June 2015 - Infovis - infovis.org

IEEE VIS 2015: VAST challenge: Deadline July 7th, 2015
by Jian Chen 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

This is a friendly reminder: the VAST challenge submission deadline is fast approaching. For more information, please visit http://ieeevis.org/year/2015/info/call-participation/vast-challenge. *VAST Challenge 2015 Call for Participation* Announcing the VAST Challenge 2015! All data are now available. See http://vacommunity.org/VASTchallenge2015 for details. This year’s VAST Challenge presents two related mini-challenges and an overall Grand Challenge for your consideration. The challenges are open to teams and individuals in academia, industry, and government. This year, we would like to encourage participants create innovative visualizations to support their analyses of the data. There will be many different features within the data sets that could use creative approaches, so even if your particular approach doesn’t address the entire Challenge problem set, please enter and show us your new ways of working with this data. *Background* *Note: This scenario and all the people, places, groups, technologies, contained therein are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, places, groups, or technologies is purely coincidental.* DinoFun World is a modest-sized park amusement park, sitting on about 215 hectares and hosting thousands of visitors each day. It has a small town feel, but it is well known for its exciting rides and events. One event last year was a weekend tribute to Scott Jones, internationally renowned football (“soccer,” in US terminology) star. Scott is from a town nearby DinoFun World. DinoFun World declared “Scott Jones Weekend” where he was scheduled to appear in two stage shows each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to talk about his life and career. In addition, a show of memorabilia from his career would be displayed in the park’s Pavilion. However, the event did not go as planned. Scott’s weekend was marred by crime and mayhem perpetrated by a poor, misguided and disgruntled figure from Scott’s past. While the crimes were rapidly solved, park officials and law enforcement figures are interested in understanding what happened during that weekend to better prepare themselves for future events. They are interested in understanding how people move and communicate in the park, as well as how patterns change and evolve over time, and what can be understood about the motivations for changing patterns. *The Challenges* *Mini-Challenge 1 * Mini-Challenge 1 focuses on movement of people around the park. You are asked to characterize the movement of groups and individuals, with a special emphasis on what might be relevant to better understanding the incident that occurred in June 2014. Please visit VAST Challenge 2015: Mini-Challenge 1 <http://vacommunity.org/2015+VAST+Challenge%3A+MC1> for more information and to download the data. *Mini-Challenge 2 * Mini-Challenge 2 asks you to dive into the communications over time that took place among the park visitors using the park app. Linkages between visitors and among park patrons and park staff could reveal behaviors of interest. Please visit VAST Challenge 2015: Mini-Challenge 2 <http://vacommunity.org/2015+VAST+Challenge%3A+MC2> for more information and to download the data. *The Grand Challenge * The Grand Challenge requires you to blend your knowledge obtained from the two mini-challenges to answer questions of interest to law enforcement officials. How was the crime executed and who was responsible? Please visit VAST Challenge 2015: Grand Challenge <http://vacommunity.org/2015+VAST+Challenge%3A+Grand+Challenge> for more information. *For Further Information* For more information, please see http://vacommunity.org/VASTchallenge2015 or contact vast-challenge(a)ieeevis.org. The submission deadline is July 7, 2015. We look forward to seeing your creative solutions! *VAST Challenge Committee co-chairs* Kris Cook, Georges Grinstein, and Mark Whiting Best regards, - Jian ------------------------------------------------------------- Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Prof. CSEE, University of Maryland Baltimore County http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen

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2nd call for applications: Doctoral Candidate Position in Machine Learning and Visual Analytics (Aalto University, Finland) - deadline June 17
by Peltonen Jaakko 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

