weCAMP Final Report

The JISC funding for the weCAMP project has now formally ended, but the weCAMP project will live on through an additional Benefits Realisation project. The uCampus platform will also remain openly available on the web for the foreseeable future.

To read the final report for the project click here: weCAMP Final Report

External Evaluation Meeting 13.01.2010

James Pinder and Diane Hart, the project external evaluators, led a team workshop to discuss the progress of the project, the results of which will feed into the summative evaluation.

The team covered a lot of ground that involved reflecting on the initial project aims and objectives and contrasting them with what had been acheived so far in the project. Married to this was further discussion about an external dissemination strategy for the project.

The external evaluation report is aimed to be complete by the end of February.

Project Board Meeting 14.01.2010

The weCAMP project kicked-off the New Year with a Project Board meeting. The aim of this meeting was to receive project steering input from the board to make effective use of the final three months of the project.

As a summary of buildings in uCampus we have now modelled over 300, 48 Grid Blocks (48+ Hectares), 38 Groups of Non-uni Buildings, 69 University Buildings, 90 Uni-Building Floors and 13 Spatial Taxonomical Models. We are aiming for 75 university buildings for the end of the project.

Darren presented the uCampus 1.0 release candidate platform - the final release of the platform for the weCAMP project. The principal development from 0.51 is the ability to visualise the spatial uses of rooms within a range of university buildings. Each room has a specific colour tag which can be turned on or off. Colour coded room uses can be viewed across any number of buildings simultaneously.

The meeting discussion focused on dissemination planning and developing new avenues for project development within The University of Sheffield and other institutions after the JISC project funding is concluded.

I-borrow Assembly in Canterbury

Three members of the team attended the I-borrow Assembly on 11th December and enjoyed a fascinating day beign shown round Augustine House and learning more about the process and results of the I-borrow project.

Part of the day involved discussing future collaborations and possible BR proposals along with the SMART project team at New Bucks University. It was great to meet face to face. We hope to further develop collaborations in the New Year.

Many thanks to everyone in the I-borrow team for organising and hosting the day.

The Augustine House Experiment

The weCamp team has successfully bid for and been granted JISC funding for a benefits realisation project to develop a 3D visualisation with the I-Borrow team from Canterbury Christ Church University. The project aims to represent the data collected from mobile laptop usage within Augustine House - a new learning centre at CCCU. Partners from Bucks New University will also be involved as part of the project evaluation.

Modelling the Students' Union Redevelopment

We have been working with Students' Union staff since early October 2009 to create 3D models of the Union building's redevelopment. I see this is a great opportunity to engage uCampus with a real user group and test out the methodologies and technologies we have developed so far.

All is going really well. We have now completed what is called Union MODEL 1 project which intends to visualise the entire Union building under construction. MODEL 1 is built in six levels, and each level contains at least three layers: Floor, Spatial Taxonomy, and Signage. MODEL 1 is our first case study into the use of Image Texture of X3D in producing the Signage layers to show the Union's outlets in a more recognisable manner.

The test video clip below is generated to show a navigational route starting from the new East Entrance on Level 2 to the Source area on Level 3. The idea is that multiple such routes will be generated on the basis of Union MODEL 1 and make them readily accessible from the Students' Union Website.

A WMV clip of tour around the Union of Students

During the visit to the Union's Marketing and Communications Team, we were asked if a video clip could be porduced to show a navigation sequence inside the Union buildling. Back in my room, to build an example, I used a desktop video capture package call CaptureWizPro (free trial version) to generate a WMV clip while navigating around the Union building on uCampus.

The clip shows how Leo and I reached the meeting room from the Union's main entrance. X3D player such as Octaga Player Pro has a built-in vedio capturing facility which may speed up the production of navigational clips.

Meeting with the Students Union representatives

We have just met with representatives from the University of Sheffield Students Union to discuss collaborating on developing our visualisation of the Students Union building to aid students and staff with the development of the new union building. We discussed a number of exciting ways that we could explore benefits offered by uCampus.

Lisa Scanlon and her marketing and communications team talked about the need to create flexible space for students to utilise in the union building; for collaborative working, society meetings, and a whole range of learning situations. We understand that whilst this space has been outlined the need to carefully consider the range of facilities, functions, thresholds and boundaries that can be provided and the necessity for students to be engaged in this design and planning process is crucial and yet to be determined. We feel that this would be a good opportunity to work together, using uCampus as a tool to help this process.

In the short-term, developing a 3-D model of the existing union building to show how it can be accessed during the construction and regeneration of the union building. This may include highlighting temporary entrance routes etc.

