The long-term research goal of the Brown University Graphics Group is to develop human-centered, powerful, and interactive 3D graphics tools for modeling, scientific visualization, telecollaboration, and interactive illustrations.

Driving applications include the need for rapid prototyping tools for 3D modeling, the need for more sophisticated scientific visualization tools that can present concepts, techniques, and algorithms as well as data, and the need of geographically-separated groups to more effectively work in a shared visual, spatial, and auditory environment.

Currently the Graphics Group focus includes two major research efforts: the Visualization Research Lab and the Microsoft Center for Research on Pen-Centric Computing.

The Visualization Research Group is part of the Brown University Graphics Lab. An interdisciplinary team of people from different departments at Brown develop robust and effective computer science and visualization tools and techniques for solving a range of problems and phenomena from science as well as the arts and humanities. Collaborative work with colleagues in these areas guides the research and provides a mechanism for evaluating the usefulness and robustness of results.

The Microsoft Center for Research on Pen-Centric Computing, which was inaugurated on March 20, 2006, represents a convergence of research efforts in pen-centric computing by the Brown Computer Graphics Group, Microsoft Research, and the Microsoft Tablet PC Product Group. The Graphics Group has been at the vanguard of pen-centric computing for over a decade, having created pen-based interfaces for sketching 3D models, writing music, and creating interactive sketches of mathematics and molecules. During this same period Microsoft was also involved with pen-centric computing, starting with Pen Windows in the early 1990s, and more recently through both its creation of the TabletPC platform and through support of research inside Microsoft and at universities.