Sponsored by
Danby man completes university vision at 69
A Danby businessman has gone back to university and picked up a PhD just months short of his 70th birthday.
Michael Pickard graduated from the University of Sunderland, 10 years after retiring as an overseas director with ICI.
Despite having barely touched a computer over his lifetime, the grandfather chose to embark on a whole new career and signed up for a degree in design graphics and multi-media at the University of Sunderland.
He fitted straight into university life, achieving first-class honours, followed by a distinction in his Masters Degree, before deciding to tackle a five-year PhD. He was even voted student union rep by his much younger peers such was his popularity in the university's Design Centre.
Now, having completed his PhD and set up a successful design partnership with a fellow student, the 69-year-old graduated last week alongside thousands of other students at the Stadium of Light, presided over by university Chancellor Steve Cram.
"My life is 24:7, and I have no plans to slow down," said Michael, a father of three.
"As soon as I retired I wanted to explore computer art, but had no background knowledge. This meant returning to education after more than 40 years, having completed a degree in engineering at London University in 1964, followed by further study in Geneva, funded by his employer.
"I got a place at the University of Sunderland after attending an open day and my second-coming as a student has been life-enhancing.
"I was welcomed by students and staff alike, although secretly I had to work hard at shaking off the corporate dust of the past, and getting some sort of style going in the weird and wonderful world of multi-media and design, but it all came together.
"I eventually caught up with my computer literate new friends and came out with a first-class degree and distinction in my Masters.
"The last step on the road was my decision to do a PhD."
Michael's doctorate explores how recent scientific findings about human vision, can be fully exploited in creative design.
He developed and tested cutting-edge interactive toolsets for designers that allow them to experience for themselves how the brain interprets signals from the eye. Further interactive tools help designers to see how they can use that scientific knowledge proactively, in creative work.
This new approach has received critical acclaim at science conferences around the world including South Africa, Finland and Hong Kong. Michael demonstrated this new concept, by using it to design different creative works two years in a row at the international Illusion Of The Year contest in Sarasota, Florida- reaching the finals in both cases. He was then invited to the third year as a competition judge.
"It's amazing how much information the brain sends to the eye, it does all the work, the eye provides very little.
"Most of what comes in through the eye is removed," said Michael, who was asked to become a judge at the annual contest last year.
"I presented a visual illusion called Steel Magnolias, designed along the lines of an abstract picture, intended as a bridge between visual science and visual art. In it, the plant leaves and flowers appear to be waving gently as if in the breeze. However, everything in the image is rock steady. All the apparent motion is a figment of the viewer's visual system, induced by the careful manipulation of colour values.
"I'm really pleased with it, as the illusion not only looks good but is underpinned by firm design and scientific understanding.
"The following year my presentation was called Pinball Wizard. I had to demonstrate the illusion in front of an audience made up mainly of visual scientists.
The winner is decided by audience vote."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Whitby
Saturday 19 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