Doctoral Candidate Position in Machine Learning and Visual Analytics A PhD position is available at the Statistical Machine Learning and Bioinformatics Group, Aalto University, Finland. Finding and understanding what is relevant in big data is challenging and needs support from novel computational methods. You will develop new probabilistic modeling and machine learning based methods for exploratory data analysis and visualization, applied to big data domains such as scientific publications or online news. Join us to create new ways to explore big data. The position is a full-time and fixed-term 2+2 years research position funded by the Revolution of Knowledge Work 2 research project (www.reknow.fi) which develops methods and tools for modern knowledge work such as advanced interactive information retrieval systems that outperform traditional typed query systems. The highly successful research has already led to numerous publications and a spin-off company. A master's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics, visual analytics, or a related field is needed. An interest in probabilistic modeling and/or machine learning is necessary. A strong study record is appreciated. Studies or practical experience in machine learning, probabilistic modeling, information visualization, and/or visual analytics is an advantage. Good programming skills in languages such as C/C++/Matlab/R/Python and good written and spoken communication skills are desired. It is possible to start as an undergraduate working on the master's thesis. About Aalto: Aalto University (www.aalto.fi) is a new multidisciplinary university created from a merger between three leading universities - the Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The university has 20 000 students and a staff of 5 000 including 370 professors. The position is at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, a joint research institute of Aalto University and University of Helsinki. HIIT's research has been deemed excellent in assessments by its scientific advisory board and by the two universities. The research group (research.ics.aalto.fi/mi/) is multicultural, lively, and has a highly successful track record. Finland is a Nordic country achieving high scores in evaluations of education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, and quality of life. The research site is at the Aalto University campus. Helsinki and the capital area are a great place to live, with numerous local attractions and events, scenic landscapes of small forests, islands and urban areas, a high standard of living, and excellent travel connections to national and international destinations. How to Apply: Please fill in your application using the Saima recruitment system, see the link in the online version: http://www.aalto.fi/en/about/careers/jobs/view/509/ The application materials must include a motivation letter, curriculum vitae, a copy of study records, contact details of at least two references, and any other materials deemed relevant. The application deadline is June 17th, 2015. Further information: For additional information, please contact Academy Research Fellow Jaakko Peltonen (email: jaakko.peltonen [at] aalto.fi).

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IEEE VIS 2015: Poster CFP: deadline 6/26/2015
by Jian Chen 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

IEEE VIS 2015 Poster CFP: http://ieeevis.org/year/2015/info/call-participation/posters IMPORTANT DATES Submission Deadline: June 26, 2015 (5pm PDT) Notification: July 24, 2015 Final Submission of Camera Ready Summaries: August 7, 2015 Submission of Video Previews: August 7, 2015 The IEEE VIS 2015 Poster Program offers a timely venue to present and discuss new visualization research through a forum that encourages graphical presentation, demonstration and active engagement with IEEE VIS participants. In addition to a poster being displayed throughout IEEE VIS - a two-page summary of your work will be published in the electronic Conference Proceedings - interactive poster sessions will provide a forum for presenting your work and discussing new ideas with your peers - video previews for posters are strongly suggested Examples of appropriate visualization work include, but are not limited to: - research exploring new problems or areas, - the results of student or pilot projects, - new angles on existing (collections of) work or known data sets, - work in progress presented prior to its full publication, and - any work that might particularly benefit from demonstration to and active discussion with the visualization community. Case studies in all application areas are welcome. We particularly encourage contributions that take advantage of the nature of the poster space and forum to present and raise awareness of the work in effective and imaginative ways. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS Visit the Posters FAQ page for some useful tips for authors. Poster authors must submit a two-page summary of their work in the VGTC conference two-column format in line with the IEEE VIS formatting guidelines http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~vis/Tasks/camera.html Summaries should include a concise description of the idea, the results or findings, supporting imagery and figures, and a discussion of the implications of the work to the selected domain. Full literature searches are not expected, although relevant citations should be included. The posters themselves have no predefined formatting, but dimensions may not exceed A0 paper size (841mm x 1189mm / 33.1" x 46.8"). ONLY PORTRAIT FORMAT IS ACCEPTABLE. Poster authors are encouraged to include a draft or sketch of the poster layout and content in their submission to help reviewers and show that the poster format is being used effectively. This should be in PDF format Those who intend to show demos are also highly encouraged to submit an accompanying video or other supplementary materials according to the IEEE VIS formatting guidelines http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~vis/Tasks/supplement.html Authors whose posters are accepted for IEEE VIS will be asked to refine their posters and summaries based upon feedback from reviewers. The poster itself only needs to be prepared for and brought to the poster session at IEEE VIS but should hang throughout the week. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS All IEEE VIS poster submissions should be made through a single submission category on PCS - IEEE VIS Poster. After logging into PCS at https://precisionconference.com/~vgtc/, start your submission by selecting "IEEE VIS Posters 2015" and then select the conference to which you are submitting a poster: Scientific Visualization (SciVis) - for conference themes see IEEE Scientific Visualization Call for Participation Information Visualization (InfoVis) - for conference themes see IEEE Information Visualization Call for Participation Vsual Analytics Science and Technologies (VAST) - for conference themes see IEEE VAST Call for Participation POSTER SESSION Authors of accepted posters are required to bring an explanatory hardcopy poster for display during IEEE VIS. They should be available at the poster to discuss their work during the scheduled evening poster session(s). All authors who plan to show live demos or video should clearly indicate this fact in their submissions. We encourage you to bring a laptop to the poster session where tables will be provided. POSTER REVIEW PROCESS Each poster submission will be read and evaluated by at least two reviewers. Submissions will be evaluated according to originality, significance, suitability for the venue (levels of interest, relevance) and the potential for prompting discussion. All authors will receive reviews of their submission explaining the decision and providing feedback. Authors of posters that are accepted are expected to address any recommendations and conditions of acceptance prior to final submission. BEST POSTER AWARDS The chairs of each conference will award a 'Best Poster' prize to the authors of what is deemed the strongest submission to the conference according to the reviewing criteria. 'Best Poster' authors will receive a signed certificate. CONFERENCE POSTER CHAIRS Jing Yang, University of North Carolina, Charlotte (VAST) Enrico Bertini, NYU (VAST) Niklas Elmqvist, University of Maryland (InfoVis) Tim Dwyer, Monash University Australia (InfoVis) Xiaoru Yuan, Peking University (SciVis) Hamish Carr, University of Leeds (SciVis) For details about the conferences or to discuss any aspects of your submission please email posters(at)ieeevis.org Best regards, - Jian ------------------------------------------------------------- Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Prof. CSEE, University of Maryland Baltimore County http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen

