Computer Graphics and Interactive Systems

Research Group

Computer Science Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

Computer Graphics

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality application development, computer games development methodology, high performance graphical processing and visualization

HCI: UI / UX

interactive application development, user interaction techniques, usability evaluation, human senzorial data processing and analysis

Remote Sensing

software platforms and applications for spatial data processing and visualization, machine learning based satellite data classification, interdisciplinary research in the domains of Earth Sciences and Earth Observations

Big Data Analytics

artificial intelligence, spatial big data, visual analytics

Cloud Computing

parallel and distributed processing on cloud infrastructures, interoperability of HPC platforms

About us

Computer Graphics and Interactive Systems Laboratory (CGIS) is carrying out research and education activities within the Computer Science DepartmentAutomation and Computer Science Faculty of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. It has been certified as research entity by the Technical University on 22 July, 2010 (certification document).

CGIS Laboratory provides expertise in interactive application development, user interaction techniques, usability evaluation, human senzorial data processing and analysis, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality application development, computer games development methodology, artificial intelligence, spatial big data, and satellite images. CGIS Laboratory has carried out research projects in the fields of high performance graphical processing and visualization, parallel and distributed processing on cloud infrastructures, interoperability of HPC platforms, software platforms and applications for spatial data processing and visualization, visual analytics, machine learning based satellite data classification, interdisciplinary research in the domains of Earth Sciences and Earth Observations.

The Laboratory has been engaged in national and international research projects such as ChemiNova (HORIZON-RIA), EMPOWER (HORIZON-RIA), CERES (PN-III), NEARBY (ROSA STAR), HORUS (ROSA STAR), BIGEARTH (ROSA STAR), PECSA (PN-II), enviroGRIDS (FP7), IASON (FP7), mEducator (eContentplus), SEE-GRID-SCI (FP7), GiSHEO (ESA – European Space Agency), I-Trace (Minerva), and MedioGrid (CEEX). The CGIS team was involved in the development of the CloudUT infrastructure, for the scientific and contractual research activity of the UTCN scientific community. The team has coordinated the carrying out of the AITECH institutional project for the development of research of excellence in the field of artificial intelligence and massive data.

The team has developed software tools and platforms like NEARBY, HORUS, HorusApp, BIGEARTH, WorDeL, gSWAT, gSWATSim, GreenLand, ESIP, gProcess, eGLE, GreenView, and eTrace.

CGIS team supports activities at all three levels of education – Bachelor, Master and Doctoral in the domains of Computer Science and Information Technology. CGIS provides courses in the fields of Fundamentals on Computer Graphics, Graphical Processing Systems, User Interface Design, Interactive Systems, Virtual Reality, Multimedia Technologies, Graphics Cluster based High Performance Computation, and Cloud Technology.

Research Projects

EMPOWER

Design and Evaluation of Technological Support Tools to Empower Stakeholders in Digital Education

Given technological developments in other domains and lessons from the pandemic, there is a strong push to invest in technologyaugmented education. However, much remains unknown; for example, what technological abilities are useful in education, how they can be deployed, what training needs arise, and what shape future policies governing this should take.

EMPOWER contributes to resolving these questions by developing novel technological support for the education of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs).

This use case is, in many ways challenging, and thus ideally suited to 1) make a positive impact on the educational needs of these children, and 2) highlight the potential and limitations of technology-augmented education in a way that can inform future developments generally. NDDs affect approximately 15% of children aged 3 to 17 years.

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AITECH

CERCETARE DE EXCELENȚĂ ÎN DOMENIUL INTELIGENȚĂ ARTIFICIALĂ ȘI DATE MASIVE

The AITECH project has as main purpose the increase of research capabilities, performance, and innovation of Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN). The project is focused on developing the existing research laboratories and provide support for excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data research areas. Main interest domains are Big Data, IoT, Robotics, Smart Buildings, Smart Cities, Complex simulations, CAD systems, Visual Analytics, and the use of High Performance Infrastructures in Academic Research.

Through the AITECH project, UTCN aims to improve its status as an important regional and European multidisciplinary research entity, focusing on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data modelling, management and visualisation, the use of HPC infrastructures in academic research.

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CloudUT

Research Cloud Infrastructure for UTCN

The CLOUDUT project aims to increase research capacity in order to raise the level of scientific competitiveness at the international level of UTCN, by creating a cloud infrastructure, called CLOUDUT, which can be integrated into national and international cloud structures and massive data infrastructures, allowing research and development in the fields of big data, deep learning, spatial data and IoT, as well as the use of these technologies in a wide range of engineering, economic and administrative applications, required by the regional and national economic environment. The CLOUDUT infrastructure will expand the possibility to participate in national and international research projects such as Horizon 2020.

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CERES

Software module to classify asteroids from astronomical images using machine learning.

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and especially Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) are potential threats based on their proximity to Earth. For this reason, we need to constantly survey the nearby space around Earth and to continuously monitor NEOs and NEAs to prevent future impacts with our planet. Great research efforts are being done to discover new NEOs and NEAs and their results are highly important both for astronomy education and public outreach.
In this context, the CERES software module is capable of classifying detections in astronomical images and is focused on detecting/identifying asteroids. To accomplish this, we are using machine learning techniques to build up an asteroid classification model. The objectives of the CERES project are focused on:

  • building up a dataset of asteroid images
  • training an asteroid detection classification model
  • developing a software module used to classify detections (of asteroids)

The obtained results highlighted the potential of machine learning techniques in the field of asteroid detection.

