Creators of Virtual Heart Shine in Multimedia World

A favorite at both Odyssey '97 and '98, the School of Veterinary Medicine's Computer Assisted Learning Facility (CALF) creates innovative award-winning multimedia educational materials for veterinary students. Visitors to Odyssey '98 had the opportunity to view The Virtual Heart -- a three-dimensional rendering of a canine heart-and The Virtual Lung, created by placing a video camera into the lung of a horse. The Virtual Lung, termed "expanded virtual reality" software, features even more close-up photography than The Virtual Heart, and enables the user to view, in three dimensions, the lung breathing.

Art, Science, and Good Marketing Skills
As for the brains behind these projects, the CALF team is made up of staff members Dave Magliano, Rick Hayes, Don Preisler, and Janine Kasper. Although all four are experienced multimedia programmers, each has his or her area of expertise: Hayes is a graphic designer, Preisler is a photographer, and Kasper is a doctor of veterinary medicine. "I'm the designated computer geek," says Magliano.

Most visible are Magliano and Hayes, who not only staffed the CALF booths at Odyssey, but also have made appearances and presentations at various conferences. In fact, the CALF serves as a type of marketing division for the School of Veterinary Medicine, both by having a presence at conferences, and by producing promotional posters and displays for the school, such as those on view at the Sacramento airport. Multimedia programs produced by the CALF are perhaps some of its best marketing yet -- twelve (about 5% of the total number) can be purchased through the facility's catalog. At last month's American Veterinary Medical Association convention, where the CALF had a booth promoting its software, Magliano and Hayes demonstrated programs to veterinary schools, animal health technician programs, private practice veterinarians, and students. Sales have been steady over the past five years, but have picked up substantially this year with the addition of Windows titles to its list of Macintosh ones, Magliano says. Proceeds from the sales, after faculty royalties, are recycled into development of new programs.

Why Multimedia Educational Software?
The CALF was instituted in 1991 by then-Associate Dean of Academic Programs George Cardinet III to provide instructional support to the faculty of the Department of Anatomy in the School of Veterinary Medicine. The CALF's first programs were designed for anatomy instruction but soon were in use schoolwide. Now CALF-produced software, ranging from simple programs created in an afternoon to more complex ones that have taken years to complete, is used in roughly 50 courses at UC Davis.

What are the advantages of programs over textbooks? First off, says Magliano, most veterinary textbooks have few color photographs. "The computer is the cheapest way to deliver hundreds of full color images," he says. Convert a recent program containing 2,500 color photos into a textbook, and each book will cost around $300, he says. A further advantage is the speed of delivery. Information can be made available to students very quickly, and this information can be customized. "And the programs let you do things that you can't do any other way -- simulations, for example," says Magliano.

Compared to the hundreds of medical schools, there are only 31 veterinary schools in the United States and Canada. This rather small market means that producing educational software for veterinary medicine students is not commercially viable for most private companies. This, coupled with the fact that the CALF tailors its software to professors' and students' needs, makes its products extremely valuable.

"There aren't many other vet schools doing this," says Magliano. "Our faculty occasionally purchase programs outside, but these usually aren't designed for the professional veterinary medicine curriculum. Most of the programs our faculty use are customized here."

A Behind-the-Scenes Look
Talk to Magliano and Hayes, whose enjoyment of their work is evident, and you may come away with the impression that producing multimedia is easy. In truth, it requires expert skill, tremendous patience, and meticulous teamwork. The Virtual Heart, which was funded by a grant, was produced on a strict two-month deadline. A team of five to six people tackled the various aspects of the project, from "VR" (virtual reality) photography to design of the user interface, content, and programming. "There was a lot of overlap between these jobs," Magliano says. "The content person had to know what interface he had to fit his information into. The programmer had to know what kind of data he was going to get from the VR people. We overlapped and cross-trained, but everyone was responsible for a piece of the puzzle."

Unusual Career Paths
Neither Magliano nor Hayes followed what might be the typical career path of a computer specialist. Magliano graduated from UC Davis with a BS in biological sciences. Then, while a lab technician on campus, he did graduate work in computer science at Sacramento State, and built one of the first PC-based image processing systems on the UC Davis campus in the mid-1980s.

Hayes, who studied zoology with a minor in art, worked as an illustrator, graphic designer, and paintbox artist (graphic designer for video), before returning to UC Davis to work at Creative Communication Services. He has been at the CALF for about five years.

What are the qualities that make a successful CALF team member? "We like to learn new things," says Magliano. "Every project we undertake we try and push the envelope a little farther, get some new technology in front of the students, provide techniques or approaches that weren't otherwise possible. Projects that we're working on right now, we couldn't have done even last year."

Last summer, for instance, Magliano and Hayes began International Animal Health on CD-ROM. The large amount of video involved precluded them from making it a Web-based application. Now, with the advent of new formats for streaming audio and video, they are converting the application from CD to the Web. While they'd like to have time to update each program in their library, they acknowledge that the technology driving some of the older programs meets the needs they were designed to accommodate.

For instance, one of the first programs produced by the CALF was Canine Osteology: an Interactive Atlas, which illustrates the bones of the dog. "People are still buying it, and it was published in 1992. It's still our best-selling package, and that's because it's up to the job," Magliano says.

"If we were going to re-do it today I'd use virtual reality and all the bones would rotate around. This is something we wanted to do at the time but couldn't," he says.

Keeping Pace with Technology
What keeps Magliano and Hayes motivated? Both say they find their jobs fun and satisfying. By teaching a required first-year computing class, they meet all incoming students. "Every class is a little more computer-savvy than the previous one," says Magliano. "It puts the pressure on us to keep up with what's current," Hayes adds. The CALF team receives a good deal of positive feedback from both students and faculty.

To keep up with ever-evolving technologies, the staff consults the World Wide Web. Print magazines become obsolete too quickly, says Magliano. "I spend about the first hour of every morning on the Web, getting up to date on what's current for the day." He and Hayes don't often have a chance to interact with other technology professionals, so newsgroups and mailing lists are extremely helpful. Here they get first-hand evaluations of specific software packages from the "hard-core user base. In the old days, I'd go to the MacWorld conference every January to find out what was new," Magliano says. "Now, through the Web, we know exactly what's going on everywhere."

Hayes says one of the most gratifying aspects of his job is "looking at something you've been working on, whether for an hour or a year, and seeing it functioning. It's like getting instant feedback."

Says Magliano: "When you can actually make something and see it finished, you feel as though you've contributed something."

Visit the CALF on the Web at http://www.calf.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/