IGERT: Graduate Training Program in Interactive Digital Multimedia

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This IGERT award will support the establishment of a multidisciplinary graduate training program of education and research at UCSB in the broad field of interactive digital multimedia. The objective of the program is to train students in a truly interdisciplinary approach to digital multimedia, while preparing them for careers in industry, research, and education. The convergence of digital media, computing, and communication has created new and exciting opportunities in science, engineering, and the arts. The goal of this program is to integrate multiple, diverse approaches to the creation, analysis, deployment, and utilization of digital media within a coherent educational framework of training and research. This multidisciplinary endeavor necessitates collaboration between students and faculty from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives, including computer science, electrical and computer engineering, psychology, geography, design, composition, and art. Through innovative and interdepartmental courses and seminars, opportunities for internships in industry, and guidance by faculty from several departments, students will gain a unique perspective on interactive multimedia, including the creation, encoding, and distribution of multimedia content, as well as applications of multimedia systems in education, communication, and arts and entertainment. Areas of focus for research and education include image, video, and audio processing, networking, human-computer interaction, graphics and visualization, visual arts, interactive media, and computer music. The graduate training program will emphasize a broad background in several of these areas, while research projects, interactive installations and artistic performances will bring together small, interdisciplinary teams of researchers with diverse expertise. The IGERT-supported program will leverage existing strengths at UCSB in related areas and will involve the participation of several departments. The program will complement the UCSB Media Arts and Technology Program, a masters-level graduate program, by enabling doctoral students from several departments to build upon the current foundation it provides.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fifth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-one institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.