Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Exploring Fluid Dynamics in Virtual Reality

Monday, December 4, 2017, By Matt Wheeler
Share
College of Engineering and Computer SciencefacultyResearch and CreativeSTEMStudents

Virtual reality has grown beyond the gaming world and is increasingly being used for a variety of applications—including education. Researchers in Assistant Professor Melissa Green’s Flow Visualization Lab in the College of Engineering and Computer Science are developing a way to apply it to their work.

flow fields

Anything that moves through water or air leaves behind an invisible wake of swirls and waves. Flow visualization makes these “flow field” patterns visible to allow researchers to study them.

This can be done physically using dyes or smoke, and it can be done with computer software.

Green uses experimental flow field models to better understand how to optimize propulsion of nautical vehicles and looks to how fish swim for inspiration. Traditionally, 3D flow fields are visualized on a 2D screen. This restricts the movement and rotation of the 3D flow field models. By viewing the same models in a 3D virtual space, things like depth and size distortion are alleviated and researchers can interact with the visualized data more naturally.

“When a flow field is on a screen, the interaction can be limiting. When you plot it in virtual reality, then you can just walk inside it and look around,” says Green.

The VR interface also allows the user to toggle among time, orientation and position with ease. Using handheld controllers, they can enlarge or reduce the size of a flow field, control the orientation of the model and toggle through different parameters.

The project, funded by a grant from the Syracuse Center of Excellence, began in the spring of 2016 after Green’s partner Ben Adamson, a senior interactive designer in SU’s Online Platforms team, suggested she find a way to use VR to visualize her group’s research data in 3D space. She looked to Assistant Professors Amber Bartosh and Bess Krietemeyer of the School of Architecture and Interactive Visualization and Design Lab  for their guidance. Bartosh and Krietemeyer employ VR in designing energy data visualizations for architectural design.

Aerospace engineering alum Ranbir Dhillon ’17 laid the groundwork for the work being done today by Green and Noah Pietraszewski ’18. The team uses Matlab to export structural models of their data to build flow fields in Unity VR. The process is the same as designing video games levels in the software.

While still in the early stages, the application of virtual reality in flow visualization shows real promise for fluid dynamics research and teaching. In addition to augmenting her research, Green has plans to eventually use their work as a teaching tool.

“Once we’ve figured out the best method to do this, then we’ll be able to produce VR learning modules. We could ask questions about the relationship between pressure and force, for example, and then let students explore it in VR,” she explains. “It’s a fascinating new way to immerse ourselves in the data and explore the physics of fluid flows.”

  • Author

Matt Wheeler

  • Recent
  • Syracuse Views Summer 2025
    Monday, June 23, 2025, By News Staff
  • Tiffany Xu Named Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025-26
    Friday, June 20, 2025, By Julie Sharkey
  • Registration Open for Esports Campus Takeover Hosted by University and Gen.G
    Thursday, June 19, 2025, By Matt Michael
  • 2 Whitman Students Earn Prestigious AWESOME Scholarship
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By News Staff
  • WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By News Staff

More In STEM

WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony

This spring, Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) held its annual Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Award Ceremony. WiSE was honored to host distinguished guest speaker Joan-Emma Shea, who presented “Self-Assembly of the Tau Protein: Computational Insights Into Neurodegeneration.” Shea…

Endowed Professorship Recognizes Impact of a Professor, Mentor and Advisor

Bao-Ding “Bob” Cheng’s journey to Syracuse University in pursuit of graduate education in the 1960s was long and arduous. He didn’t have the means for air travel, so he voyaged more than 5,000 nautical miles by boat from his home…

Forecasting the Future With Fossils

One of the most critical issues facing the scientific world, no less the future of humanity, is climate change. Unlocking information to help understand and mitigate the impact of a warming planet is a complex puzzle that requires interdisciplinary input…

ECS Professor Pankaj K. Jha Receives NSF Grant to Develop Quantum Technology

Detecting single photons—the smallest unit of light—is crucial for advanced quantum technologies such as optical quantum computing, communication and ultra-sensitive imaging. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are the most efficient means of detecting single photons and these detectors can count…

Rock Record Illuminates Oxygen History

Several key moments in Earth’s history help us humans answer the question, “How did we get here?” These moments also shed light on the question, “Where are we going?,” offering scientists deeper insight into how organisms adapt to physical and…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.