The Center's ability to mount coordinated efforts that draw on many subdisciplines within and beyond computer science makes it possible to tackle ambitious research projects beyond the capacities of single-site labs, particularly the foundational projects needed for advances in graphics and visualization. The Center has also made possible a sustained commitment to education and outreach with the dual goals of training the next generation of researchers and attracting new and diverse participants. Center faculty are deeply involved in teaching both undergraduate and graduate students in our labs, and the Center's education and outreach programs affect our local communities as well as the computer graphics field as a whole. We are now concentrating on leveraging our outreach by providing programs for teachers and by creating Web-based materials to reach large numbers of teachers and students. Our linkages to industry remain strong, not in the least through a steady flow of graduates into both established companies and startups.
Companies face a shortage of qualified graphics specialists and recruit proactively on our campuses.
Despite major downsizing of research in the workstation industry, we have fostered relationships with industrial sponsors that include direct funding, technical exchanges and collaborations, personnel exchanges, and donations of lab equipment. Center alumni frequently maintain ties that add value to our students' educational experience and ensure a continuous dialogue between industrial and academic interests. The commercial success of computer graphics as a new medium for creation, communication and analysis comes directly out of fundamental research done in the last decade. It is imperative, however, that this success not distract attention from the need to continue the underlying research. By continuing the high level of research for which the Center is known, we remain in a unique position to fulfill our goal of working together to strengthen the foundations of computer graphics to help the field realize its potential.