eDream has special technical-creative partnerships with two research groups: The Advanced Visualization Laboratory and the Cultural Computing Group. These groups serve as two key sites around which we organize research projects and technical resources.

The Advanced Visualization Laboratory is a research group at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, led by Donna Cox, who also serves as director of eDream and is a member of the faculty of the School of Art and Design at the College of Fine and Applied Arts. It specializes in cinematic treatments of scientific visualization for public outreach, advanced visualization graphics research,and interactive software development and design. AVL is staffed by academic professionals, each of whom contributes special expertise. As a member of NCSA, AVL serves the Office for the Vice Chancellor for Research through engaging in applied research and communicating informal science education.

The Cultural Computing Group is a research group that has formed around research projects established by Guy Garnett. Its projects tend to emphasize interactivity, multimodality in media, human computer interface development and design, graphics research, high-performance networking for the arts, and performance. Guy Garnett serves as special research faculty within eDream and the Illinois Informatics Institute, and holds tenure in the School of Music at the College of Fine and Applied Arts. His research group–which includes two IACAT research professionals as well as students–is closely associated with the Institute for Advanced Computing Applications and Technologies (Creativity and Computing Research theme).