Interactive Information Visualization 2015-2016

As the amount of on-line data is growing faster than the speed of computers to process them, it becomes harder and harder to analyze this data and to understand it both at a global level and a smaller scales. Such understanding is nevertheless a necessary prerequisite to any decision process. The goal of Information Visualization is to create visual representations that allow users to understand abstract data and to provide users with interaction capabilities that are designed to efficiently navigate and analyze these representations.

The course presents the most recent works in this research domain by successively looking at the various types of visualizations according to the type of data being analyzed: tabular data, hierarchical data, graphs, texts.

Course Instructors

• Lonni Besançon (teaching assistant)
• Petra Isenberg
• Pierre Dragicevic (main contact)
• Jean-Daniel Fekete
• Tobias Isenberg
• Nadia Boukhelifa

If you have a question, feel free to e-mail us

Location and Time

• Wednesdays: 9:30 at PUIO building (640), room D201, lab work will be in room E202 (Access map - in French)

Readings

There are no assigned books for this class but for further information we recommend the following resources

• Visualizing Data by Ben Fry (with an introduction to Processing)
• Interactive Information Visualization by Robert Spence
• Information Visualization: Perception for Design by Colin Ware

Requirements

Grading scheme

• Student activities (66% of the total grade)
  • 34% project quality: see the projects page for details on what we are expecting from you.
  • 20% paper presentation: see the paper presentation page for details on what we are expecting from you.
  • 12% class participation: the grade will be a function of i) the number of interventions (especially questions during paper presentations), ii) attendance at lectures and at lab work sessions and iii) completion of class assignments.
• Final exam (33%)
  • The written exam will be oriented towards problem solving and creativity. Course notes limited to an A4 page recto-verso will be allowed (the page can be printed but students should not to share their notes). You will be allowed to draw using colored pens. The exam will last 2 hours and occur after the last lecture on 21/02/2012, room TBD.

PhD Students

PhD students who are enrolled in the class as part of the module d'ouverture scientifique do not receive grades and do not take the final exam unless explicitly asked for by their PhD advisor. In all cases, PhD students must participate to all class-related activities for their module to get validated. This includes being present at the lectures and at the lab sessions, presenting a paper and presenting their class project. PhD students who attend the class but cannot get it validated as a module d'ouverture scientifique are also required to participate to all class-related activities.

Homework

Weekly assignments are designed so that they do not require a lot of work per week.

However, the amount of work you devote to your final project will certainly reflect its quality, and then your final score. Keep in mind that the project counts for one third of your final grade (as much as the written exam).

Late Policy

For assignments we will deduct 10% for each day (including weekends) the assignment is late.

Plagiarism Policy

Assignments should consist primarily of your original work, building off of others' work--including 3rd party libraries, public source code examples, and design ideas--is acceptable and in most cases encouraged. However, failure to cite such sources will result in score deductions proportional to the severity of the oversight.

License

You can reuse the content of these pages for your class if you acknowledge us (Petra Isenberg, Jean-Daniel Fekete, Pierre Dragicevic, Wesley Willett and Frédéric Vernier):