Varshney, Shneiderman Present at "Frontiers of Visualization" Meeting

University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) faculty Ben Shneiderman, a professor of computer science, and Amitabh Varshney (left), director of UMIACS, represented the university at the "Frontiers of Visualization" meeting May 2, which was organized by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program/National Coordinating Committee.

The focus of the meeting, which was attended by more than 25 people, was to discuss promoting visualization as a central component of future research projects. After short introductions, breakout groups presented their visions of key research questions ranging from theoretical foundations to near-term applications. Repeated themes were the need to support human visual reasoning, cognition, hypothesis generation, results validation, and collaboration. The need for training for students, practitioners, and domain experts was highlighted, as well as incorporating big data.

The meeting is the first in a series of workshops in visualization. The planning committee for the event included personnel from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, NSF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.