Dear Younger Me: A Dialog About Professional Development Beyond The Initial Career Phases
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 3:15 PM-4:30 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Mike Kirby (University of Utah), Michael Gleicher (University of Wisconsin)
Panelists: David Ebert (University of Oklahoma), Maureen Stone (Tableau Research (retired)), Melanie Tory (Northeastern University), Anders Ynnerman (Linköping University)
The early phases of a technical career follow a fairly prescribed trajectory: graduation, initial positions, promotion, tenure (or its industry equivalent), etc. In these early phases, the milestones are clear (degrees, appointments, promotions), and mentoring is often explicit (research advisors, mentoring committees). But beyond these early phases, the explicit goals and resources do not exist. As we get to later career stages, the set of options and opportunities grows. We have observed that while the opportunities grow at later career phases, the amount of mentoring and discussion seems to disappear. The goal of this panel is to foster more dialog about later career phases. As a starting point, we hope to raise awareness of the expanded range of opportunities and invite dialog about how others have thought about crafting their careers. We hope to foster a dialog among the community and begin a tradition of mentoring beyond initial career phases.
VIS Conference Futures: Community Opinions on Recent Experiences, Challenges, and Opportunities for Hybrid Event Formats
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Matthew Brehmer (University of Waterloo), Narges Mahyar (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Panelists: Tim Dwyer (Monash University), John AlexisGuerra-Gomez (Northeastern University), Petra Isenberg (INRIA), Takayuki Itoh (Ochanomizu University), Elsie Lee-Robbins (Postal Regulatory
Commission), Andrew McNutt (University of Utah)
This past year, the VIS Executive Committee (VEC) has been considering the extent to which VIS should adopt a hybrid format. Despite advances in communication technology, creating an engaging virtual experience that matches the energy of a conventional in-person gathering remains challenging. Meanwhile, a functional hybrid conference imposes additional burdens on organizers, with added logistical complexities and their associated costs. Wicked problems refer to complex, interconnected issues that lack clear solutions. Conference planning epitomizes this concept, as it involves several interconnected factors and stakeholders with various backgrounds, expectations and objectives, and uncertainties. As we navigate the wicked problem of conference formats, acknowledging this complexity is crucial. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, striking a balance between the benefits of in-person engagement and virtual participation will be key. To ground this conversation about conferences in data, we analyzed recent VIS attendance data to better understand how the effects of location and format (in-person, virtual, hybrid) on attendance. We also partnered with the IEEE VGTC (Visualization & Graphics Technical Community) Executive Committee to conduct an online community survey about conference experiences. This hybrid panel is dedicated to discussing the implications of the data we collected, gathering together the diverse perspectives that will further contextualize and reflect the voices from our survey. Given the range of responses and the strong opinions that respondents voiced in the open-ended comments, we expect this to be a lively forum that will inform and inspire VIS community members and especially those in organizing committee roles (or who may undertake such roles in the coming years).
Human-Centered Computing Research in South America: Status Quo, Opportunities, and Challenges
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 8:30 AM-9:45 AM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Chaoli Wang (University of Notre Dame)
Panelists: Cesar Collazos (University of Cauca), Luciana Nedel (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Luis Gustavo Nonato (University of Sao Paulo), Denis Parra (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile)
Human-centered computing (HCC) research, including visualization (VIS), virtual reality (VR), and human-computer interaction (HCI), is on the rise worldwide. Due to various reasons, such as socio-economic development, government investment, and talent acquisition and retention, HCC research in developing countries and regions lags. This panel gathers leading HCC researchers from South America to report the status quo, highlight the latest advances, identify opportunities, and discuss challenges, especially in the wave of AI and amid global issues such as climate change and democracy crises. The goal is to inform the IEEE VIS Conference attendees of HCC research progress in South America and seek possibilities to elevate its status.
Past, Present, and Future of Data Storytelling
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 3:15 PM-4:30 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Haotian Li (HKUST), Yun Wang (Microsoft)
Panelists: Benjamin Bach (INRIA), Sheelagh Carpendale (Simon Fraser University), Fanny Chevalier (University of Toronto), Nathalie Henry Riche (Microsoft Research)
Data storytelling has become an important approach to communicate insights and knowledge from data in practice. The visualization community has spent tremendous efforts investigating data storytelling practices, designing new forms of visuals, proposing authoring tools, and recently introducing intelligent support for expressive and engaging data stories. To reflect the research progress and have an outlook for future opportunities, we propose this panel with experienced researchers from academia and industry to ignite new ideas and discussions for advancing data storytelling research.
What Do Visualization Art Projects Bring to the VIS Community?
