When? Monday, 16 May 2022, 10:30 - 11:30
Where? on-site @ Seminarraum 9, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
Latest information on COVID-19 hygiene rules and rules of conduct: https://event.univie.ac.at/
Abstract:
Data visualization research often seeks to help solve real world
problems across application domains, from biomedicine to engineering.
There is considerable merit in such endeavors, which often help
advance knowledge in these application domains. Beyond these
contributions, as we work alongside domain experts, we also have a
unique opportunity to observe qualitatively and analyze how these
clients interact with the data through our tools and paradigms. Thus,
we have a rare opportunity to better ground data visualization theory
on these observations. In this talk, I will examine how working with
real world data and problems can point out specific gaps in our
theoretical knowledge, can challenge underlying assumptions in the
data visualization field, and can lead to new insights and theoretical
guidelines. I will focus on several theoretical contributions grounded
in this experience, from activity-centered design to visual
scaffolding, the details-first paradigm, and visual explainability in
artificial intelligence. Last, I will reflect on the lessons learned
through this experience, with particular emphasis on the barriers our
field poses to new theoretical contributions.
Bio:
Liz Marai is an associate professor of Computer Science at the
University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research interests go from
visual-system related problems that can be robustly solved through
automation, to problems that require human experts in the
computational loop, and the principles behind this work. Marai's
research has been recognized by multiple prestigious awards,
including: a Test of Time award from the International Society for
Computational Biology, and several Outstanding Paper awards, along
with her students; an NSF CAREER Award and multiple NSF awards; and
several multi-site NIH R01 awards as a lead investigator. She has
co-authored scientific open-source software adopted by thousands of
users, and she is a patent co-author, whose algorithms have been
embedded in a medical device.
