The People of the VME Lab
Alan Liu, Ph.D.- Director, VME LabDr. Liu is the Director of the Virtual Medical Environments Laboratory at the National Capital Area Medical Simulation Center (SimCen). He is involved in defining the SimCen's strategic research goals, and directing the development of the SimCen's computer-based medical training systems. Dr. Liu is the principal developer of the center's pericardiocentesis and diagnostic peritoneal lavage simulators. They are the world's first computer-based trainers for these procedures. These simulators were used in the nation's first Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course conducted without animals or cadavers. Dr. Liu is also the principal architect for the center's cricothyroidotomy simulator. Dr. Liu has conducted numerous tutorials and workshops on medical simulation, including tutorials and workshops at MICCAI 2003, HICSS 2003, IEEE CBMS 2006, and MMVR 2002-2007. He was an invited speaker at the 2002 United States Medicine Institute for Health Studies forum on Computers, Robots, and Cyberspace in Washington D.C. Dr. Liu's current research focus includes the development of the SimCen's WAVE, a 1000 sq. ft. total immersion virtual environment for mass casualty training, with applications in military medical readiness, and homeland defense. |
Eric Acosta, Ph.D.- Computer Research ScientistDr. Eric Acosta is a Computer Research Scientist at the VME Lab. He is the lead researcher and developer of several Virtual Reality-based surgical simulators that include haptic, visual, and audio feedback. His research focus has been on the development of the intracranial hematoma, cricothyroidotomy, and pulmonary artery catheterization simulators. Dr. Acosta is also one of primary architects and the developer of a pipelined virtual environment architecture for multi-core CPU systems. The architecture serves as a unified platform for developing the Sim Center’s next generation simulators. Dr. Acosta received his PhD in 2006 from Texas Tech University, with his dissertation topic focused on establishing a software development platform for stable haptic Virtual Reality applications. |
Jamie Cope, MSI- Computer Research EngineerMr. Cope is a Computer Research Scientist at the VME Lab. He is involved in the research, development, and maintenance of the WAVE (Wide Area Virtual Environment) system. This includes all aspects of the system - audio, video, networking, workflow integration, and more. Mr. Cope received his BSE in Computer Science and Engineering and MSI in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Michigan. |
Valerie Henry, MFA- Medical 3D Illustrator / AnimatorValerie Henry is the 3D artist for the VME Lab. She is responsible for modeling, animating, texturing, lighting and rendering of the 3D scenes. Ms. Henry is also responsible for editing and compiling the audio elements. She earned her bachelors degree in biology from California State University, Chico. From there she continued on to earn her masters degree of fine arts in the field of medical illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate NY. Having always been equally interested in science and art, it is a natural fit that she be applying her artistic skills to the field of medical simulation. |