In the first week of July 2007 a group of academics from the three Dublin-based universities – Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University led by Prof. Carol O’Sullivan submitted a GREP application for a Graduate Programme in Visualisation, Graphics and Vision (VGV) to IRCSET. This was the culmination, in funding terms, of over 18 months collective effort involving visits to 30 international sites and an in depth local marketing survey. In research and academic terms, this is but one of the first steps to the establishment of an international leading graduate program.

“This graduate research education programme on Visualisation, Graphics and Vision (VGV) will combine the international research track records of leading academics from TCD, UCD and DCU in the highly complementary thematic areas of graphics, animation, vision, image engineering, visualisation and simulation. The program is built around a networked virtual campus, that facilitates leading world-class research, industry engagement, inter-disciplinary collaboration and the development of a student cohort with industrially relevant research skills.”

Now that the grant application has gone in we hope to move onto the development of the recruitment and hiring process for a student intake in Sept/Oct 2007 along with starting our program in the small with the expectation we can ramp up as suitable funds become available.

On June 16, 2007 we had an expert panel review our proposed inter-University graduate program in Visualisation, Graphics and Vision. Academics from the three Dublin-based universities – Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University presented. Representatives from all three organisations attended and the proposal and its background were presented to the panel under the following headings:

• Introduction to Team and panel members.
• Vision: research goals, scientific rationale
• Context: current Irish system; graduate education and funding environment, esp. current IRCSET calls
• Research: overview of current research and graduate education activities of team Infrastructure: facilities, equipment and services available in the three institutions
• Best Practice: presentation and discussion by team members on outputs of visits to international centres of excellence
• Industry Liaison: planned industry involvement and market research undertaken
• Programme: detailed presentation of the contents of the proposed programme, including taught modules, structures and governance

The expert panel provided us detailed feedback in terms of:

• Funding
• Recruitment/Advertising
• Admissions
• Courses/Modules
• Governance
• Evaluation

The panel said they were very impressed with the calibre of the programme team, which consists of high-quality, well-respected researchers with international reputations in the fields of visualisation, graphics and vision. They particularly liked the complementary expertise within the team, the range of ages and experience, and the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborative spirit and enthusiasm that was evident from the presentations and discussions at the meeting. The panel believes that this programme will be novel and ground-breaking, and could serve as an example for future such programs internationally.

Based on this experience, our industrial survey and visits to over 30 institutions internationally we are planning a submission to IRCSET under their up coming call for full GREPs.