Visual Computing Institute To Tackle Advanced Graphics
Saarland University in Germany will explore advanced graphics technologies at its new Intel Visual Computing Institute, which is being made possible through a five-year, $12 million investment--Intel's largest collaboration with a European university.
The institute, according to Justin Rattner, Intel senior fellow and chief technology officer, is an expansion of Intel's collaboration with Saarland University, which has been happening for a number of years.
"Given the growing importance of visual computing technology," he said, "it made perfect sense to expand our relationship and form this new institute. We are confident that it will become an internationally recognized center and a driver for European leadership in the visual computing field."
The aim of the institute will be to develop technologies that will be used to create intuitive and immersive experiences ont eh Internet, in entertainment, and in productivity and to explore the use of multiple computing cores for advanced graphics.
"The state of Saarland is intensively fostering technology transfer among academic research facilities and the industry," said Peter Müller, prime minister of the state Saarland. "We are very proud of the world-class research conducted at Saarland University, the Max Planck Society research institutes and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. We are equally proud that now we have been able to entice Intel to invest in Saarland. The Intel Visual Computing Institute has the potential to attract even more research in its area of expertise."
The lab will employ about a dozen researchers in its first year and will expand to five times that number in five years, expanding outward to include academic and industry researchers from across Europe.
According to information released by Intel, "The Intel Visual Computing Institute will deliver more compelling visual computing applications through the development of new software designs and architectures, visual computing algorithms and parallel computing solutions. The institute will establish a feedback loop to Intel's hardware design labs--including in Barcelona, Spain and Braunschweig, Germany--contributing to future visual computing hardware design. Current research contributions are expected to yield new software tools and hardware insights within just a few years."
Saarland University, located in Saarbrücken, Germany, serves about 15,500 students and employs about 1,900 faculty and staff. It operates four collaborative research centers.