Press releases
Virtalis draws the crowds at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition
VIRTALIS supplied the VR system and know-how for its client, Daresbury Laboratory’s, exhibit at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Daresbury Laboratory, which forms part of the Science & Technology Facilities Council, acknowledges that it was the 3D Virtual Reality (VR) tour of their ALICE and EMMA accelerators that created the greatest buzz among the visitors.
The Director General of CERN, Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, commented: "One of the highest-impact activities was the 3D virtual reality tour of the ALICE and EMMA accelerators at Daresbury. This allowed visitors to walk through the entire machines whilst examining them in detail, and greatly aided their understanding of how these machines work. The comment “awesome” or “fabulous” was often heard from the queue of school children who waited for the experience, and many visitors were surprised to learn that these cutting-edge machines were being developed in the United Kingdom".
The detailed Virtalis VR models were created from Daresbury’s pre-existing CAD data. Andrew Connell, Virtalis Technical Director, explained: “We were pleased to support such a long standing client at such a prestigious event. Our technology brings a sense of scale to these magnificent accelerators. Not many people know that the UK is playing a leading role in particle accelerator development and that they could soon have a positive impact on all our lives.”
Daresbury’s key message on its stand “Accelerators Everywhere: from the Big Bang to Curing Cancer” was that particle accelerators have an exciting future application in the treatment of otherwise inoperable cancers.
Although the 2009 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition is now over - you can still enjoy the exhibition online at http://www.summerscience.org.uk/09. The 30 online exhibition stands cover incredibly diverse fields of study - from how fluorescent fish could provide better understanding of human diseases, to how new space missions could help to unlock the history of the universe. Following the success of their exhibit at the Royal Society, Virtalis and Daresbury expect to bring their technology to future exhibitions across the UK.
Link to story about attending the Exhibition: http://www.astec.ac.uk/rssse.html
