[vtkusers] Thank you! VTK Maintenance Grant

[Will Schroeder]

I am delighted to inform the VTK community that Kitware and five partnering
subcontractors (Brigham & Womens, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, University of
North Carolina, and University of Houston) received a four-year NIH grant
focused on improving and maintaining VTK with the aim of accelerating
innovation in health care. This is a huge accomplishment, not only because
these R01 maintenance grants are extraordinarily competitive (especially in
these fiscally challenging times), but because it's the first time in its
nearly 20 year history that VTK has had direct funding to support it.
Needless to say we are extremely excited and have great plans for the
coming years.

But before I go any further I would like to express my profound gratitude
to the VTK community. While Stephen Aylward drove this proposal with the
help of Katie Osterdahl our most excellent  proposal guru, and Berk
provided much of the vision, in the end I believe the key differentiator
was the approximately 50 letters of support that we received from the
community that made the difference. These letters came from around the
world, ranging from formal academic style to simple statement of support
for the great technology that VTK provides. This outpouring of support
really meant a lot to me and the proposal team, and delivered us a winning
bid. Thank you.

The plan over the coming years is to focus on three primary aims: 1)
rendering and interaction; 2) community support; and 3) targeted outreach
to the medical community. As many of you know, VTK is getting a little old
in the tooth with its current rendering architecture, and there have been
many developments in platforms (web, mobile) and interaction (multi-touch
and alternative interaction devices). So we are going to take VTK to the
next level to support these areas. We also realize that there is a lot of
cruft in the code, documentation, and software processes that can stand
improvement, which we will address from day one. And finally, NIH has
generously funded us to deliver on the promise that we made, namely to
build better software tools with the ultimate goal of improving health care
for millions of individuals. We will work with our academic research
partners to make sure that we deliver on this promise.

And for you folks who aren't in the medical field, please don't feel left
out since two of the three aims will benefit you too. That's the great
thing about open source and the folks that nurture these systems, we work
really hard to integrate efforts from across the community to benefit the
broader developer and use base.

In the coming weeks we will communicate further details about our approach
and timeline, and begin to more energetically engage the community. We will
be seeking your feedback, guidance and help moving VTK forward. So while
the award is relatively large (measured in millions of dollars) it is not
nearly enough to realize our ultimate goal of world domination. We need the
help of the community to take us there, and realize the full potential of
our technology.

So thanks again, and we look forward to working with you.
W

-- 
William J. Schroeder, PhD
Kitware, Inc.
28 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065
will.schroeder at kitware.com
http://www.kitware.com
(518) 881-4902
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