The Decision Theater provides a full-immersion collaborative thinking environment.

Morton's vision for UMKC - the 'Decision Theater'

Interim chancellor envisions UMKC's future in 3-D

By: Derek Simons

Posted: 8/25/08

UMKC Provost Gail Hackett presented a new high-tech initiative to the Faculty Senate at its meeting on Aug. 18. It is called the "Decision Theater."

"Leo's [Interim Chancellor Morton] already off and running with it," Hackett said. "He'll probably have the money to build it before we've even finished talking about it."

Described in the promotional video shown to the Faculty Senate as a "collaborative decision-making tool," it consists of "seven state-of-the-art projectors tied into a high-performance mass-computing cluster, capable of moving massive 3-D images over the 360 degree image surface."

Hackett said university officials were discussing the nature of UMKC's urban mission, "something which we are still puzzling over, trying to coalesce around," when the idea came up.

Hackett, former Chancellor Guy Bailey, University of Missouri President Gary Forsee and Morton (as chair of the UMKC Board of Trustees) visited the Arizona State University (ASU) campus, where Hackett was previously employed, to see a demonstration.

Morton said ASU President Michael Crow, who is also on the board of Morton's ex-company, Aquila, Inc., offered to host them.

"One of the demonstrations was a 3-D demonstration where they were trying to figure out exactly how to place buildings," Morton said. "… They could spot a building and then you could fly in and fly around and look at it, and just as I was thinking about whether or not you could go below ground with this thing, they went below ground and you could see the infrastructure."

Morton was visibly enthusiastic about the Decision Theater.

"We sit in a city with $3 billion of deferred maintenance," he said. "We have huge problems with education. We can't even make a decision about rapid transit."

He said a system like this could help solve all of those problems, but would be even more important for the university.

"Raising money becomes easier when people have a greater opinion of you because you help solve some problems," Morton said. "You've got the talent here to do it. This could be one of the tools that makes that happen. …I think this could make everything that we're trying to do easier."

Hackett, asked after the meeting if there had been a price tag placed on the project, said it was too early for such considerations. On the ASU Web site, the primary donors for its structure are thanked for having given an initial contribution of $3 million.

Financing of the UMKC project would be from private contributions, according to Hackett and Morton, with the possibility of charging usage fees from off-campus patrons. Costs would be further contained by constructing the Decision Theater as an annex to an existing building. Hackett suggested the planned library expansion or the new Student Union as possible solutions to be studied.

"What is really important about the Decision Theater is that you bring policy makers and [3-D programmers] modelers and all kinds of people together," Hackett said. "You can use the tool to help public officials and decision makers by presenting information in numerical form, in graphical form, in max 3-D visualization. You can do all kinds of things."

Additional costs would be flexible depending on the number of personnel required.

The promotional video shown last Tuesday promised, "Our staff of scientists and programmers provides the interface between policy makers and our visualization technology. You provide the problem and some of the data and we'll create alternative scenarios in an interactive and adversity-free environment."

Hackett said she talked to several deans about the project and they were excited. She said School of Law Dean Ellen Suni wants to visit ASU and has ideas about studying how decisions are made and how evidence is interpreted.

The provost wants faculty to add their input toward formulating a vision statement on the use of the Decision Theater.

"We need the intellectual and scholarly legs to put on this while Leo [Morton] is out raising the money if we decide to do this," Hackett said.

dsimons@unews.com