In the medium-term, developing fly-throughs or virtual tours of the new building to help introduce it to staff and students. In addition providing a model that students can explore at their leisure, before they have even been to Sheffield, to explore the myriad of opportunities that the union offers. This could be as much about learning opportunities as access to bars and shops. The impact that this could have on aiding student induction could be very powerful.

We have concluded that Lisa and her team will develop a wish-list of what they would like to explore and we will then provide information on how this can be achieved in order to move forward so that they outputs are in-step with the imminent building work.

17.09.09 Project Team Meeting

Notes from today's project team meeting...

Puja has been working on the terrain modelling and all the proposed squares are now being finalised and put into place. This is expected to be completed in the next couple of weeks. Panagiotis has been developing the specification for modelling the blocks that will represent the individual spaces within the university buildings. The team will be working with Masters Students to develop this representation of space over the next few months. The launch of uCampus 0.5 has been a landmark for the team and Darren has been at work debugging the new platform, improving performance and usability. Howard has been working on the evaluation reports from practicing architects and students that have been trailing the platform.

The next step in the project is to plan the major development packages up to the New Year. This will involve the last major innovations in the platform and significantly raise the level of useful application that is available. This process involves expanding the taxonomy of spaces and then being able to filter searches and visualisation of different aspects of the building models, from types of spaces through to structural elements of the building.

uCampus version 0.5 is released

We have now released version 0.5 of uCampus. This is a major update for the platform which now supports the visualisation of the taxonomy of spaces. This has been an important requirement in the project plan from the outset and so it is wonderful to finally see it realised after so much developmental effort. We hope that this feature will prove to be of significant practical value to our exising user base.

From a development perspective, support for this feature required careful consideration during the analysis and design phases. As is typical of web-applications, integration required work both on the client side and server sides. For the client this meant designing and implementing a simple and consistent user interface component to fit into our client application in a seamless manner without over complicating or cluttering the existing interface. During development, care was taken to ensure that this component integrated well with the platform as a whole and there were no hidden side effects or regression artefacts caused by its addition. Our client is based upon a document-view architecture where there can be multiple views of the same data which all have to be synchronized so that they function in unison.

More development was required to support the taxonomy of spaces on the server side. Our entire platform has been developed under Java, with Enterprise Java being deployed on the server. We approach our web-development following the standard three-tier design pattern for web-applications with presentation, service and data tiers. Consequently, every new feature that we introduce necessitates additions and amendments to each of these tiers. The carefully considered choice of Java at the beginning of the project anticipated this and has allowed us to streamline the development process which does help to simplify the process somewhat. We can benefit from code and object reuse between tiers without the complication of having to concern ourselves with interoperability issues that may have arisen otherwise.

Supporting the new taxonomy meant additions to our xml schema and these also had to be supported in the respective components of the data tier. This required some modification and extension to our existing SAX and DOM parser engines and extension to the objects that they instanced. Once this had been achieved amendments to the service tier could be applied. To service the taxonomy models required upgrading the existing model server. This module manages and controls the serialisation of our models to the client. Care had to be taken to ensure any changes that were made in this area of the code didn't break our existing functionality and some regression testing was undertaken to ensure that this was indeed the case. This was slightly complicated by our server already being live with existing users. Mid-way through the process we also migrated our platform to a new server which meant rotating the server IPs in the client to check it still worked. Finally, support was added in the presentation tier for the client interface and testing of models could proceed.

We now have an important part of the project complete which we hope will open up new development paths for us in the future. We are now able to consider further extensions of our model server module to include a planned X3D manipulation engine which will allow us to perform boolean operations upon our existing model database. This will allow us to enhance the resolution and provide greater control of the models requested by our users. Having provided a sound basis for future expansion, we are looking forward to the next phase of the project.

External Contributors and X3D Specification

The introduction of external contributors seems to have been a success so far. We recently comissioned six more buildings to students, including the prominent Geography and Planning building. There are now 7 external contributors who have been involved in uCampus, and at least two more have shown interest in collaborating with us in the future.

The contributors have to follow a (rather extensive) specification to produce the models. This aims to guide them step-by-step through the modelling process, starting with Autodesk AutoCAD files and ending with the X3D ones, with Autodesk 3ds Max and VRML being the intermediate formats. The specification has a number of details of a technical nature that are irrelevant to this post, but emphasis is placed on the homogeny of the models, and their proper formatting so they will be as efficient as possible.

