Concentrated on Visualization Instrument research (hardware and software) and on human-computer interaction in single and multiuser scenarios. In particular, I investigated the use of hybrid immersive systems as scientific visualization platforms for co-located research teams.

I contributed to the creation of a small scale hybrid workspace (the OmegaDesk) and a large scale Hybrid Reality Environment (the CAVE2). I led the development of a software framework to drive these systems, called Omegalib. Compared to existing toolkits, Omegalib is designed to support dynamic reconfigurability of the display environment: areas of the display can be interactively allocated to 2D or 3D workspaces as needed. Omegalib has been used to develop several scientific visualization applications for the CAVE2 system, and has been used as the project platform in UIC's Visual Analytics course.

As a spin-off of Omegalib, I created the Omicron input management library and protocol. Omicron simplifies the creation of mixed-input applications, providing an event model that supports 2D devices (touch overlays or remote pointers), 3D devices (marker-based or markerless motion trackers) or non-spatial devices such as voice input and brain interfaces. Omicron has been used as the input platform for a variety of projects, both internal and external to EVL.

Contributions to Omegalib and Omicron by other students have generated two M.S. projects and two M.S. theses. I initiated and supervised one of these theses, titled "Porthole: A decoupled HTML5 Interface Generator for Virtual Environments" by M.S. graduate Daniele Donghi.

In addition to the research on hybrid systems, I worked on standard, desktop-based visualization tools and user interfaces. I created the data processing and visualization toolset used to analyze the geophysical data collected by the NASA ENDURANCE autonomous underwater robot in Antarctica. My research contribution to this work involved the use of parallel sonar beam tracing and implicit surface methods for 3D bathymetry reconstruction

Moreover, I contributed to a multi-year research project in collaboration with the UIC College of Nursing, aimed at improving nurse care for end-of-life patients. Main duties involved designing and developing a clinical decision support system prototype that was used in simulated patient care scenarios. I also helped planning the data collection and evaluation protocol used by this ongoing study, which by its end will have involved more than a hundred professional nurse practitioners.

Worked on gameplay, database and multiplayer logic for two worldwide-published games on Xbox360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and PC. Acted as point of contact with an external team for user interface quality assurance. I was responsible for user interface and game state guideline adherence for Microsoft and Sony product certification.

Class: Visualization and Visual Analytics

Introduced students to the Processing language. Provided assistance during project development and was responsible for project grading.

Class: Human-Computer Interaction

Held a series of lectures on videogame design and development, introducing students to the game industry development process, gameplay design practices and outlining the technical aspects of game creation.

Class: Introduction to Computer Programming

Responsible for the laboratory session of the course. Provided assistance with C programming exercises, held pre-laboratory lectures on basic programming concepts (IO, conditional programming, pointers and pointer arithmetic, basic data structures and iteration).

1. Sousa, Vanessa E. C., Dunn Lopez, K., Febretti, A., Stifter, J, Yao, Y, Johnson, A, Wilkie, D. J., and Keenan, G. M. "Use of Simulation to Study Nurses' Acceptance and Nonacceptance of Clinical Decision Support Suggestions." Computers Informatics Nursing, 2015
2. Dunn Lopez, K., Wilkie, D.J., Yao, Y., Sousa, V., Febretti, A., Stifter, J., Johnson, A., Keenan, G. "Nurses' Numeracy and Graphical Literacy: Informing Studies of Clinical Decision Support Interfaces". Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 2015
3. Reda, K., Febretti, A., Knoll, A., Aurisano, J., Leigh J., Johnson, A., Papka, M., Hereld, M. "Visualizing Large, Heterogeneous Data in Hybrid Reality Display Environments". IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 33.4 (July-August 2013), pp. 38-48

1. Febretti, A., Sousa V., Lopez K. D., Yao, Y. Johnson, A., Keenan, G. M., Wilkie, D. J., "One Size Doesn't Fit All: The Efficiency of Graphical, Numerical and Textual Clinical Decision Support for Nurses", IEEE VIS 2014 Workshop on Electronic Health Record Data Visualization (EHRVis), November 9-10 2014, Paris, France;
2. Febretti, A., Lopez, K. D., Stifter, J., Johnson, A., Keenan, G. M., Wilkie, D. J, "Evaluating a Clinical Decision Support Interface for End-of-Life Nurse Care" CHI 2014 Work In Progress, Toronto, Canada, April 28 - May 01, 2014; [Pdf]
3. Febretti, A., Nishimoto, A., Mateevitsi, V., Renambot, L., Johnson, A., Leigh, J., "Omegalib: a Multi- View Application Framework for Hybrid Reality Environments". IEEE Virtual Reality (IEEE VR 2014), Minneapolis, MN, March 29 - April 2, 2014;
4. Febretti, A. "Supporting Multi-View Immersion on Hybrid Reality Environments". to appear in the proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality (IEEE VR 2014) Doctoral Consortium, Minneapolis, MN, March 29 - April 2, 2014;
5. Reda, K., Aurisano, J., Febretti, A., Leigh, J. Johnson, A., "Visualization Design Patterns for Ultra-Resolution Display Environments". VISTech Workshop: Visualization Infrastructure and Systems Technology (VISTech 2013), 2013;
6. Febretti, A., Lopez, K., Stifter, J., Johnson, A., Keenan, G., Wilkie, D. "A Component-Based Evaluation Protocol for Clinical Decision Support Interfaces". HCI International, 2013;
7. Lopez, K., Stifter, J., Febretti, A., Johnson, A., Wilkie, D., Keenan, G. "Improving Learnability and Efficiency of Evidence Based Information in Clinical Decision Support". 37th Midwest Nursing Research Society Conference, 2013;
8. Febretti, A., Nishimoto, A., Thigpen, T., Talandis, J., Long, L., Pirtle, J., Peterka, T., Verlo, A., Brown, M., Plepys, D., Sandin, D., Renambot, L., Johnson, A., Leigh, J. "CAVE2: A Hybrid Reality Environment for Immersive Simulation and Information Analysis" IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging. International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2013 [Pdf];
9. Febretti, A., Richmond, K., Gulati, S., Flesher, C., Hogan, B.P., Johnson, A., Stone, W.C., Priscu, J., Doran, P. "Poisson reconstruction of extreme submersed environments: The ENDURANCE exploration of an under-ice Antarctic Lake" 8th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC12), Crete, Greece, Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 07/16/2012 - 07/18/2012 [Pdf];
10. Febretti, A., Mateevitsi, V.A., Chau, D., Nishimoto, A., McGinnis, B., Misterka, J., Johnson, A., Leigh, J. "The OmegaDesk: Towards A Hybrid 2D & 3D Work Desk" 7th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC11), Las Vegas, Nevada, 09/26/2011 - 09/28/2011 [Pdf];
11. Richmon, K., Febretti, A., Gulati, S., Flesher, C., Hogan, B.P., Murarka, A., Kuhlman, G., Sridharan, M, Johnson, A., Stone, W.C., Priscu, J., Doran, P. "Sub-Ice Exploration of an Antarctic Lake: Results from the ENDURANCE Project" 17th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST11), Portsmouth, NH, US, 08/21/2011 - 08/24/2011 [Pdf];
12. Febretti, A., Garzotto, F. "Usability, Playability, and Long-Term Engagement in Computer Games" CHI 2009 Work In Progress, Boston, MA, ACM SIGCHI, 04/04/2009 - 04/09/2009 [Pdf];

