Visualization Technologies to Support Research on Human - Environment Interactions

Mon Jul 23, 2012 (All day)

Who should apply: Social scientists, natural scientists, computational scientists, and humanities scholars who need to visualize spatial data as they solve research problems

Workshop Dates: July 23, 2012 - July 24, 2012

Location: Annapolis, MD

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis (SESYNC) center is the newest national synthesis center funded by the National Science Foundation, with the main vision to foster synthetic, actionable science related to the structure, functioning, and sustainability of socio-environmental systems. The center supports research on diverse aspects related to the linkage between humans, societies, and the environment but is particularly encouraging work on the social dimensions of environmental change and environmental sustainability.

One of SESYNC’s strategic goals is to foster the development of computational tools and services in support of researchers including scholars studying human-environment interactions.

SESYNC is hosting this workshop to focus especially on the visualization and use of spatial datasets from the social and environmental sciences. The workshop will discuss and identify some of the current visualization challenges and emerging opportunities in using spatial datasets to study human-environment interactions. We expect the meeting to be a ‘problem-solving’ workshop wherein domain scientists from the social and environmental sciences can learn about visualization tools and resources available for their work and computational scientists can learn about the as-yet unmet visualization needs in the domain sciences.

More specifically, the workshop will bring computational and domain scientists together to: (i) discuss some of the visualization challenges associated with using spatio-temporal datasets; (ii) recommend possible collaborative IT efforts that could be supported under the SESYNC’s programs or through other funding mechanisms; and (iii) set up a network of researchers to interact on a regular basis, share information, and exchange ideas about the priorities identified during the workshop.

The following keynote speakers have already agreed to participate in the workshop:

Dr. Daniel Aliaga, Computer Graphics and Visualization Lab, Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Dr. Stephen Sheppard, Director of Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning, Department of Forest Resources Management/Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia
Dr. Ben Shneiderman, Human-Computer Interaction Lab, Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland