Hans-Peter Bischof is an expert in security in computing environments and visualization of scientific data.

He is an associate professor, the computer science graduate coordinator and the co-director of the Laboratory for Astrophysical Dynamics.

As the co-director of the Laboratory for Astrophysical Dynamics, he leads a project titled Spiegel, for visualizing n-dimensional data (a large data set of particles in 3-dimensional time). Spigel was developed in collaboration with Dr. David Merritt, Director of the Laboratory for Astrophysical Dynamics. The visualization system allows a user to explore the simulation by moving through time and space in a 3-Dimensional environment. Like Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk, one can travel through time and space and observe the dance of gravity when galaxies collide.

Spiegel has to be a very flexible system, because it is not possible to predict what kind of attributes should be visualized. As a side-effect of the unpredictability, Spiegel is also used to visualize the behavior of atoms in a protein under increasing temperature. Spiegel was developed as a team effort. More than 30 RIT Computer Science graduates and undergraduate students have been or are involved in the development of Spiegel. To find out more about Spiegel, visit: www.grapecluster.rit.edu.

A few interesting movies can be found at spiegel.cs.rit.edu/~hpb/Movies

Bischof has co-authored a book, Das Netzbetriebsystem Plan 9", Carl Hanser Verlag and a CD, Einblicke ins Internet. He is the recipient of RIT’s Norman Miller Award in 2002.

He received his Ph.D. in computer science from University of Osnabrueck, Germany in 1983 and an M.S. and B.S. in mathematics from University of Ulm in Germany in 1989 and 1986 respectively.

Steven Gold, professor of economics at RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business, is the former chair of Accounting and Finance, and past department chair of Management Information Systems, Accounting and Finance.

Gold is active in the development of economic simulations and business simulations for use in the classroom and in industry. He is the author of four computerized simulation games and has published more than 25 referred journal articles and proceedings in the field of simulation and gaming.

The first commercially available microeconomic simulation game in the nation, MICROSIM, designed for mainframe computers, was authored by Gold and published by MacMillan Publishing Company in 1984. Other simulation games include: Decide-POM: Decision Exercises in Computer Instructor Designed Environments in Production and Operations Management (McGraw-Hill); Astute Business Policy (SHR Associates), and Beat The Market: An Interactive Microeconomic Game (Gold Simulations, a company he founded; see www.goldsimulations.com).

Gold, a fellow and past-president of the National Association of Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, has presented his research studies at the International Simulation and Gaming Association in Weimar, Germany; Scheffield Polytechnic Institute in England; and in Prague, Czech Republic. He received his B.A. in economics and B.S. in industrial engineering at Rutgers University in New Brunswick; and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the State University of New York in Binghamton.

Michael Yacci is an expert in instructional technology and e-learning.

He is a professor of Information Sciences and Technology, associate dean for Academic Affairs in the Golisano College and director of the master’s of Human Computer Interaction program. Yacci holds a PhD in Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation from Syracuse University.

He is a co-author of Structural Knowledge: Techniques for Representing, Conveying, and Acquiring Structural Knowledge, a handbook for supporting the assessment and use of structural knowledge in learning and instructional settings.