Photo: A/P Sam Schwarzkopf, who has led the development of the new Gen Ed course OPTOM 101G
We are excited to launch a new general education course OPTOM-101G “How We See” to introduce first-year students from all over the University to the interdisciplinary study of human vision. This course is convened by Sam Schwarzkopf, Steven Dakin, and Misha Vorobyev, assisted by a range of guest lecturers from the school and other departments.
Vision supports a wealth of behaviour from simple things like picking up a cup to interpreting the expression on a face and appreciating a beautiful view. This course will provide an overview of the biological and physiological basis of vision, and how it came to be the dominant sense in humankind, the subjective nature of perception and will touch on profound issues faced by individuals who experience loss of vision. We will look at how our understanding of human vision is supporting current breakthroughs in machine vision and examine historical paintings and what they might tell us about artists’ visual experiences.
This course is available to students in their first year of their degree, and also to people who wish to take it as a certificate of proficiency ie are not undertaking a full degree.
For more information click here.