July 13, 2007

Purdue students win trip to Google with virtual rendering of campus

The winners were announced Tuesday (July 10) on the computer search engine giant's Web site, and each of the top seven teams from the registered 364 entrants will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., on Aug. 6-9.

"We're all very excited," said Meiqi Ren, a virtual reality programmer in the office of Information Technology at Purdue's Envision Center and competition team leader. "We spent a lot of time and effort on this. To take on a project that requires so much detail and then receive recognition for a job well done is very rewarding. We can't wait to visit Google."

Purdue's team made computer models of 118 buildings based on the arrangement of the main campus map, Ren said. The group focused on the university's major academic and administrative buildings, as well as a couple of parks and major athletics facilities for the virtual campus, and it was a time-consuming process. The team began its project shortly after the competition was announced on Jan. 11 and completed it one hour before the 11:59 p.m. June 1 deadline after a challenging all-nighter.

"We set the project milestones, and all was going well," Ren said, "but a day before the deadline we had an unexpected situation arise which prevented several of the buildings from getting finished. Fortunately, some of the team members took on the extra work for one last push to get it done. It was difficult, but we finished them on time."

The project originated when Timothy J. Rogers, a second-year doctoral student in the College of Technology, saw the competition notice in a Google SketchUp newsletter. "I had been fascinated with the intuitive tools and low price (free) of Google SketchUp for some time." Rogers said of the software program that allows users to create 3-D graphics with relative ease. "When I saw the notice, I thought Purdue should compete since we have many talented 3-D artists on campus, particularly in the CGT department." 

Rogers took his idea to Gary Bertoline, who is an assistant dean for graduate studies in the College of Technology, director of the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization and professor of computer graphics technology. Bertoline liked the idea and assigned Ren to serve as team leader of the project.

Ren and Rogers then began recruiting team members. While they found no one with experience in SketchUp, they were able to match people who had knowledge of similar 3-D programs. In addition to creating campus buildings, Rogers' role was mainly to teach the basics and tips of the SketchUp program, and to direct the students to key online resources.

The purpose of the competition is to populate Google Earth with college campuses. Google Earth is another free software package associated with SketchUp that allows users to zoom in on the planet from above. Users can target specific zip codes and, in many cases, specific addresses. However, Google Earth provides satellite views that display only the tops of buildings. SketchUp goes a step further and constructs 3-D models over the satellite images that can be viewed from any angle.

Purdue's team members first set out to photograph buildings to get as much detail as possible, then they went to the computers. Their main goal was to model good quality buildings with low file-size constraints. The complexity of campus buildings, however, varied widely. Some buildings were much more difficult than others.

"For example, Purdue Memorial Union was a difficult building to replicate with tight constraints," Ren said. "The architecture is complex, and is has roughly 20 styles of windows and doors. We really wanted to capture the essence of the Memorial Union, since it is a very important building on campus. We spent a lot of time in order to replicate the details."

Photographs were often used to create quality textures, but graphics design software needed to be used to get rid of the trees and vehicles that blocked views of the buildings. However, many building textures had bricks, doors and windows that were created from scratch by the team members using graphics software.

Purdue's multi-disciplinary 3-D campus project was sponsored by the Envision Center and involved people from the Envision Center, the office of Information Technology at Purdue, the College of Technology, and a student from the College of Education. 

Rogers pointed out that the project can serve a purpose beyond the contest.

"Incoming students will now be able to explore and discover Purdue campus virtually before even setting foot in West Lafayette, he said. "Then, when they do show up, the easily accessible virtual campus can be useful in planning campus activities or trying to figure out the best routes to take between classes. Plus, the models and tools are free to use, so who knows what other uses and additions that clever Purdue students will come up with?"

Other teams that finished in the top seven included those from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Concordia University, Loyola Campus; Dartmouth College; Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne; the University of Minnesota; and Stanford University.

Other Purdue team members included Micah Bojrab, Joe Farris, Carson Del Greco, Eddie Leisio, Andres Maldonado, Kevin Polley and Ryan Wilsey.

Writer: Jim Bush (765) 494-2077, jsbush@purdue.edu

Sources: Meiqi Ren (765) 494-6967, mren@purdue.edu

Timothy Rogers (765) 496-7888, tjrogers@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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