for the mind - AUC

Omnium’s Rick Bennet
Omnium
revisits online
learning
By David Braue
University of New South Wales (UNSW)
lecturers are warming to a major
revamp of Omnium, an online learning
and collaboration environment that’s
been built from the ground up to
facilitate graphical communication
between designers around the world.
Launched in October, Omnium 3.0 builds on three years of work by
Rick Bennett, a lecturer in design at the School of Design Studies, within
UNSW’s College of Fine Arts. Bennett founded Omnium Projects in
1999 in an attempt to address perceived shortcomings in previous
‘virtual design studios’ – online services that join participants via the
Internet.
In its first incarnation, Bennett used the Omnium engine to run a tenweek
project called Omnium [vds] ‘99, which linked 50 design students
from 12 countries across five continents. Using feedback and
observations made during that project, Bennett expanded Omnium into
v2.0, which he acknowledges was “a wonderful plan in theory but in
practice it failed for a number of reasons – the most important of which
is that I failed to remember to keep the technology simple and
transparent, so that design activity can be seen clearly.”
With Omnium 3.0, Bennett has been joined by designer/producer
Ouita Broadfoot and programmer/Webmaster Thom McIntyre to
upgrade the system, which has been written for cross-platform delivery
using Macs and run off of Mac servers, and has received strong support
from Apple Computer Australia.
The system’s pilot test linked participants in Australia, China,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Canada,
Germany and South Africa, all of whom used the system to attend an
online course called Graphics and Contemporary Society, written by
UNSW design academic Leong K. Chan.
The four-week project, in which participants worked with teams of four
or five to collaboratively develop work that’s available online, concluded
on October 25. Bennett notes that the system’s latest incarnation has
begun to attract interest from other UNSW academics through the
support of EDTeC, a UNSW centre focused on helping staff make the
most of online delivery.
With their guidance, Bennett says Omnium 3.0 has progressed to the
point where it’s a viable alternative to the US-designed WebCT software
that’s become the de facto online learning standard for Australian
universities. The system is available for lease to other interested
universities around the world.
Throughout Omnium’s development, Bennett has had to balance the
capabilities of technology with the features that allow individual
personalities to shine through. “Omnium is specifically designed for
visual based interaction and places students in working groups to
encourage collaboration,” he says. “Yet no matter how beautiful the
graphics or how easy the interface is to use, the personalities of teachers
and students in online learning are always going to be the telling factor.”
For more information, visit www.omnium.unsw.edu.au or contact
omnium@unsw.edu.au.
Catching some
rays at UTS
It’s always rewarding to see your students rise to the pinnacle of
their chosen careers, but the past year has been even more
personally satisfying for University of Technology, Sydney
computer graphics lecturer Dr Kevin Suffern.
Suffern, who has taught computer graphics at UTS for 20
years, has spent the past decade mastering the complex process
of ray tracing – modelling the flow of light onto, through,
reflecting from and running around simulated three-dimensional
objects. With a background and PhD in applied mathematics,
he has written and refined his own ray tracing software over the
years, and takes the novel approach of having his students write
their own ray tracers during their courses.
Recognition of his skill came recently for the second time in
his career, when his ‘Lighthouse’ received the CompuGraph
2002 Bronze award for computer art at an awards ceremony
in Singapore. Another work, ‘Creation’, was one of 40
shortlisted entries out of more than 200 contenders.
The last time Suffern received an award was for a piece he
entered into a 1994 exhibition at ANU’s Drill Hall Gallery,
where he took top prize. This year, he was also invited to
present his work at the 17,000 strong SIGGRAPH 2002
conference in Texas, USA.
All have taken with them the nuts-and-bolts approach that’s
kept Suffern’s work fresh and well recognised. “I’m not trained
as an artist, but have always been passionate about art – and,
in particular, ray tracing and art. There are very few courses
that teach ray tracing the way I teach it – getting students to
write their own ray tracers from scratch – but they get a proper
understanding of how the whole process works.”
The quality of Suffern’s ground-up approach to ray tracing
becomes clear when perusing a list of his previous students.
Notables include Andre Mazzone, whose work at George
Lucas-founded Industrial Light & Magic led to a role in
production of the recent movie Ice Age. Justen Marshall and
Naomi Hatchman received Oscars for their work on The Matrix
and are currently working on its upcoming sequel, while Suffern
alumnus Rangi Sutton worked on the BBC’s widely lauded
Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts.
Suffern’s current students are showing similar promise:
Information Technology student Steve Agland’s Bin Can Can
work was exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2002 alongside that of his
teacher, while peer Emily Boyd has received a number of
international awards for her software MatMice, which has
helped more than 170,000 children worldwide build their own
Web sites.
Left: Blue, a
recent artwork
Background:
Suffern’s awardwinning
Lighthouse
AUSTRALASIAN WHEELS FOR THE MIND 7