“We do big math.”
— Prof. Margot Gerritsen, director of Stanford’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering
With a display field 10 feet tall and 24 feet wide, Stanford’s Hive (HANA Immersive Visualization Environment) combines 35 individually controllable screens into a 72-million-pixel collaborative visualization tool.
Student mathematicians, engineers, scientists and designers use the Hive’s multiple screens to see complex data in whole and in part. Investigating visual structures from vehicle diagrams to fractals, they draw deep insight and inspiration. They probe various aspects of data collection, simulation, modeling and visualization in unprecedented detail.
The facility opened in 2014 in Huang Engineering Center and is operated by Stanford’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), an entity that designs algorithms and furthers computational mathematics in collaboration with six of Stanford’s seven schools. The Hive is open to all Stanford students, faculty and staff.
Recent Hive demonstrations have included Stanford research on driverless cars; on a visual language for solving creative problems called Interactions Dynamics Notation; and on work by Stanford’s Peace Innovation Lab in using game design to promote empathy.
Learn more about the Hive in this video.