Last year we were awarded a Microsoft Surface hub and funding by Microsoft Research and Microsoft. This was based on our Academic Research Request Proposal for the “Intelligent Canvas for Data Analysis and Exploration”. We are pleased to announce our Surface Hub Crucible program for the summer of 2017 here in SACHI in the University of St Andrews.

The primary goal of our Surface Hub Crucible is to afford exceptional undergraduate students the opportunity to participate and contribute to exciting yet challenging research projects and to inspire these students to take the first step on a path to a research career. The crucible will be an environment for students which emphasises cooperation among researchers within and across projects, and which leverages varied topics to ensure that all students are exposed to a wide range of state of the art research and facilities.
While focusing on world class intelligent canvas research with the Surface Hub the crucible will provide our student cohort with exposure to leading research and researchers, cutting edge problems, challenging topics, outreach activities, weekly seminars etc. Our aim is for each intern to produce one research paper suitable for publication.
Specifically, our six core principles in the Crucible are:

1. To afford undergraduate interns the opportunity to undertake leading
   intelligent canvas research with the Microsoft Surface Hub;
2. To introduce our research to undergraduates through exciting real-world
   Microsoft Surface Hub applications that will actually be deployed, used
   or incorporated into on-going research projects;
3. To expose students to novel research problems, cross-cutting research
   exploration, use of the Surface Hub with specialised state of the art
   equipment and inter-disciplinary research expertise;
4. To provide a foundation of basic research skills to the undergraduate
   interns which will aid them in transforming their research internship
   experience into a long term plan for research or subsequent research
   career options;
5. To stimulate enrolment in graduate studies in intelligent canvas
   topics through involvement of talented undergraduate students in
   scientific investigation under mentorship of researchers and
   prepare scholars for graduate studies;
6. To develop showcase exemplars of our research with the Surface
   Hub that will allow us to tell the story of our research to the wider
   lay community.