 |
| As聽one of the investigators with GRAND, Elaine Toms will work with researchers across the country.聽(Nick Pearce Photo) |
Ten years ago, things like Facebook (est.聽2004)聽Twitter (est. 2006), YouTube (est. 2005) didn鈥檛 even exist鈥� and yet they鈥檝e dramatically changed the way we communicate. What are the new technologies just over the horizon of this new decade and how can we use them to improve education and skills development?
How can we build new technologies that people actually enjoy and use?
Those are a few of the goals behind the establishment of GRAND Canada, one of three new centres of excellence launched recently by the federal government.
GRAND鈥攕hort for graphics, animation and new media鈥攊nvolves 50 network investigators and 40 collaborating experts working on 30 projects. Led by Kellogg Booth from the University of British Columbia, the national network is funded with $23.2 million over five years. It will be headquartered at the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus, a joint academic collaboration between UBC, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
While based in British Columbia, GRAND involves researchers from coast to coast, including AV俱乐部 professors Elaine Toms and Stephen Brooks.
鈥淭here are some wonderful marriages that can arise because of the interconnectivity of the themes,鈥� says Dr. Toms, Canada Research Chair in Management Informatics, and professor of business administration and computer science.
鈥淲hat makes this so exciting is that potential for collaboration. When we work in disciplinary silos, we can only see one part of the problem and what this allows is to interact with 49 other people in various fields.鈥�
GRAND will explore novel social media, e-learning and edutainment environments that enhance learning and skill development. Interconnected projects 鈥渁re built on a conceptual framework of five themes,鈥� explains Dr. Toms. The themes are: new media challenges and opportunities; games and interactive simulation; animation, graphics and imaging; social, legal, economic and cultural perspectives; and enabling technologies.
Dr. Brooks, associate professor of Computer Science at AV俱乐部, will be involved in three different projects, including investigating ways to 鈥渁dd textures to virtual worlds.鈥� The idea is to build virtual worlds鈥攃ities, parks, trees, landscapes, entire ecosystems鈥攁utomatically for games and digital films, while still maintaining 鈥渁 degree of artistic control,鈥� he says.