Boeing gives $1.25 million to launch new tech institute

By Gillian Shaw, Vancouver, April 27, 2010

The Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics, bringing researchers from the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University together in collaboration with industry partners, launched Monday with a $1.25-million investment from the Boeing Co.

The creation of the institute here helps propel Vancouver to the forefront of innovation in visual analytics, an area that combines visualization with analysis techniques to turn the massive and growing amounts of data being produced into knowledge that can be used to answer questions and solve problems.

"There is a great opportunity for bringing people together not only across universities but with companies," said Fred Popowich, director of the new institute that will be based at SFU but includes researchers from both universities. "We all know how much data is out there and it is growing quickly.

Read more.