1. Ye, A., Ajilore O., Febretti, A., Johnson, A., Elkarim, G., Yang, S., Magin, R., Kumar, A., Leow, A., "Using Dimensionality Reduction to Explore Virtual Reality Lobectomies", 23rd Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, May 30 - June 5, Toronto, Ontario - Canada
2. Ye, A., Ajilore O., Febretti, A., Johnson, A., Elkarim, G., Yang, S., Magin, R., Kumar, A., Leow, A., "Virtual Reality Exploration of Brain Connectivity Metrics using Dimensionality Reduction". 70th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, May 14-16, 2015, Toronto, Ontario - Canada
3. Dunn Lopez, K., Stifter, J., Febretti, A., Sousa, V., Johnson, A., Wilkie, D. J., & Keenan, G. M, "Formative and Summative Testing of Nursing Clinical Decision Support Prototypes". 10th Biennial Conference of the Association for Common European Nursing Diagnoses, Interventions and Outcomes, e-health and Nursing, Knowledge for Patient Care, Bern Switzerland;
4. Febretti, A., Richmond K., Doran, P., Johnson, A., "Parallel Processing and Immersive Visualization of Sonar Data" IEEE Symposium on Large Data Visualization (LDAV), November 9-10 2014, Paris, France;
5. Keenan GM., Stifter J., Febretti A., Lodhi M., Dunn-Lopez K., Yao Y., Khokhar A., Johnson A., Ansari R., Wilkie DJ., "Well tested electronic care planning system produces powerful evidence for nursing care decision." Advocate Health System Research Day. Chicago, Illinois Masonic, April 9th, 2014;
6. Leigh, J., Johnson, A., Renambot, L., Long, L., Sandin, D., Tolandis, J., Febretti, A., Nishimoto, A., "CAVE2 Documentary" Video in IEEE VR 2014 and IEEE VR 2014 YouTube channel, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 29, 2014;
7. Dunn Lopez, K., Febretti, A., Yao, Y., Stifter, J, Johnson, A., Wilkie, D., Keenan, G. "Clinical decision support alerts forms: Nurse preferences and relationships with nurse characteristics." American Medical Informatics Association, Annual Symposium, Washington, DC., 2013;
8. Dunn-Lopez, K., Stifter, J., Febretti, A., Johnson, A., Wilkie, D., Keenan, G., "Improving Usability of Evidence Based Information in Clinical Decision Support", Midwest Nursing Research Society 37th Annual Research Conference, Chicago, IL, March 7-13, 2013;
9. Stifter, J., Lopez, K., Febretti, A., Johnson, A., Wilkie, D., Keenan, G. "Identifying Nurse Preferences for Presentation of Evidence Based End of Life Pain Management Information in Clinical Decision Support Systems" 37th Midwest Nursing Research Society Conference, 2013

1. Febretti, A., Frossi, A. "Template Choice and Template Hierarchy Graph construction during the Partition Phase in reconfigurable environments" Laboratory of Microarchitectures, Politecnico di Milano, 2006 [Pdf]
2. Febretti, A. "Fast late-bound invocation through Dynamic Method delegates" Codeproject, 2005 [Pdf][Web]
3. Febretti, A. "Distributed Sum on a 2D mesh using MPI" ECE566 Parallel Processing, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2013 [Pdf]
4. Febretti, A. "Parallel Gaussian Elimination Using MPI" ECE566 Parallel Processing, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2013 [Pdf]

I collaborated with other colleagues in mentoring middle school kids from underserved Chicago communities. I helped plan and carry out learning activities with our students, and followed them for a semester while they worked on an engaging project that taught them about computer science, and gave them a hint of the exciting work and career opportunities that will be available to them if they continue their education

I volunteered or was invited as a reviewer (secondary or tertiary) for several CS and non-CS conferences including IEEE VR, CHI, EGPGV, AMIA, EuroITV