We are pleased to announce the availability of two new short courses devoted to practical aspects of vision research, which will be led by Caterina Ripamonti, Tom Robson and Jakob Thomassen. The "Measuring Light and Managing Colour" and "Display Devices and their Characterisation for Vision Research" courses include a mixture of lecture material, demonstrations created with MATLAB and Psychtoolbox, and an opportunity to use a variety of test equipment.

Topics include: how to measure light with an appropriate instrument; how to specify and generate visual stimuli, especially coloured stimuli; how different display technologies produce their light output, and how to interpret manufacturer specifications; how to characterise a display and manage its output over time. We aim specifically to help early-career vision scientists to understand how to evaluate display technologies and light measuring instruments, and to choose tools that are appropriate for reproducing visual stimuli on modern computer-controlled displays.

The courses will be offered for the first time in 2014 as an official VSS 2014 Satellite event; they are free and open to all VSS attendees. Registration is not compulsory but highly recommended, as spaces are limited. To register, please email enquiries@crsltd.com and indicate which courses you would like to attend (you can register for both events). The short courses will take place on 16th May 2014, at the VSS conference venue: the Tradewinds Island Resorts, St. Pete Beach, Florida. The courses will start at 8am and finish at 12 noon. Drinks and snacks will be provided. Note that the Satellite Event is neither sponsored nor endorsed by VSS.

About the instructors

Caterina Ripamonti

Caterina (Katia) Ripamonti has recently joined Cambridge Research Systems from UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, where she retains an Honorary Senior Research Fellowship. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Katia is the author of various papers on human colour vision, spatial and temporal properties of normal and defective vision, and applied aspects of colour science related to human factors, as well as the co-author of the book Computational Colour Science using MATLAB.

Tom Robson

Tom Robson is an imaginative engineer and the founder of Cambridge Research Systems. He has a deep understanding of the technical challenges facing vision scientists; for more than twenty five years Tom has invented new and original tools to help advance vision science. He authored the Topics in computerized visual-stimulus generation chapter of Vision Research: A Practical Guide to Laboratory Methods and co-authored the Display characterization chapter of the Encyclopedia of Imaging Science and Technology.

Jakob Thomassen

Jakob Thomassen is a biomedical engineer and neuroscientist. He is the author of papers on biomedical recording techniques, eye movements and neurophysiology. Jakob recently joined Cambridge Research Systems as a Staff Scientist, having previously worked as a Research Fellow in laboratories in Switzerland and the USA.