There are considerable advantages in using external contributors -the volume of the building on the platform being the most prominent. By creating a detailed spec, we can take advantage of various people's different modelling skills, creating models that can be plugged in directly on the platform, and controlled by the system. The fact that most of the contributors are students means that they can be employed at the University payment rates, theoretically achieving some economy over market prices. However, this did not apply in the first few models (and especially in the case of the Arts Tower), so a new "bidding system" was launched from this month, allowing contributors to bid for each comission, and it being allocated to the lowest bidder.

Obviously there have been some difficulties as well, as it is to be expected when so many new people join a project. The most important one seems to be the difficulty of some contributors to conform to the requirements of the platform. This is more pronounced in the case of people with extensive modelling experience who tend to follow a particular work pattern they are familiar with. We are dealing with this by stressing the importance of the specification and explaining the differences of this project with a generic modelling job in commerical architecture. Practically all contributors faced difficulties with the X3D format, which was to be expected somewhat as it has more in common with computer graphics than CAD systems -overall it is a similar situation with what we faced with the students during the Interactive Urban Visualisation module. Drawing from our experience with the students, we gave to contributors short tutorials in X3D and, as expected, the results were significantly improved.

There remains an issue with people unfamiliar with AutoCAD who build everything in Max using meshes. Although the X3D can be fine-tuned to conform to the platform standards, we still have to deal with extremely big file sizes (typically 6-10 times as much) with the respective cost in the running of the platform -though the differences are not so pronounced in a single building, as uCampus expands in scope it can lead to serious performance issues. This is not easily addressed, as Max modellers would understandably find it tedious to learn AutoCAD, especially for a small comission. Final decisions have not been made yet -the two options seem to be either better screening of the contributors or just accepting lower standards and the respective performance costs.

Overall though, the introduction of external contributors has been a very useful step, more importantly so because it proves the potential of uCampus to extend to many directions and include more people with a very small amount of preparation. The next big step is the introduction of a specification for the taxonomical models. This should allow the project team to open the taxonomical modelling process to external contributors as well. Given the experience so far, this should be very exciting!

Following the Steps of the Arts Tower ...

Jessop Building - School of Music

The Octagon Centre

White Rose CELTE

University House and Union of Students

We now have four University biuldings added to uCampus: White Rose CELTE (by Preeti Preeti, 2 Floors), University House and Union of Students (by Binh Nguyen, 6 Floors), Jessop Building (by Anish Sharma, 3 Floors), and the Octagon Centre (by Anish Sharma, 4 Floors). This new collection of models further demonstrates that students' participation in the 3D modelling of the campus buildings is going well.

Click the images above to get a larger view.

uCampus is Now World Wide

Following a successful security audit carried out by the CiCS team at the University of Sheffield, the uCampus Platform (Release 0.45) has been made accessible to the World Wide Web since 4:00pm 30 July 2009.

With this world-wide accessbility in place, the weCAMP project team are now able to undertake the next stage of user engagement and evaluation activities. We have several external user groups in mind including the professional architectural practices employed by the University of Sheffield to design and deliver new builds and refurbishments, the Sheffield City Council, potential collaborators on JISC Benefits Realisation projects, researchers/educators abroad who have shown interests in uCampus.

I have written a web page regarding how to Download, Install and Launch uCampus. There is aslo a uCampus User Guide available that gives an overview of how uCampus may be used. I hope to start receiving questions, comments and suggestions on the uCampus Platform and the weCAMP project in the days months to come.

uCampus Release 0.45

uCampus verson 0.45 was released on Friday 24 July 2009. There are several new developments in this intermediary release (the next release is scheduled as Release 0.5):

(1) uCampus is now running on a new Virtual Server provisioned by CiCS - the UCAMPUS_SHEF server is shut down to save electricity and awaits relocation to a more suitable server room;

(2) A new batch of 13 grid sqaures are being deployed;

(3) The first version of uCampus User Guide is now made available under Help together with a link to the weCAMP Blog Site; and

(4) A new command Select All is added to allow users to retrieve all uCampus X3D models in one click, which could potentially make us lazy.

The Arts Tower is deployed on uCampus

The entire Arts Tower has been modelled and deployed onto uCampus today. It contains a total of 23 interior floor models each of which can be selected and displayed individually.

This marks an important project development as the Arts Tower was modelled by a post graduate student at the School of Architecture, Binh Nguyen.

The result demonstrates that the modelling methodology and the data standards as established and specified by Panagiotis Patlakas are working well. This initial test bed case essentially opens the door for other 3D modellers to participate in the continuous expansion of the uCampus X3D model bank. Any student at the University with 3D digital architectural modelling skills can produce X3D models conforming to the uCampus modelling specification.

