Alumni
Bio
Domenico Romano comes from Rome; he just submitted his PhD thesis in astrophysics at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. His work relies on the MopraCO Survey, a new 3D map of the interstellar gas distribution in the Milky Way whose aim is to disclose the history and evolution of our galaxy. His contribution to the MopraCO Survey consists of radio-telescope observations (www.mopra.org), data analysis and data mining, combining information coming from different wavelengths. This allowed him to discover and characterize a new interstellar molecular cloud at 3.3 kpc from the Sun. During his MSc thesis, he had the chance to spend one year in Antarctica (Dome C base), performing cosmological research on cosmic inflation by measuring the B-modes’ polarization of the cosmic microwave background. In that same year, he also worked on glaciology experiments that analyzed the climate history of our planet. He combines his passions for graphics, information aesthetics and coding with his studies, creating virtual and augmented-reality visualizations of astronomical data. He started doing photography when he was very young, using an old (and heavy) Olympus. He is still very passionate about photography, and finds it necessary to express his creativity. He authored visual installations and photographic exhibitions, fusing together sounds, architectural volumes and generative art.
Computational Essay
Project: Virtual and Augmented Reality in Mathematica
Goal
Represent Mathematica 3D objects and plots in a virtual- or augmented-reality environment.
Main Results in Detail
The project was successful, creating a Mathematica package that contains two new Mathematica functions, VRDeploy and ARDeploy. These functions are capable of creating web-based visualizations of Mathematica 3D objects in VR/AR mode.
Future Work
- 1. Geo-localized marker independent AR placement method and object texture management
- 2. VR hardware implementation (HTC-VIVE and similar)
- 3. Custom, interactive Mathematica VR/AR user interfaces