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HORUS

Software Toolbox for Pedological Monitoring of Transylvanian Area based on Sentinel-2 Data

The main objective of the HORUS Toolbox project concerns with using of Earth Observation data, especially data provided by Sentinel-2, in a very practical and efficient manner, to carrying out pedology studies and producing pedology maps, in the particular context of Transylvanian area. Currently the main soil data sources in the area are represented by field studies, sample analysis and in-situ offline sensors, covering only a small region from the Transylvanian area that we are experimenting. Although oriented on Transylvanian area as the main area of interest, functionalities implemented in HORUS Toolbox will be easily adapted for pedological studies in other regions, mainly based on Copernicus products, but also enabling the integration of other data sources that might be available.

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NEARBY

Visual Analysis of Multidimensional Astrophysics Data for Moving Objects Detection

The NEARBY project – Visual Analysis of Multidimensional Astrophysics Data for Moving Objects Detection has as main objectives:

  • processing and analysis of multidimensional data in order to detect and identify moving objects in astronomical images;
  • visual analysis of the processed images and human validation of the moving sources assisted by static and dynamical presentations;
  • flexible description of the processing through the visual analytics pipeline;
  • adaptive processing and synthetic tracking detection over high performance computation infrastructure.

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PECSA

Experimental Computer Services Platform for Scientific and Entrepreneurial Development

The PECSA project – Experimental Computer Services Platform for Scientific and Entrepreneurial Development, aims firstly to develop science and technology in order to increase the competitiveness of local and regional economy, and secondly to improve knowledge with the potential to strengthen the economic recovery and broaden the actions. The benefits arising from this project support the stimulation of RDI and increase the competitiveness of companies in the North West region by:

  • Creating knowledge for the achievement of scientific and technological results, globally competitive in order to increase the international visibility of Romanian research and subsequently transfer the results in socioeconomic practice;
  • Increase economic competitiveness through innovation, impact on economic operators and transferring knowledge into the economic field;
  • Increased social quality, namely technical and scientific solutions that support social development and improve the human condition.

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BIGEARTH

Flexible Processing of Big Earth Data over High Performance Computing Architectures

The BIGEARTH project considers mainly the huge data of Earth Observation (EO) images, concerning on the possibility to reveal knowledge through a flexible and adaptive manner. The users can describe and experiment themselves different complex algorithms through analytics in order to valorise data. The analytics uses descriptive and predictive models to gain valuable knowledge and information from data analysis. The BIGEARTH project develops and experiments techniques and methodologies to develop and execute analytics in a very flexible and interactive manner. The flexible description of processing has impact on execution performance, user’s access to simple and complex processing algorithms, process scheduling, and access to data, knowledge, and information

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enviroGRIDS

Black Sea Catchment Observation and Assessment System supporting Sustainable Development

enviroGRIDS aims at developing a Black Sea Catchment Observation System that will store, analyze, visualize and disseminate information on past, present and future states of the region to assess and predict its sustainability and vulnerability. A gap analysis will identify specific areas where most efforts are needed. As climatic and hydrological changes are of concern, their impacts on several societal benefits areas of the Group on Earth Observation will be evaluated, namely on environment and health, energy, water, ecosystems, agriculture, biodiversity and environmental risks. EnviroGRIDS will rely on ultra-modern technology using the largest gridded computing infrastructure in the world. It will serve as a benchmark for the development of the European directive on Infrastructure for Spatial Information and for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.

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mEducator

Multi-type Content Repurposing and Sharing in Medical Education, eContentplus/ Digital Content and Cognitive Systems Programme

The aim of mEducator BPN is to implement and critically evaluate existing standards and reference models in the field of e-learning in order to enable specialized state-of-the-art medical educational content to be discovered, retrieved, shared and re-used across European higher academic institutions.

Educational content included in mEducator covers and represents the whole range of medical educational content, from traditional instructional teaching to active learning and experiential teaching/studying approaches. It spans the whole range of types, from text to exam sheets, algorithms, teaching files, computer programs (simulators or games) and interactive objects (like virtual patients and electronically traced anatomies), while it covers a variety of topics.

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GiSHEO

On demand Grid Services for High Education and Training in Earth Observation

The project aims at setting-up and development of a reliable resource for knowledge and associated instruments for higher education and training, using existing distributed information on Earth observation and Grid technology. This will enable higher exploitation of the potential of ESA database information and synergies orientated towards education and training in Earth observation.

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Team Members

Prof. Dorian Gorgan

Prof. Dorian Gorgan

CGIS Director

Location: Room M02
Email: dorian.gorgan@cs.utcluj.ro

Research interests:
- HPC, HCI, AI, BigData
- VR, AR applications
- visual analytics
- remote sensing

    Assoc. Prof. Victor Bacu

    Assoc. Prof. Victor Bacu

    Senior Researcher

    Location: Room C5
    Email: victor.bacu@cs.utcluj.ro

    Research interests:
    - computer graphics
    - machine learning
    - big data analytics
    - remote sensing

      Assoc. Prof. Teodor Ștefănuț

      Assoc. Prof. Teodor Ștefănuț

      Senior Researcher

      Location: Room M02
      Email: teodor.stefanut@cs.utcluj.ro

      Research interests:
      - machine learning
      - human-computer interaction
      - big data analytics
      - remote sensing

      Lect. Adrian Sabou

      Lect. Adrian Sabou

      Researcher

      Location: Room C5
      Email: adrian.sabou@cs.utcluj.ro

      Research interests:
      - high performance computing
      - human-computer interaction
      - visual analytics
      - computer graphics
      - cloud computing

      Lect. Constantin Nandra

      Lect. Constantin Nandra

      Researcher

      Location: Room C5
      Email: constantin.nandra@cs.utcluj.ro

      Research interests:
      - computer graphics
      - cloud computing
      - data processing in distributed environments
      - machine learning

      Contact

      +40 264 401478

      28 G. Baritiu Street
      Cluj-Napoca, Romania

      dorian.gorgan@cs.utcluj.ro