[ITK-users] Letters of Support for VTK proposal

[Will Schroeder]

We really can use more letters of support, they mean a lot in the review
process. Please consider sending us one. And thanks to those of you that
already have.
Best,
Will

On Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 11:06 AM Will Schroeder <will.schroeder at kitware.com>
wrote:

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> *Dear VTK Community-Kitware is submitting a VTK development grant proposal
> to the NIH in early July, and we’d like you to send us a letter of support
> for that proposal. This four year proposal aims to make significant
> improvements to VTK including rendering enhancements (VR and AR), better
> support for the web (such as VTK.js), improved data integration (supporting
> deep learning systems and federated, distributed databases, for example),
> and updated mechanisms for community support (improving the software and
> contribution process, documentation).We are very excited about the proposal
> since it will make a very positive impact on VTK, its community, and the
> many applications that use VTK. Several years ago we received a similar
> award and were able to revamp our rendering support (OpenGL), improve our
> software processes, and lay the foundation for VTK.js (among other
> achievements). Now, we can really use your help with our follow-on
> proposal. Part of the strategy of our proposal is to demonstrate to the
> reviewers that VTK plays a critical part in medical innovation. Along this
> line, we want to hear from the developers and users of VTK, so that they
> can indicate their support for VTK and our proposal.If you’d like to help,
> we have included three example letters.  Please modify one of them to fit
> your circumstances, copy it to your letterhead, sign it, and then send it
> (a scanned pdf is fine) directly to me by June 30. These letters in no way
> obligate you or your employer, they simply state “VTK is great and
> important to my work.” Also, don’t worry if you are not doing biomedical
> research, we want to hear from everybody. Note that this information (i.e.,
> the names of endorsers) is considered private, only the writers of the VTK
> proposal and the NIH review team will see this information.If you have any
> questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly. Thanks and
> we hope to hear from you (by June 30). Feel free to forward this to friends
> and family.Sincerely,Will SchroederStephen AylwardKen MartinExample support
> letters follow:Example 1=========Dr. Ken MartinKitware, Inc.28 Corporate
> DriveClifton Park, NY 12065, USADear Dr. Martin,I am writing to indicate my
> support for your NIH proposal for the continued development of VTK. The VTK
> standards and software are absolutely critical to my lab, the ___ Lab at
> ___ University, and to my collaborators around the world. Even as we speak,
> I am working on a project involving complex visualizations using 3D Slicer,
> Osirix, ParaView, and ITKSnap (which are largely built on VTK). Several of
> my students also use VTK software libraries to write customized user
> interfaces and visualizations for my scientific and clinical collaborators.
> Our most recent application was for a physiologist who wanted to explore
> very specialized data related to the movement of the tongue in speech after
> glossectomy surgery.There are many worthy software projects under
> development around the world, but very few who can claim to be
> foundational. VTK can claim this, and I'm certain it can claim to be at the
> core of hundreds of software products that will be used by many biomedical
> researchers and thousands more that will be developed and used in-house.
> The complexity of visualization tasks has continued to grow with the volume
> of data and its connections across scales and from anatomy to function and
> from individuals to populations. VTK is keeping up with the demand—leading
> the rest, in fact—and should be a high priority for continued
> funding.Example 2=========Dr. William J. SchroederKitware, Inc.28 Corporate
> DriveClifton Park, NY 12065, USADear Dr. Schroeder,I enthusiastically
> endorse your proposed effort to support and improve VTK. We use this open
> source software in our work and have found it extremely helpful as we
> create new technological solutions. We have developed a software
> application that is currently being used by around the world for scientific
> data visualization to gain new insights. Your Visualization Toolkit has
> provided the software tools needed to develop that application that has
> satisfied the needs of a very diverse customer base. We definitely would be
> interested in your proposed VR/AR enhancements and improved integration
> with web services. VTK fills a vital role in the international community’s
> scientific computing infrastructure; additional developments along the
> lines that you propose will certainly accelerate innovation.Example
> 3=========Dr. Stephen R. AylwardKitware, Inc.101 East Weaver St, Ste
> G4Carrboro, NC  27510, USADear Dr. Aylward,I am writing in ardent support
> of your NIH proposal to continue the development, enhancement, and
> dissemination of the Visualization Toolkit (VTK). Not only do I use it in
> several projects myself, but I have found that it fosters the dissemination
> and extension of research by allowing the community to efficiently
> reproduce research, to easily combine contributions in unexpected ways, and
> to transfer research into production. Developing and maintaining a project
> as large and complex as VTK while fostering such an active community is a
> breathtaking achievement, and I hope Kitware obtains the funding it needs
> to keep this work up. *
>
>
> --
> William J. Schroeder, PhD
> Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
> 28 Corporate Drive
> Clifton Park, NY 12065
> will.schroeder at kitware.com
> http://www.kitware.com
> (518) 881-4902
>


-- 
William J. Schroeder, PhD
Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
28 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065
will.schroeder at kitware.com
http://www.kitware.com
(518) 881-4902
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