- New Media, Animation and Games

The institution’s research strengths in the proposed field, assessed against global standards of excellence;

New Media and games creation is not very well represented at UBC so there's not much track record. Better
track record is found in MAGIC and Great Northern Way so linkages here would be critical.  The animation part
is a 5 as the team is excellent there as well as computer human interaction.

The ability of the university to sustain the research advantage created by the proposed chairholder after the
seven year term of the chairholder expires;

BC has a good set of SMEs in the area and well as larger companies so there would be receptor capacity and
funding opportunities in the future. New Media BC would be a logical place to look for support here.

The ability of the institution to leverage additional resources;

not BC strongest suit for New Media and Gaming; animation part, some of the team has good linkage to other
support structures

The potential to apply the research results from the chairholder to advance public policy and/or the potential
to commercialize research discoveries from the chairholder

important area to local, provincial and federal economy; good case can be made for Vancouver and BC to be the
next major game hub

Excellence of area at UBC

for animation - all the researchers mentioned have a strong track record of excellence; however, New Media and
Gaming - this area is not currently supported very well at UBC in the curriculum or research agenda. Computer
Science for example doesn't offer any courses in New Media or Gaming areas so would need to work with Great
Northern Way, New Media BC, MAGIC and Faculty of Education groups to get this stronger.

Resource availability

as pointing out in the application, the chair would need a whole centre for supporting activities but there
doesn't seem to be any plan for building this centre except with the funds associated with the chair. ICICS
and MAGIC probably already have some of this, so this would need to be identified better. As well, Great
Northern Way would need to be linked in here since some of the gaming and new media students are there.

Impact of research

need to set out what problems it will solve and illustrate economic impact stronger

Comments:

Given that the BC government's investment in the area, there would likely be good support for a chair in this
area. However, the current application would need to work within the provincial landscape to get a strong
proposal. The team at this point has not identified the strengths there that would likely be needed to make a
strong proposal.
 
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This could be made into a strong proposal.  Unfortunately, what we have here is only touching on some of the
key issues. I would support this because of the significance of the area and some of the critical strengths in
it at UBC.  But that significance is not articulated well, and the links to some key areas are not being made.

For example, there is a strong emphasize on needing to “study the human part of he experience from
psychological and artistic standpoints” (p. 1), and to focus on “effective user interfaces” and “human
perception” (p. 3).  Indeed, this is articulated as for of the areas of significance in the proposal on page
33, let there is no relation made to the role of the Human Computer Interaction group in Computer Science, the
new HCI Ph.D. program, the links to work by Eric Bateson, or the work in art and music that deals with some of
these issues.  There is also the possibility here of making links to other social sciences, notably sociology,
in addition to psychology – and perhaps kinesiology and other fields. This is an important area that deserves
consideration.  This LOI is not getting at some of the key dimensions.  They could, however, be added.

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CERC UBC reviews, phase I

I would make is this is Vancouver's natural high tech cluster which demonstrates world class talent. The group
at UBC are very involved and currently contributing in the areas important for future economic growth and are
very much in the main stream. A chair would bring additional focus and clarity to the important trends needed
to keep the New Media, Animation and Games research and Canadian industry at the forefront. I would also like
to suggest that there is beginning to be a spill over effect into the Okanagan with successes such as Penguin
being sold to Disney and if successful I would like to suggest that the chairs responsibility include working
with industry and research centered around UBCO.

DEFINITELY - I think this should be one of the nine UBC submits to CECR for Research Chairs of Excellence for
consideration - this one hits all the right economic buttons, is world class and is an obvious next step.