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IEEE VIS2015: Visual Data Science Symposium CFP: deadline July 1st
by Jian Chen 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

IEEE VIS 2015 <http://ieeevis.org/> http://ieeevis.org/ <http://ieeevis.org/> 25-30 October 2015 Chicago, Illinois, USA Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ieeevis (please spread the news) Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/ieeevis> https://www.facebook.com/ieeevis (please ‘like’ us) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IEEE-VIS-4469236?home=&gid=4469236&trk=anet… *Visual Data Science Symposium: * <http://visualdatascience.org/> <http://visualdatascience.org/>*http://visualdatascience.org <http://visualdatascience.org/> * Contact: <contact(a)visualdatascience.org>contact(a)visualdatascience.org Important dates: - *July 1, 2015 5:00pm PST:* Submission of Short Papers (4-6 pages) and Posters - September 4, 2015: Author Notification - September 18, 2015: Camera Ready Submission and Copyright Forms The symposium will feature a series of invited presentations by leading data scientists covering visualization in data science. In addition, there will be short paper presentations and a poster session. Papers Paper submissions should be 4-6 pages and describe the role, application, and impact of visualization in data science. We would like to particularly encourage papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and show how visualization in data science can be a catalyst for discovery. Papers will be published on the symposium website and will be included on the VIS USB stick. We consider papers as work in progress and encourage authors to publish an improved version of the paper in a journal or at another venue at a later time. Review Process Paper submissions will be managed by the Program Chairs and sent to external reviewers to evaluate the work’s novelty and significance. You have the option to have your work reviewed via a double-blind process; to do this, simply be sure to exclude all identifying information in the submitted manuscript file, ensuring that the reviewers will not know the identify of the authors. Otherwise, the review process will be single-blind, i.e., the reviewers will know the identity of the authors, but the authors will not know the identity of the reviewers. Submission and Formatting Guidelines Please format your submission according to the <http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Tasks/camera.html>VGTC formatting guidelines <http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Tasks/camera.html>. To submit a paper please use the <https://precisionconference.com/~vds15/>Precision Conference System <https://precisionconference.com/~vds15/>. After logging in go to “new submissions” and select “Submit to Papers” for VDS 2015. Posters Submissions consist of a brief 250-word abstract and one supporting image that summarizes your work. You must present a corresponding poster during the designated poster session, and are encouraged to incorporate a demo or video into your presentation. You also have the opportunity to give a brief oral preview during a plenary ‘fast forward’ session. We encourage submission of work in progress and preliminary results, previously published work from other venues, and visualization challenges relevant to data science. Review Process Poster submissions will be reviewed for relevance and interest to the data science community by the program chairs. Submission and Formatting Guidelines Poster submissions consist of a 250 word textual abstract and a supporting image (required). Optionally, you can also submit a link to a short video or other supplementary material such as software. Accepted poster submissions will be asked to prepare a poster and present it on the day of the symposium. Please e-mail your submission to <contact(a)visualdatascience.org> contact(a)visualdatascience.org before the submission deadline. Symposium Chairs - <http://www.vis.uni-konstanz.de/mitglieder/keim/>Daniel Keim <http://www.vis.uni-konstanz.de/mitglieder/keim/>, University of Konstanz - <http://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/pfister>Hanspeter Pfister <http://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/pfister>, Harvard University - <http://vgc.poly.edu/~csilva/>Claudio Silva <http://vgc.poly.edu/~csilva/>, New York University Program Chairs - <http://alexander-lex.com/>Alexander Lex <http://alexander-lex.com/>, Harvard University - <http://marc-streit.com/>Marc Streit <http://marc-streit.com/>, Johannes Kepler University Best regards, -- Jian ------------------------------------------------------------- Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Prof. CSEE, University of Maryland Baltimore County http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen

