Where the average video gamer sees cool visual effects, Todd Keeler sees math at work.
The Simon Fraser University doctoral student has been manipulating complex equations at a Vancouver computer gaming company for the past several month, trying to make those effects - in particular, the way in which water and smoke move - appear even more realistic.
He is researching how he can make those elements interact with virtual characters in real time so the user gets the most realistic game possible. "So if you have smoke and your guy runs through it, it's interactive, because the smoke curls around him or poufs up," says Mr. Keeler, 28, explaining that the key to his work is mathematics.
"The more powerful computer games get, the more mathematical the games will become and, ultimately, the more realistic, which is what you want. ... You're trying to push the realism as far as you can."
Mr. Keeler, who hailed from a physics and computer programming background before enrolling in the applied and computational mathematics PhD program at SFU, used to be asked about what he would be able to do with a math degree.
With the help of a unique Canadian research network that links business with innovative research, he now replies: "A lot."
MITACS (which stands for Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems ) is based at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University and is a federally funded Network of Centres of Excellence. The network brings together nearly 500 mathematical scientists, 800 students, dozens of businesses and government departments across the country in a collaborative effort to solve big problems.
But big may be an understatement, because the questions keeping today's mathematicians up at night are no longer about how x is related to y, but rather how to curb the effects of global warming, how to improve health care and how to counter terrorist activity.
And companies across Canada - such as Radical Entertainment Inc., the video game maker Mr. Keeler is working with - are realizing that the tools mathematicians develop are essential to the growth of their businesses.
In essence, MITACS acts as a middleman, connecting companies that have a particular problem they want to solve with the right researchers. About 40 projects are currently funded jointly by the network and Canadian businesses.
Michel Barbeau at Carleton University, for example, leads a project group working on data management and security communications. In the past year, it has found new ways to detect malicious access in wireless networks and to make networks fault tolerant (project participants include companies such as Cistel Technology Corp. and Solana Networks Inc.)
Dalhousie University's Jeannette Janssen, meanwhile, is head of a team developing mathematical models to make search engines smarter; the project has already come up with methods to detect unusual e-mail patterns without looking at the messages themselves (non-academic participants include Brandimensions Inc. and the RCMP).
At McGill University, Leon Glass is leading a group working on mathematical models of electrical signals in the heart that lead to atrial fibrillations, the leading cause of strokes. And a group led by the University of Alberta's Paul Myers is developing models for ocean currents, a necessary tool to understanding climate change.
MITACS is also expanding globally, working to establish a bio-mathematical research network in Africa. After the SARS epidemic in 2003, MITACS developed a math model, which it continually refines, to help public health officials figure out what to do during the next infectious disease outbreak, using data collected in Canada and China. MITACS hopes to develop a similar model for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria using data from Africa to help predict how the diseases spread and how they can be prevented.
"That's where math comes in handy, because you're simulating things that you can't just do experiments of," said Rebeccah Marsh, director of programs at MITACS who is responsible for overseeing scientific aspects of the network's projects.
"You're not going to put a lot of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and see what happens. You're not going to give a whole whack of people SARS and see how it plays out. We're able to simulate given what we've seen before, what can we then expect later, and how can we help prevent it."
Along with specific projects, MITACS also prides itself on its internship program, such as one Mr. Keeler was part of with Radical Entertainment.
In an effort to educate companies that may not realize the benefits of working with mathematicians, the four-month internship allows businesses to test the waters. In return for $7,500 to help finance the internship, a company gets access to math sciences research taking place in Canada's universities.
In many cases, the companies are readily convinced that such work pays off for business. After completing his stint at Radical Entertainment, Mr. Keeler pitched an idea for further research to the company. It was sold on the idea, and agreed to help fund his doctoral work on the topic. Now Mr. Keeler isn't sure whether he'll stay in the video-game industry, or pursue one of the other options his math degree - chalkboard formulas and all - has opened up.
"It may surprise people," he says, "but a lot of real life's problems are first worked out on a chalkboard."
