ACADEMIA

The Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (I-CHASS) has announced that Cross-Disciplinary Investigations in Imaging and Image Analyses: An NSF-Sponsored Workshop has received $50,000 in funding through the National Science Foundation's Information Integration and Informatics (III) program. A collaboration between the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (I-CHASS), the University of Illinois' School of Art and Design, and the Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) at the University of South Carolina, Cross-Disciplinary Investigations in Imaging and Image Analyses will bring together multi-disciplinary stakeholders in the burgeoning field of imaging and image analysis to offer a unique opportunity for cross-collaboration and information-exchange by using computational inquiries to bridge humanities, arts, and social science research.

The two-day workshop, to be held in late-March/early-April, will cover topics including: 2D scanning technologies, 2D and 3D imaging and analysis, content-based image and video retrieval, and preservation strategies. "No matter the domain or subfield, regardless of whether it is clinical and research domains utilizing medical imaging, universe telescope-based imaging, air-borne and ground imaging, satellite imaging, or historical documentary imaging, the challenges related to imaging and image analyses are manifest and common to all researchers and domain-specialists exploring imaging and imaging analysis," said Dr. Peter Bajcsy, Associate Director for Data Analytics and Pattern Recognition at I-CHASS, Research Scientist at NCSA, and co-Principal Investigator of the project. "This workshop will create opportunities for the humanities, arts, and social science communities to explore scientific instruments applied to imaging historical artifacts, as well as opportunities for the scientific community to investigate the adaptation of existing web 2.0 technologies to distributed research."

"The central drive of this workshop is that scholars working in imaging and imaging analyses from across these disciplines have so much to offer one another," said Dr. Jennifer Guiliano, co-Principal Investigator and Associate Director at CDH. "The methods, approaches, and disciplinary pedagogies that one scholar might think obvious from their computational point of view could have the potential to transform the work of another thereby rapidly improving the overall objective of addressing grand challenges in the field of imaging and image analyses."

"Though digital imaging software is today a ubiquitous component of contemporary art and design, most practitioners relate to such technology primarily as consumers, rather than as co-producers," continued Associate Professor Kevin Hamilton, Chair of New Media in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the project's third co-Principal Investigator. "Digital imaging research offers a unique opportunity for discovering with others how meaning is made at the most basic levels of byte and pixel."

Notably, Cross-Disciplinary Investigations in Imaging and Image Analyses recognizes that some boundaries to information sharing may be geographically-driven. Webcast for an international audience, the workshop will bring together representatives from US institutions with their colleagues from foreign academic institutions interested in the use of 2D and 3D imaging devices and applications of image and video analyses in their domains.

"The lack of forums for cross fertilization of imaging and image analysis efforts and ideas in multiple communities developing relevant technologies is not limited to the United States," said Dr. Kevin Franklin, Executive Director of I-CHASS. "We are therefore especially excited that this project will allow for global considerations of approaches to image and imaging analyses and will seed international collaborations for stakeholders across the humanities, arts, social science, and other science and technology domains."

The project's co-Principal Investigators are Dr. Peter Bajcsy, Associate Director for Data Analytics and Pattern Recognition at I-CHASS and a Research Scientist at NCSA, Dr. Jennifer Guiliano, Associate Director of the Center for Digital Humanities and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina, and Dr. Kevin Hamilton, Associate Professor and Chair of New Media in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Further details about the workshop, including final dates, speakers, and registration information, will be announced later this year.