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CFP -- Visual Decision Analytics Minitrack at HICSS 49, January 2016, Kauai, HI -- Submission deadline June 15!
by Fisher Brian 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Dear colleagues— We are soliciting papers in interactive visualization and analytics for decision support, operational management, and scientific discovery as part of the Interactive Visual Decision Analytics minitrack of the Decision Analytics Track at HICSS 48: http://www.hicss.org/#!interactive-visual-decision-analytics/c15yf <http://www.hicss.org/#!interactive-visual-decision-analytics/c15yf> Accepted paper will appear in the proceedings as well as the IEEE Digital Library. HICSS is always one of the top conferences for downloads in the IEEE Digital Library! A description of the paper topics is below, the minitrack RFP is included, and the conference RFP is also attached. Please contact us with any questions. the minitrack description is http://www.hicss.org/#!interactive-visual-decision-analytics/c15yf <http://www.hicss.org/#!interactive-visual-decision-analytics/c15yf> , the conference RFP is:http://www.hicss.org/#!call-for-papers/c1cd9 <http://www.hicss.org/#!call-for-papers/c1cd9> . We look forward to receiving your submissions by June 15 Please contact us with any questions. David, Brian, Kelly David Ebert Brian Fisher Kelly Gaither —— Minitrack: Interactive Visual Decision Analytics minitrack DECISION ANALYTICS, MOBILE SERVICES AND SERVICE SCIENCE Track Interactive Visual Decision Analytics supports human decision making through interaction with data and statistical and machine learning processes. IVDA applies in broad range of situations where human expertise must be brought to bear on problems characterized by massive datasets and data that are uncertain in fact, relevance, location in space and position in time. Current applications include environmental science and technologies, natural resources and energy, health and related life sciences, precision medicine, safety and security and business processes. We also encourage submissions that extend the areas of use to new analytic tasks in science and technology, public health, business intelligence, financial analysis, and other domains. Submissions may include studies of visual analytics and decision support in the context of an organization (e.g., communication between analysts and policy-makers), perceptual and cognitive aspects of the analytic task, Interactive Machine Learning, and collaborative analysis using visual information systems. Submissions may include studies of visual analytics and decision support in the context of an organization (e.g., communication between analysts and policy-makers), perceptual and cognitive aspects of the analytic task, and collaborative analysis using visual information systems. We seek to define analytical methods and technologies that use interactive visualization to meet challenges posed by data, platforms, and applications for decision making and risk-based decision making, such as: • Visualization and Analysis of datasets of varying size and complexity from archives and real-time streams • Collaborative visual analysis and operational coordination within and across organizations. • Interactive and Visual Risk-based decision making • Cross-platform interoperability, from mobiles to data walls • Managing response time of complex analytical tasks • Effective deployment and case studies of success from deployed visualization and analytics experiences We invite computational, cognitive, and organizational perspectives on advanced data processing and interactive visualization across a range of human endeavors. We also invite participation from researchers who are looking at scaling issues and multiscale issues, whether these scales refer to the time of decision making, the form-factor and operational constraints of mobile devices, the number of decision makers or the more traditional notion of multiscale simulation and real world scales of data. We are particularly interested in approaches that combine computational and interactive analytics in “mixed initiative” systems, decision support in the context of an organization (e.g. communication between analysts and policy-makers), perceptual and cognitive aspects of the analytic task, and collaborative analysis using visual information systems. Authors are encouraged to bring the lens of their own background and expertise to focus on the analytics of the data itself and coordination of multiple levels of analysis and operations to the design and evaluation of effective presentations for stakeholders

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Postdoc position in real-time 3D brain-activity visualization, Inria, France
by Jussi T. Lindgren 08 Jun '15

08 Jun '15

Dear InfoVis community, we have a post-doctoral position open with the following topic, Real-time 3D brain-activity visualization (EEG) The position is within the French 'laboratoire d’excellence' CominLabs project SABRE in collaboration between Inria Rennes and Telecom Bretagne. The project concerns developing real-time EEG source localization methods in software and hardware using either portable or high-density EEG devices (e.g. 256 electrodes) with applications in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), neurofeedback, and re-education. The offered position centers around proposing and testing novel real-time visualization methods in this context. Location: Inria Rennes / France. Hiring date/start: End of 2015 For more information, please see http://openvibe.inria.fr/openvibe/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/position-Postd… Keywords: EEG, BCI, scientific and medical visualization, inverse models, signal processing Best regards, Jussi T. Lindgren, PhD Lead Engineer @ OpenViBE / Inria France

