration and Baltimore Washington Airport to create a video showcasing local arts.
Virtual Tour: Cone Sisters’ Apartments
Step inside the legendary collector’s apartment when it was filled with works by Henri Matisse, and explore a stunning 3D virtual tour capturing the space before the collection became the foundation for the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Visualizing Early Washington, D.C.
Discover how the IRC brought 1814 Capitol Hill to life—merging history, art, and technology for a groundbreaking virtual reconstruction.
Water Falls: a Science on a Sphere Film
Experience Water Falls: a stunning hand-painted animated film projected on a sphere, revealing the beauty and science of global rainfall.
Zoetrope Tunnel (Implant)
Step into Zoetrope Tunnel: a rotating, walk-through sculpture where hand-held strobes reveal living animations, an unforgettable fusion of art and motion.
2000-2009
America Beyond Capitalism
UMBC’s Imaging Research Center and their partners created e-posters to raise public awareness about wealth, income, taxes, and economic inequality.
Augmented Reality: UMBC Master Plan
Student interns mastered motion tracking and 3D modeling to create detailed, real-time augmented reality visualizations of UMBC’s future campus life.
Cop Baby
Aaron Oldenburg fully developed Cop Baby, a unique 3D game for the Fieldtrip Project, highlighting hidden skills in many professions.
Digital Puppet of President Bush The Digital Dubya
Aaron Oldenburg developed the 3D game Cop Baby for the Fieldtrip Project, exploring hidden personal skills in professions.
Digital Puppets: Jennifer and Jewel
Jennifer and Jewel are 3D animated digital puppets promoting technology to girls, created for UMBC’s CWIT Computer Mania Day event.
Édouard Vuillard’s Public Garden
UMBC’s IRC recreated Vuillard’s 1894 Paris salon digitally, showing nine panels in a detailed, photo-realistic animation for a PBS documentary.
Euphoria
Euphoria is a film using visual metaphors and neuroscience to help teenagers understand happiness and address substance abuse more effectively.
Landscapes of Liberty
Landscapes of Liberty” is a 3D animated program that explains Maryland’s towns, showing their history, buildings, and government power clearly.
Life Cycles of Hurricanes
UMBC developed an interactive multimedia visualization depicting hurricane life cycles, enhancing web-based learning and student engagement in earth science studies.
Noetic: A Prototype Xbox Game
Noetic is a prototype Xbox game valuing players’ cognitive strengths using mini-games, based on multiple intelligences, for team play.
The Field Trip Project
Teen filmmakers create short videos exploring education challenges, encouraging open peer dialogue to improve student engagement and overall school experiences.
The Speak Health Project
SpeakHealth connects art, science, and medicine to inspire public conversations and reshape how culture deeply views health and healthcare systems.
The London Town Tavern
A 3D digital reconstruction of Rumney-West Tavern brings a forgotten colonial gathering place to life through historical research and design.
Learn more
The UMBC Commons Logo
Students animated the Commons logo, producing engaging visuals that energized the space and reflected the creative spirit of UMBC’s campus.
UMBC Campus Interactive Visualization
The 3D model of UMBC lets people take easy virtual tours, freely explore the campus, and navigate in real time.
UMBC 40th Anniversary
Hand-drawn animations and vibrant digital fireworks celebrated UMBC’s 40th anniversary, showcasing campus growth, creativity, and strong community spirit through art.
Wearable Computing
Explore how researchers blend empathy, aesthetics, and innovation, crafting devices that respond to emotion, improve infant care, and reimagine technology.
W-47
Step into a powerful virtual reconstruction of Wendover Field, bringing lost WWII history alive and reflecting on its lasting impact.
1990-1999
American Sign Language Project
Sarah Geitz’s project used VRML and motion capture to create 3D avatars teaching American Sign Language for computer terminology.
Baltimore Ravens: 3D Mascots
UMBC students created dynamic 3D animated Baltimore Raven mascots, bringing team spirit to life on stadium SMARTVISION video screens.
KinderCat
KinderCat, a vibrant 3D animated hero, inspires kids to embrace creativity, kindness, and fun on the Emmy-winning children’s TV show.
On The Day You Were Born
A radiant sunrise brings life’s beauty to children through animation, music, and story in a beloved, award-winning symphony video experience.
Sun Dagger Interactive
Explore a 3D interactive Sun Dagger site at Chaco Canyon, experiencing ancient solar calendars through light, shadow, and rich history.
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Discover Chaco Canyon’s ancient astronomy through vivid computer animation, revealing the Pueblo people’s celestial knowledge and deep cultural mysteries today.
Unbuilt Hurva
Explore Louis Kahn’s unbuilt Hurva Synagogue in a virtual tour featuring cutting-edge animation, stunning light effects, and immersive digital storytelling.
Wide Body Jets
IRC created a detailed 3D model showing Wide Body Jets’ new plane design, passenger space, engineering features, and boarding flow.