Grand Offers Canadian Businesses $7500 Toward Student Researchers for Innovative New Media
Grand, a Networks Centre of Excellence program for computing, graphic, animation, simulation, 3D and gaming technologies is looking for additional businesses and industry partners to team up with the 25 Canadian universities associated which help support 34 current research projects.
Grand goal is to address complex issues in digital media and transform multi-disciplinary research into simplified user-centered solutions. Mark Salopek, the Manager of Technology Transfer and Commercialization out of Vancouver says that innovation can be very costly.
That’s why Grand is offering $7500 to any company that is willing to employ one of the program’s PH.D student researchers to build the frameworks of innovation towards a goal that will help Canada continue to become a world leader in the digital media industry in any of the latter sectors mentioned.
The $30 million dollar program also does research on how new media is affecting society as a whole and how it’s affecting privacy in conjunction with the Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. More notably, one of the projects has produced the innovative CAPSIM Motion platform for the film and animation industry which captures time-varying geometry of complex physical phenomena including fluids, fire, smoke, fabric, and facial expressions to bring a new level of realism to computer graphics. Other projects include GRNCTY that engage the public participatory media events to understand the roles media can play in forming sustainable attitudes and actions, and INCLUDE which will explore, develop and evaluate technologies to improve access to interactive media systems for people with disabilities, people isolated from others, and seniors.
Further, Grand understands that in some cases, innovation may require prototypes. Thus, companies can also gain additional funds through MITACS in order to move the prototype forward.
You can reach Mark Salopek by e-mail here if you're interested in the program or you're looking to apply for a grant to start making your innovative idea a reality.