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IEEE VIS: Visualization in Practice CFP - Deadline 3 July 2015
by Jian Chen 05 Jun '15

05 Jun '15

IEEE VIS 2015 http://ieeevis.org/ 25-30 October 2015 Chicago, Illinois, USA Visualization in Practice Call for Submissions for Application Night Application Night at VIS2015 is an opportunity for practitioners to share their work in an informal presentation setting. This combination poster session and presentation night will be a unique opportunity for discussion, feedback, invention and brainstorming about your work. We invite the submission of papers and/or posters from practitioners who apply visualization and analysis to real-world applications in journalism, industry, national laboratories, government, NGOs, and any other application area. Submission Deadline: 3 July 2015 See: http://ieeevis.org/year/2015/info/call-participation/visualization-practice Chairs: Alan Keahey, IBM Justin Talbot, Tableau William Wright, Uncharted software inc. (formerly Oculus Info Inc.) Best regards, - Jian (on behalf of publicity chairs) ------------------------------------------------------------- Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Prof. CSEE, University of Maryland Baltimore County http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen

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CFP: IEEE VIS: LDAV 2015: IEEE Symposium on Large Data Analysis and Visualization
by Jian Chen 02 Jun '15

02 Jun '15

LDAV 2015 The 5th IEEE Symposium on Large Data Analysis and Visualization, co-located with IEEE VIS 2015, October 25-26, 2015 , Chicago, Illinois, USA http://www.ldav.org/ Contact: papers(a)ldav.org Modern large-scale scientific simulations, sensor networks, and experiments are generating enormous datasets, with some projects approaching the multiple exabyte range in the near term. Managing and analyzing large data in order to transform it into insight is critical for a variety of disciplines including climate science, nuclear physics, security, materials design, transportation, and urban planning. This is currently referred to as the Big Data Challenge. The tools and approaches needed to mine, analyze, and visualize data at extreme scales can be fully realized only if we have end-to-end solutions, which demands collective, interdisciplinary efforts. The 5th IEEE Large Scale Data Analysis and Visualization (LDAV) symposium, to be held in conjunction with IEEE VIS 2015, is specifically targeting possible end-to-end solutions. The LDAV symposium will bring together domain scientists, data analysts, visualization researchers, users, designers and artists, to foster common ground for solving both near- and long-term problems. *Scope*: We are looking for original research contributions on a broad-range of topics related to collection, analysis, manipulation or visualization of large-scale data. We also welcome position papers on these topics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: • Data collection, management and curation • Innovative approaches combining information visualization, visual analytics, and scientific visualization • Streaming methods for analysis, collection and visualization • Novel, extreme or innovative methods for understanding and interacting with data • Advanced hardware for data handling or visualization • Distributed, parallel or multi-threaded approaches • MapReduce-based and database-related methods, algorithms or approaches • Hierarchical data storage, retrieval or rendering • Collaboration or co-design of data analysis with domain scientists • Topics in cognitive issues specific to manipulating and understanding large data • Application case studies • Industry solutions for big data • End-to-end system solutions *Submission Instructions:* Submitted manuscripts may not exceed 8 pages. The manuscripts can be 4-8 pages, with the authors determining length based on the content. The manuscripts should be formatted according to guidelines from IEEE VGTC. Submission site note: Go to the submission site ( https://precisionconference. com/~vgtc <https://precisionconference.com/~vgtc>), log in, go to 'new submissions', and select 'LDAV 2015 Papers'. *Proceedings:* The proceedings of the symposium will be published together with the VIS proceedings and via the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. *Best Paper:* The LDAV Program Committee will present a Best Paper award to the authors whose submission is deemed the strongest according to the reviewing criteria. This award will be announced in conjunction with VIS 2015. Important Dates: (Please note the abstract and paper deadlines are firm and no extensions will be granted). Abstract Deadline (firm): June 17, 2015 Paper Submission (firm): June 24, 2015 11:59 PM (AOE) Author Notification: August 13, 2015 Camera-Ready Deadline: August 21, 2015 Best regards, - Jian (on behalf of publicity chairs) ------------------------------------------------------------- Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Prof. CSEE, University of Maryland Baltimore County http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen

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