VIRTMorph Symposium and Workshop at the 2019 International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology; July 21-25, 2019; Prague, Czech Republic

国际脊椎动物形态学大会（ICVM）是国际脊椎动物形态学学会三年一次的会议，将于2019年7月在捷克共和国布拉格举行，该奖项部分支持与会者参加研讨会和讲习班的旅费。研讨会和研讨会汇集了科学家和软件开发人员，以推进虚拟现实（VR）在功能形态学领域的研究和教学中的应用。形态学科学的进步一直受到以下因素的阻碍：从二维图像（例如照片和插图）理解和量化三维结构的困难，以及大多数结构的不透明性，这通常使得不解剖它们就不可能看到生物体内部。三维（3-D）射线照相方法的发展是一个重大的飞跃，例如计算机断层扫描和磁共振成像，这些方法可以无创地获取、可视化和操作密度差异的3-D数据。软件和硬件的发展使这些数据能够使用虚拟现实进行研究和量化，这是一种新颖的，也许是类似的飞跃。科学家们可以虚拟地走进或在虚拟生物体周围走动，从而更好地理解个体结构与整个生物体的关系。因为这些数据和可视化是数字化的，它们推动了科学家共享和存档数据以及开发教学工具的方式。研讨会将汇集来自全球各地的科学家，他们正在使用VR来推进对一系列生物体结构和功能的理解，并将使其他科学家接触使用多人平台进行实时和远距离合作。在研讨会上的培训将使科学家能够在他们的网站和现有的存储库中发布VR就绪的数据，将移动VR体验带入教室和博物馆，并更好地利用科学收藏。VR将帮助研究人员使用无处不在的现代工具——智能手机——为公众带来身临其境的科学体验。科学理解的进步往往伴随着技术创新，这些创新为研究人员提供了对复杂问题的新见解。虚拟现实技术有望在复杂的三维形态学上实现这一目标，而三维形态学是生物生物学的核心。VR环境优于检查单个研究标本，特别是稀有或濒危物种，因为虚拟对象可以随意进行数字切片、旋转和缩放。将在国际ICVM会议上举行的VIRTMorph研讨会和研讨会将通过说明如何使用虚拟现实促进对复杂解剖学的理解来推进功能形态学的研究。该研讨会将使科学家熟悉VR软件和硬件，以便顺利和毫不费力地过渡到使用这一强大的新工具。科学家将学习如何使用虚拟现实技术为数字会议建立网络框架，从而促进国际合作。它将提高科学家以有效的方式向公众传播研究成果的能力。预期的结果包括一份将在科学期刊上发表的合作白皮书，该白皮书将详细介绍VR的最新创新如何最好地用于功能形态学的研究和推广。我们会制作一份《生物应用虚拟现实入门指南》，并在首席研究员的网站上设立一系列教程和留言板，以更广泛地传播工作坊的培训内容。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award partially supports travel for participants in a symposium and workshop at the International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM), a triennial meeting of the International Society of Vertebrate Morphology to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, in July 2019. The symposium and workshop bring together scientists and software developers to advance the use of virtual reality (VR) for the purposes of both research and teaching in the field of functional morphology. Progress in the morphological sciences has been impeded by the difficulty of understanding and quantifying three dimensional structures from two dimensional images, for example photographs and illustrations, and from the opacity of most structures, which generally makes it impossible to see inside organisms without dissecting them. A major leap forward came from the development of three-dimensional (3-D) radiographic methods, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, which enable 3-D data of differences in density to be acquired noninvasively, visualized, and manipulated. A novel, and perhaps similar, leap forward comes from software and hardware developments that enable these data to be studied and quantified using virtual reality. Scientists can virtually step inside or walk around a virtual organism, and better understand the relationships of individual structures to the whole organism. Because these data and visualizations are digital, they are advancing the ways scientists share and archive data and develop teaching tools. The symposium will bring together scientists from across the globe who are using VR to advance understanding of structure and function in a range of organisms, and will expose other scientists to the use of multiplayer platforms to collaborate in real time and over long distances. Training at the workshop will enable scientists to publish VR-ready data on their websites and in existing repositories, to bring mobile VR experiences into classrooms and museums, and to make better use of scientific collections. VR will help researchers use a ubiquitous modern tool - the smartphone - to bring immersive, scientific experiences to the public.Advances in scientific understanding often follow technological innovations that afford researchers new insights into complex problems. VR promises to do this for the complex, three-dimensional morphology that is at the heart of organismal biology. The VR environment is superior to examining individual research specimens, especially of rare or endangered species, because virtual objects can be digitally sliced, rotated, and scaled up at will. The VIRTMorph symposium and workshop to be held at the international ICVM meeting will advance the study of functional morphology by illustrating how the understanding of complex anatomy can be facilitated using virtual reality. The workshop will familiarize scientists with VR software and hardware so that a transition to the use of this powerful new tool can occur smoothly and effortlessly. Scientists will learn how to use VR to set up a web framework for digital meetings, and thereby will facilitate international collaborations. It will enhance the ability of scientists to communicate research results to the public in effective ways. Anticipated outcomes include a collaborative white paper, to be published in a scientific journal, that will detail how recent innovations in VR may best be used for research in functional morphology and for outreach. A Beginners Guide to Using VR in Biology will be produced, and a tutorial series and posting board will be established on the principal investigator's website to more broadly disseminate the workshop training.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.