Collaborative Research Center

SFB-TRR 161

Quantitative Methods for Visual Computing

We are living in a data society in which data is generated at amazing speed; individuals, companies, organizations, and governments are on the brink of being drawn into a massive deluge of data. The great challenge is to extract the relevant information from vast amounts of data and communicate it effectively.

Typical scenarios include decision and policy making for urban and environmental planning or understanding relationships and dependencies in complex networks, e.g., social networks or networks from the field of bioinformatics. These scenarios are not only of interest to specialized experts; in fact, there is a trend toward including the broad public, which requires the information to be presented in a reliable, faithful, and easy-to-understand fashion.

Visual computing can play a key role in extracting and presenting the relevant information.

In visual computing research the aspect of quantification is often neglected. The SFB-TRR 161 seeks to close this gap.

The long-term goal is to strengthen the research field by establishing the paradigm of quantitative science in visual computing.

About the SFB-TRR 161

News

All SFB-TRR 161 News

SFB-TRR 161 Events

Upcoming Events

Dec 11th, 2023, 4 pm

University of Stuttgart

Lecture | Innovation is the Key Towards Sustainable Industries

Held by:

Nina Gaißert, Festo SE & Co. KG, Esslingen

Abstract:

When biology and technology merge, we can create a sustainable circular economy, transform todays industries and conserve resources. To do this, we need a spirit of innovation, creativity, but also confidence and courage. 

Biography:

Dr. Nina Gaißert studied technical biology at the University of Stuttgart and MIT, MA, USA, before completing her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. She has been working at Festo since 2011 and is part of the Bionic Learning Network, with the aim of learning from nature and generating sustainable innovations.

Location:

Visualization Research Center (VISUS), University of Stuttgart, Room: 00.012
The lecture will be transferred to the University of Konstanz,  Room: L 0602

Dec 18th, 2023, 4 pm

University of Stuttgart

Lecture | Visual Analytics: Machine Learning and the Human in the Loop

Held by:

Anna Vilanova, TU Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Abstract:

Visual Analytics wants to foster the strengths of humans and computers effectively through the combination of automatic data analysis methods, visualization, and interaction. Visual analytics is an extension of machine learning methods. It is also a complement to the already existing visualization techniques by the introduction of the concepts of reasoning and machine learning. Machine learning has successfully developed models that outperform humans in several tasks. However, this success is limited when it comes to increasing knowledge, and providing new understanding based on new data. Humans uniquely understand the world through intuition, common sense, creativity, and emotion, capabilities that are required for many multi-faceted tasks.  In this talk, I will present our work and my view on embedding the human in the loop in the machine learning context through the concepts of visual analytics. In particular,  we focus on data exploration, and hypothesis generation relying on dimensionality reduction methods as an effective visual analytics component for large high-dimensional data. Furthermore, I will discuss the promise, challenges, and current research in visual analytics to open the black box of machine learning models.

Biography:

Prof. Dr. Anna Vilanova is full professor in visual analytics (vis.win.tue.nl) since October 2019, at the department of Mathematics and Computer Science, at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Previously she was associate professor for 6 years at the Computer Graphics & Visualization Group at EEMCS at the University of Delft, the Netherlands. From 2002 to August 2013, she was Assistant Professor at the Biomedical Image Analysis group of the Biomedical Engineering Department at TU/e. She is leading a research group in the subject of visual analytics and multivalued image analysis and visualization, focusing on visual analytics for high dimensional complex data and explainable AI. She focuses on Biomedical applications such as: Diffusion Weighted Imaging, 4D Flow and Pan-genomics.  She was member of the steering committee of EuroVis (2014 -2018) and VCBM (2018-2022). She is elected member of the EUROGRAPHICS executive committee since 2015, vice president (2019-2022), and currently president of EUROGRAPHICS. She also became EUROGRAPHICS fellow in 2019. She is elected member of  IEEE VIS Steering Committee (VSC) since 2021.

Location:

Visualization Research Center (VISUS), University of Stuttgart, Room: 00.012
The lecture will be transferred to the University of Konstanz,  Room: L 0602

Jan 22nd, 2024, 4 pm

University of Konstanz

Lecture | Title tbd

Held by:

Silivia Miksch, Vienna University of Technologie, Austria

Abstract:

tbd

Biography:

tbd

Location:

University of Konstanz,  Room: L 0602
The lecture will be transferred to the Visualization Research Center (VISUS), University of Stuttgart, Room: 00.012

Dec 4th, 2023, 4 pm New date: Jan 29, 2024, 4 pm

University of Stuttgart

Lecture | Attractive Guidance in Dynamic Visualizations

Held by:

Manuela Waldner, Institute of Visual Computing & Human-Centered Technology at TU Wien, Austria

Abstract:

3D animations are an effective method to learn about complex dynamic phenomena, such as mesoscale biological processes. The animators’ goals are to convey a sense of the scene’s overall complexity while, at the same time, visually guiding the user through a story of subsequent events embedded in the chaotic environment. In this talk, I will present and discuss two visual emphasis methods that solely manipulate dynamic scene parameters. The first method generates flicker to attract the attention to a focus element of the story. Since flicker can be highly disturbing, we conducted a series of experiments to find a trade-off between guidance effectiveness and subjective annoyance. The second method smooths the motion of contextual scene elements to attract the observers' attention to focus elements of the story exhibiting high-frequency motion. Our experiment showed that this approach can also be effective, but has an impact on the perceived speed of the animation.

Biography:

Manuela Waldner is an assistant professor (tenure track) at the Institute of Visual Computing & Human-Centered Technology at TU Wien, Austria. She has a PhD in computer science from Graz University of Technology, Austria. Her main research interests cover scalable and interactive data analysis and visualization with the primary goal to make complex data and models better understandable for users. She has co-authored papers at journals and venues like IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics or ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems, of which some have been nominated or awarded best paper awards. In 2014, she received a Hertha Firnberg fellowship for highly qualified female scientists by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Location:

Visualization Research Center (VISUS), University of Stuttgart, Room: 00.012
The lecture will be transferred to the University of Konstanz,  Room: L 0602

Feb 5th, 2024, 4 pm

University of Stuttgart

Lecture | Title tbd

Held by:

Arzu Çöltekin, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Windisch, Schweiz

Abstract:

tbd

Biography:

tbd

Location:

Visualization Research Center (VISUS), University of Stuttgart, Room: 00.012
The lecture will be transferred to the University of Konstanz,  Room: L 0602

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