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 8:30 AM-9:45 AM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Xinhuan Shu (Newcastle University), Yifang Wang (Northwestern University), Junxiu Tang (Zhejiang University)
Panelists: Angus Forbes (Purdue University), Rebecca Xu (Syracuse University), Rewa Wright (Queensland University of Technology), Pedro Cruz (Northeastern University), Weidi Zhang (Arizona State University), Samuel Huron (Télécom Paris at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris)
Visualization art projects have flourished over the last decades. They make the artistic use of data and visualization to “embody a forceful point of view”, “with the intent of making art”. The visualization community has actively embraced the trend, from the early trials of Art Exhibition/Show to nowadays the biggest associated event in the main VIS conference, the VIS Arts Program. Hundreds of innovative and creative visualization art projects have been exhibited, attracting submissions from artists, designers, and practitioners who are not regular VIS conference participants. On the other side, visualization art projects present obvious differences from mainstream visualization research in terms of author teams, targeted audiences, topics, designs, authoring tools, etc. At VISAP’s 12th anniversary, it is worth looking into what these artistic explorations bring to the community.
The key theme of this panel is to discuss the relations between visualization art projects and visualization research. An initial set of topics is proposed to spark the discussion, including the role of data, the use of visual encoding, perception, authoring tools, and the impacts of visualization art projects to the community.
20 Years of Visual Analytics
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 1:30 PM-2:45 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: David Ebert (University of Oklahoma), Wolfgang Jentner (University of Oklahoma), Ross Maciejewski (Arizona State University), Jieqiong Zhao (Augusta University)
Panelists: Daniel A. Keim (University of Konstanz), Silvia Miksch (Vienna University of Technology), Bill Pike (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) (tentative)
In 2004, Visual Analytics emerged as an outgrowth of scientific visualization and information visualization with a focus on the mechanisms of analytic reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. Now, twenty years later, this panel invites pioneers from the field of visual analytics to talk about the foundations of visual analytics, key works that helped define the field, and what they see as the emerging challenges for the next generation of visual analytics researchers.
(Yet Another) Evaluation Needed? A Panel Discussion on Evaluation Trends in Visualization
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 10:15 AM-11:30 AM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Ghulam Jilani Quadri (University of Oklahoma), Danielle Albers Szafir (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Arran Zeyu Wang (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Hyeon Jeon (Seoul National University)
Panelists: Niklas Elmqvist (Aarhus University), Tobias Isenberg (INRIA), Rita Borgo (Kings College London), Michael Sedlmair (University of Stuttgart), Cindy Xiong Bearfield (Georgia Tech)
In the rapidly evolving field of visualization, rigorous evaluation validates new techniques and demonstrates the effectiveness of and demonstrates the effectiveness of existing practices. The evaluation of visualization systems is fundamental to ensuring their effectiveness, usability, and impact. For example, evaluation helps researchers to identify potential issues or weaknesses in the system and allows visualization designers and developers to address them before the system is released. Faithful evaluations also provide valuable insights into how users interact with and perceive the system, enabling designers to make informed decisions about design choices and improvements. However, in recent years, the number of evaluations in any given paper has increased. This increase raises critical questions about the evaluation’s sustainability, feasibility, and methodological rigor. With this panel, we aim to explore various perspectives and insights from leading experts in the field on “how many evaluations are enough” and the criteria for knowing when we need another study.
Vogue or Visionary? Current Challenges and Future Opportunities in Situated Visualizations
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 1:30 PM-2:45 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Organizers: Michelle A. Borkin (Northeastern University), Melanie Tory (Roux Institute, Northeastern University)
Panelists: Nathalie Bressa (Telecom Paris) , Niklas Elmqvist (Aarhus University), Petra Isenberg (INRIA), Michael Sedlmair (University of Stuttgart), Wesley Willett (University of Calgary)
Situated visualizations are visual data representations that are deeply integrated with the spaces, objects, and activities in a physical environment. Situated visualizations enable people to take advantage of data to support their work or daily activities, while minimizing the cognitive effort of accessing and using that data within physical environments. They display data in close proximity to physical referents, or physical objects to which the data refer. Situated visualizations may be created with a variety of technologies including small displays and mobile devices, augmented reality goggles, handheld projectors, and data physicalizations. Evidence suggests that situated visualization tools can reduce the friction of interacting with data in the context of physical world activities, serve as reminders for data actions, and encourage engagement and reflection.
Yet situated visualizations have not be widely adopted, in part because there is little design guidance. Numerous challenges remain, including context switching (e.g., between primary physical activities and secondary visualization tasks), integration with existing systems (e.g., manufacturing equipment), alignment with physical referents (which may move), potential interference or distraction from primary tasks (which in some contexts could be dangerous), the need for people to learn and adopt new technology into well ingrained workflows and the need to accommodate individual differences and accessibility. New technology is enabling, but is it just a fad? This panel will discuss and debate these questions to clarify the current challenges as well as future opportunities for situated visualizations.