There are another three PG students currently undertaking 3D modelling of St George Church, Jessop Victoria Wing, and the Bioincubator. We are eagerly waiting for the further results to confirm the methodology and specification.

uCAMPUS Launched across the UoS

uCAMPUS has now been added to the the software available on all computer desktops that are managed by the computer services department at the Unviersity of Sheffield. This is a big step towards insitutional innovation and change for the weCAMP research project. Staff and students can now access the uCAMPUS 0.04a and upload designs if they wish. We are now working towards putting the platform outside the firewall so that it can be utilised by external consultants and accessible to JISC partners.

Online JISC Programme Conference

Last week we took part in the online conference [using eluminate] with the other JISC research projects. Despite some technical issues, the day was a success in providing feedback about how our assembly with the I-borrow team from Canterbury went. In addition, we managed to communicate with the Erewhon team about linking up later on in the summer to discuss future collaborations. Applying for further benefits realisation funding to develop new project directions was also discussed, enabling us to work towards applications.

EDULEARN 09 Conference Paper

EDULEARN09 the International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies will be held in Barcelona (Spain), on the 6th, 7th and 8th of July, 2009.The main objective of the conference is to promote and disseminate the experiences in New Technologies in Education and E-learning in all educational fields and disciplines.EDULEARN09 will be a unique International Forum for those who wish to present their projects and discuss the innovations and the latest innovations and results in the field of New Technologies in Education, E-learning and methodologies applied to Education and Research. This conference will be held at international level, counting with the participation of attendants from all parts and continents of the world.
The JISC team decided to attend this conference as it is a brilliant opportunity to put uCampus on a global platform. The abstract, written by Dr. Peng was submitted to the EDULEARN committee in April 2009 and soon after we received acceptance and were invited to write a paper in May 9 and attend the conference in July. After initial discussions the team decided to call the paper “VISUALISING FUTURE LEARNING SPACES IN CONTEXT: THE SHEFFIELD EXPERIMENT”.
The paper describes the design and development of uCampus platform, data and client. But mainly it focuses on the experiment carried out with students in the University of Sheffield taking the Interactive Urban Visualisation Modelling module (henceforth IUVM), which is required for the school’s Masters in Sustainable Architectural Studies, and can be taken as an elective for the MSc in Sustainable Architecture and Computer Aided Environmental Design, and the MAs in Urban and Architectural Design. IUVM is a combination between a typical architectural design studio and an advanced CAD module. Students were expected to submit design proposals based on a given brief while making maximum use of the uCampus platform in order to analyse and understand the current situation, derive the relevant data that will aid them in the design process, share ideas and exchange opinions with fellow students, and present the product of their work to the studio reviewers. Enrolled in the IUVM module were 22 students from various countries, whose educational background is typically architecture but also encompasses other disciplines associated with the built environment such as engineering, town planning, etc.
The paper goes on to describe the different file formats the students were asked to work with and also outlines their experiences, and results. Although we have briefly mentioned in the conclusion the various other applications of uCampus and its user groups and future potential, it was not possible to include these in detail within the scope of this paper because of time restrictions and word limits. However, the team plans to outline these in detail at the conference during the presentation of the paper and hope to generate interest among a wider audience. It has been decided that Panagiotis Patlakas and myself will be representing the team in at the conference to present the paper in July 09.
This is the team’s first paper and we are all very excited to find out what opportunities it brings for uCampus .

uCampus Release 0.04a

We have now released version 0.04a of uCampus. There are a number of new features in this increment so it is quite a significant update for the platform. Our enhanced interactive map is now a central feature of the user interface and provides a visual means of object selection to complement our existing interface. We have also georeferenced our map and this has enabled us to interface to Google Street View so that users can effortlessly find campus locations from directly within our application.

In general, the application is becoming more and more feature rich over time and this is reflected in the tool button additions to the user interface. Behind the scenes, we have implemented the second generation of our XML schema which will open the way for some more advanced features that we are planning in the next interation.

In addition, uCampus 0.04a is now a tenth of the download size than the previous version. This means that we can now employ Java Web Start technology as a means of client deployment. We hope that this will greatly simplify the distribution process for our users and ensure that they are always using the latest version of our software.

External Project Evaluation Development

Last week the weCAMP project team attended a project evaluation workshop organised by Diane Hart & James Pinder [the projects external evaluators]. The session was a good opportunity to discuss the development of the project and check that the project was meeting the objectives agreed at the outset. The group discussed a draft logic plan, formative and Summative evaluation techniques and how these elements would be integrated in the the project evaluation report. It was a good opportunity for the project team to reflect on the work so far and ensure that milestones and targets were correctly identified for the remainder of the project.