The Visual Information Processing (VIP) research group was formed in 1999 following funding from the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. Originally the research in the area was carried out by the Computer Vision and Graphics Group at the Department of Computing. The new name reflects the group's broadened interests in pursuing fundamental research and real-world applications of
The main areas of computing and engineering that the group draws on are varied and the major domain of the applications that we cover is medicine, where we work directly with many research centres of the Imperial College School of Medicine. The strength of the group is in its ability in pursuing fundamental, long-term blue sky research as well as developing practical systems that can be used in research, clinical and industrial environments. The Group has attracted significant funding from the government, industrial, and charitable sources in recent years.
1999 - The VIP group was founded following the return of Prof Guang-Zhong Yang from the Royal Brompton Hospital back to Imperial College London
2000 - Support from the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation for the Creation of Royal Society/Wolfson Medical Image Computing Laboratory at Imperial. The project was given personal support from two Nobel Laureates, Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, who invented Computed Tomography, and Sir John Vane, who discovered the wide role of prostaglandins in the human body. 
2001 - Phase I of the Laboratory completed, and the new lab was opened on 7th March, 2001 by Sir John and Sir Godfrey (click here for Sir John's Openning Speach). Prof Yang also received the Prestigeous Research Merit Award from the Royal Society. (click here to see the photo diary of the refurbishment).
2002 - Further funding was provided from the Wolfson Foundation to Prof Yang and Prof Sir Ara Darzi for the Phase II of the Laboratory and the creation of Wolfson Surgical Technology Laboratory at Imperial. The event also marked the formal integration of Prof Darzi's Department in Surgery with the VIP group. Joint faculty positions were created between the two departments, and PhDs and PostDoc research fellows were given 'hot seats' on both campuses. (click here to see the photo diary of the refurbishment).
2004 - The creation of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBE) at Imperial College, and formal association of the Royal Society/Wolfson MIC laboratory with the IBE, where Prof Yang is the Research Director of Medical Imaging.