ITK/VTK gains popularity in China

Statistics of ITK/VTK usage in China

Recently, Prof. Yang and his students from Beijing Institute of Technology have collected some interesting statistics of the usage of ITK/VTK in China in terms of publications and web forum activities.  The majority of the ITK/VTK users/developers are graduate students and researchers in universities and research institutions.

1) ITK/VTK Publications

Here are some statistics of the number of publications that used ITK/VTK libraries in their research work during the past 10 years.

 Figure 1. ITK/VTK publications in China ( 2000 ~ 2011)

Chinese researchers and engineers began to use ITK and VTK libraries since 2001 and gradually increase to more than 100 papers published in various journals each year since 2007. The top three research fields in China that are heavily adopting ITK/VTK libraries are:Medical Imaging, Geological Exploration, Industrial Manufacturing and Aerospace Science.  Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Southern Medical University, Fourth Military Medical University, Chongqing University, Hefei Industrial University and  Shanghai Jiao Tong University conducted extensive research using ITK/VTK in the field of medical imaging; Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Geological Surveying and Mapping Institute, Chinese University of Mining and Technology, Wuhan Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Henan Polytechnic University, Chengdu University of Technology and Nanjing Normal University lead the ITK/VTK usage in the field of geological exploration; Huazhong University of Science and Zhejiang University launched a lot of research projects in industrial manufacturing based on ITK/VTK libraries; Nanjing University of Aeronautics Air University, Beijing University of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University had done a few research  projects with VTK/ITK in aerospace science.

                          

                  Figure 2. Top Chinese universities adopting ITK/VTK in their research

2) ITK/VTK online forums

According to number of the registered members on the  Chinese  Visualization Laboratory Forum , the most active forum of ITK/VTK in China, the estimated ITK and VTK users in China  is about 1,6000.  There are  four major online forums serving as the communication platforms to the Chinese ITK/VTK communities.  Several major download websites such as  CSDN,Sina love to ask,Pudn etc., and  a couple of personal blogs and QQ groups are also providing ITK/VTK resources.

The  forums and web resources for ITK/VTK in China are rather sparse and limited. Most ITK/VTK users and developers communicate through QQ (like AOL, MSN) groups from the Visualization Laboratory forum (there are about four main QQ groups, with 500 members in total), which are not easy to archive information for future  references.

Here are some detailed statistics collected  the two major Chinese ITK/VTK forums:

a)  The most popular ITK/VTK forum: VisLab

There are major panels are VTK forum, ITK forum, and resource forum. There are  11,082 registered users and had more than 1,500 posts and more than 8,000 replies.   The discussion topics involved are mainly installation errors of VTK/ITK,  basic Visualization concept clarification , how to use specific  VTK classes and simple vtk algorithms. The resources panel collects ITK/VTK software guides, a few tutorials and shares some useful links in related research fields.

b)  The second popular  ITK/VTK forum: C3P Computer Graphics

This website provides forums for VTK  and ITK discussion.  The VTK Forum has posted 1,853 messages with more than 10,000 replies. There are 189 ITK discussion topics with 911 replies. The discussions are mostly technical details with specific programing questions.

Needs to reach out Chinese ITK/VTK Communities

We have seen a continually  increasing number of source code downloading from China over the past few years for both ITK, VTK and Slicer.  During my ITK tutorial tour in three universities/institutes in three different cities of China this January, I found that there are strong demands for community supports. Graduate students and researchers need better communication channels to get involved and more active in the global open source communities. Although many of them signed up in the mailing lists, very few of them actually actively use the communication channels or contribute to the the open source community back  due to the lack of tutoring and encouragements.

As the releases of ITK 4.0 and VTK 6.0, the needs and opportunities for recruiting new developers into our open source communities presented themselves.  Chinese developers need more community supports to migrate to newer versions of ITK/VTK, and the community needs more contributions and involvement from China. The needs are mutual,  and the time is now!

Right now ITK developers (including me) in Kitware are actively planning a series of tutorials/webinars, covering various basics of good open source practices,  to help the global ITK community rebuilding. We will make sure those resources well distributed among Chinese  ITK communities and start more conversations with ITK developers in China.

Acknowledgement

Many thanks to Prof.Jian Yangof Beijing Institute of Technology, China. All the survey statistics in the article is provided by him and his students. Prof. Yang is very much looking forward to start formal collaborations with us in the near future both in terms of research work and ITK/VTK community building and support  in China.