CIS 4930/6930-902: Scientific Visualization (Fall 2015)
Location: ENG 3
Time: T/H 5:00-6:15 pm
Instructor: Paul Rosen
Office: ENB 311
Office Hours: T/H 4:00-5:00 pm
Course Description
This course will introduce students to the principles and algorithms necessary for effective visual analysis of data. Students will explore many aspects of visualization, including those for spatial (e.g. CT or MRI) and non-spatial data (e.g. financial data). The course begins with an overview of principles from perception and design, continues with skills for critiquing visualizations, and then focuses on visualization techniques and algorithms for a broad range of data types. Students will acquire hands-on experience using cutting edge visualization systems as well as programming interactive visual analysis tools.
Course Work
Projects (70%)
We will 5 projects throughout the semester. The first 4 will serve as “introductions” to visualization technologies. The final will be a longer open-ended project.
- Project 1 (10%): Visualizing Data with Tableau
- Project 2 (10%): Visualizing Data with D3.js (using HTML and Javascript)
- Project 3 (10%): Visualizing Data with Processing (using Java)
- Project 4 (10%): Visualizing Data with VTK (using Java, Python, C++, etc.)
- Project 5 (30%): Open-ended project. Take one of these technologies and develop a larger-scale project of your choice.
Reading & Discussion Grade (30%)
Since this is a topics course with a small class size, I’m hoping to engage in discussions throughout the semester. Many of these discussion topics have no right or wrong answer. I’d like you to feel free to share your thoughts. This also means attending class regularly. I will also consider out of class discussion (e-mail, office hours, etc.) in determining this grade.
Books
- Recommended: Tamara Munzner, Visualization Analysis and Design, A K Peters/CRC Press, ISBN 9781466508910
- Optional: Charles D. Hansen & Chris R. Johnson, Visualization Handbook, Academic Press, ISBN 978-0123875822
Schedule
| Week 1 | ||||
| Aug. 24 | Lecture: Intro to Visualization |
Discussion: Introductions, Course Syllabus, Course Format, and Expectations | Sign Up for Project Presentation | |
| Aug. 26 | Lecture: Visual Design | Sign Up for Project Presentation | ||
| Week 2 | ||||
| Sept. 1 | Lecture: Data | Paper Discussion: Tamara Munzner, Process and Pitfalls in Writing Information Visualization Research Papers | Project 1 Handed Out |
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| Sept. 3 | Lecture: Visual Encoding | Design Review: Charles Minard, “The Greatest Infographic Ever” Napoleon’s Russian Campaign | ||
| Week 3 | ||||
| Sept. 8 | Lecture: Perception |
Paper Discussion: Niklas Elmqvist and Ji Soo Yi, Patterns for Visualization Evaluation | ||
| Sept. 10 | Lecture: Color | Video Discussion: Hans Rosling: The best stats you’ve ever seen | Project 1 DUE by start of class! | |
| Week 4 | ||||
| Sept. 15 | Discussion: Visualization Critiques Presentations: Project 1 |
Project 2 Handed Out |
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| Sept. 17 | Lecture: Tasks & Interaction | Discussion: Hans-Jorg Schulz, et al., A Design Space of Visualization Tasks | ||
| Week 5 | ||||
| Sept. 22 | NO CLASS | |||
| Sept. 24 | Lecture: Views & Focus+Context |
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| Week 6 | ||||
| Sept. 29 | Lecture: Filtering & Aggregation |
Project 2 DUE by start of class! Project 3 Handed Out |
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| Oct. 1 | Lecture: Foundations Review | Project 2 Presentations | ||
| Week 7 | ||||
| Oct. 6 | Lecture: Tables |
Paper Discussion: Andy Cockburn,et al., A review of overview+ detail, zooming, and focus+ context interfaces. | ||
| Oct. 8 | Lecture: Tables (cont.) | |||
| Week 8 | ||||
| Oct. 13 | Lecture: Trees & Graphs |
Project 3 DUE by start of class! Project 4 Handed Out — Prerequisite, Project Document, Data & Source |
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| Oct. 15 | Lecture: Trees & Graphs (cont.) | Project 3 Presentations | ||
| Week 9 | ||||
| Oct. 20 | Lecture: Text | Paper Discussion: Elzen and van Wijk, Multivariate Network Exploration and Presentation: From Detail to Overview via Selections and Aggregations (video) | ||
| Oct. 22 | Lecture: Text (cont) | |||
| Week 10 | ||||
| Oct. 27 | No Class – use the time to complete project 4 |
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| Oct. 29 | Lecture: Sets |
Project 4 DUE by start of class! FINAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION |
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| Week 11 | ||||
| Nov. 3 | Lecture: Maps |
Final Project Topic Due | ||
| Nov. 5 | Lecture: Grids | Project 4 Presentations | ||
| Week 12 | ||||
| Nov. 10 | Lecture: Isocontours and Isosurfaces | |||
| Nov. 12 | Lecture: Volume Rendering | Paper Discussion: Kieffer et al, HOLA: Human-like Orthogonal Network Layout [InfoVis 2015 Best Paper] | ||
| Week 13 | ||||
| Nov. 17 | Lecture: Transfer Functions | Paper Discussion: van den Elzen et al, Reducing Snapshots to Points: A Visual Analytics Approach to Dynamic Network Exploration [VAST 2015 Best Paper] | ||
| Nov. 19 | Lecture: Vector-Fields | Paper Discussion: Schroeder and Keefe, Visualization-by-Sketching: An Artist’s Interface for Creating Multivariate Time-Varying Data Visualizations [SciVis 2015 Best Paper] | ||
| Week 14 | ||||
| Nov. 24 | No Class! (Tensor Visualization Slides) | |||
| Nov. 26 | No Class (Thanksgiving) | |||
| Week 15 | ||||
| Dec. 1 | FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS | |||
| Dec. 3 | FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS | FINAL PROJECT MATERIALS DUE DEC 4 | ||
| Finals Week (Dec. 5-11) – NO FINAL!! | ||||
