Sponsors

As part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft's Excellence initiative, the Universtiy of Tübingen received funding for its future concept Research - Relevance - Responsibility (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, ZUK 63). The future concept involves the support of young scientists by providing funding for the realization of workshops. Within this framework, the future concept funded the majority of the VECTOR workshop as a small academic conference initialized by junior researchers of the University Tübingen. The VECTOR workshop would not have been possible without this support, and we wish to thank the future concept for the possibility to organize this workshop and the financial support for inviting and hosting external researchers, hiring student assistants, and catering.

The Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) is also funded in the context of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft's Excellence initiative. The CIN aims at understanding brain functions on many different levels by facilitating an interdisciplinary approach. The CIN supports various research groups within Tübingen and cooperates with different research institutes within and around Tübingen. Research at the CIN is predominantly basic research, although it counts many application-focused institutions among its many different internal and external collaborating partners. We wish to thank the CIN for the support regarding the travel and the accommodation of the plenary speakers and the general support in preparing the workshop.

Since its foundation in 1991, the Sensomotoric Instruments GmbH (SMI) has become one of the most prominent distributors and developers of eye tracking solutions. SMI made a major contribution to the recent progress in virtual reality technologies by developing the first integrated eye tracking system for head mounted displays, as well as the first commercially-available mobile virtual reality headset with eye tracking support. We are pleased to welcome SMI presenting their recent virtual reality eye tracking solutions at the venue and in a dedicated presentation. Especially for current or upcoming users of their technologies, SMI will also offer a tutorial, together with VTplus. We wish to thank SMI for the financial as well as the scientific support.

The VTplus GmbH was founded as a spin-off of the Department of Psychology I of the University of Würzburg. VTplus has become a major distributor of virtual reality simulation systems and software solutions, which are used in empirical research and therapeutic treatments. The interdisciplinary team comprises psychologists, psychotherapists, computer scientists and graphic and media designers, with many years of experience regarding the development VR systems. VTplus will offer a tutorial regarding the usage of CyberSession to setup and control VR experiments, as well as on the generation of virtual environments with the Valve Source SDK. Together with SMI, VTplus will present a case study on the application of HMD eye tracking in anxiety therapy research. Further information regarding virtual environments and software solutions provided by VTplus can be found here. We are looking forward to welcome VTplus at the VECTOR workshop and we wish to thank VTplus for the financial as well as the scientific support.

The General Psychiatry and Psychotherapy is part of the University Hospital Tübingen. Besides patient care and medical education, the General Psychiatry and Psychotherapy is also engaged in the research of treatments and foundations of the whole spectrum of mental disorders. We wish to thank the General Psychiatry and Psychotherapy for providing the venue, not only for the lectures but also for the tutorials, as well as for the support in organizing the workshop in general.