GEMINI at UC Davis Picnic Day 109
Exploring Crop Performance in VR with GEMINI x PSL
On April 15th, UC Davis held Picnic Day 109, a celebration of the richness of diversity and achievement of the university and surrounding community in the areas of research, teaching, and service. Over 200 events took place throughout campus consisting of exhibits, shows, competitions, demonstrations, entertainment, and animal events. This year, those events included a booth set up by the Davis GEMINI team inviting visitors to examine 3D plant models using virtual reality.
The exhibit, titled “Explore Crop Performance in 3D Virtual Reality,” was created in collaboration with Brian Bailey’s Plant Simulation Lab and offered guests an opportunity to use VR headsets to explore 3D visualizations of crop simulations. Each simulation had four different plots (groups) of crops with different geometric traits: upright growth habit with more horizontal leaf angles, upright growth habit with more vertical leaf angles, sprawling growth habit with more horizontal leaf angles, and sprawling growth habit with more vertical leaf angles. For each plot of plants, visitors were able to visualize the 3D distribution of light interception, photosynthesis, and water-use efficiency across all plants in the simulated domain. Visitors could click on any of the plots to pull up a virtual ‘dashboard’ showing total light interception, photosynthesis, and water-use efficiency for all plants in the plot.
Guests waiting in line to try the VR demo
Over the course of Saturday morning, over 200 guests interacted with the exhibit, with 86 visitors trying the VR demo and leaving feedback for the team. For many visitors, it was their first experience using VR as an educational tool, and their enthusiastic reactions will help us create more interactive outreach opportunities in the future. Thank you to everyone who contributed to or participated in the Picnic Day event. Special thanks goes to Pranav Ghate, GEMINI’s programmer and the main creator of the VR demo that was used for the exhibit. We hope to see you all at Picnic Day 110!
Pranav Ghate helps a well-dressed visitor into the VR headset
Our Picnic Day team, from left to right: Tong Lei, Pranav Ghate, Brian Bailey, Betsy Huynh, Ismael Mayanja, and Alejandra Ponce de León