Project Description

Overview

• Meetings due: Oct 23 at 5pm
• Proposals due: Oct 30 at 5pm
• Project update presentations in class: Nov 16, 18, 23
• Final presentations: Dec 14 2-5pm
• Final papers: Dec 16 at 5pm

Programming: For a programming project, you will implement a visualization system of your own. You may use existing components as the base for your system. Note that research novelty is not a requirement for a course project. There are many varieties of programming projects:

• problem-driven design studies, often based around a specific dataset
• technique-driven explorations of how to carry out specific encoding or interaction ideas
• implementations of previous published algorithms

Analysis: For an analysis project, you will pick an application domain to address, and write a combination survey/analysis paper about it. No serious programming is required, so this option is suitable for non-CS students. You will include a detailed survey of previous work in the area. This survey should be more considerably detailed than the required previous work section in the programming project writeup. You will pick one or more existing software tools to to analyze a dataset from that domain, so no serious programming is required. (You may need to write some scripts to change data formats, however.) The analysis should analyze the strengths and weaknesses of those tools, and discuss in detail whether they are effective for the task that you have chosen.

You must meet with me in person to discuss your project at least once before submitting a proposal. It may take more than one meeting for me to sign off that you're ready to move on to the writeup stage.

You're submitting a proposal, not a specification - it's natural that your plans will change somewhat as you refine your ideas. But your proposal should be based on an idea that we've discussed and I've approved. When you come talk to me about your proposal, I'll give you some pointers to background reading in the area of your interest. You need to meet with me the week of October 19 at the absolute latest, and earlier would be better. While I can sign off on some projects after only a single meeting, some people have needed two or three meetings to find an appropriate project that gets approved.

I advise that you start by thinking about what you want your software to do, and only then think about how you would implement it (languages, platforms, etc). The key is to find some domain and task that both interests you and presents an opportunity for infovis. That is, there is some task where a human needs to understand the structure of a large dataset. You're definitely welcome to link the infovis project to another class or research project. You may also build on existing software, but your project should include some implementation work of your own.

I do not advise that you start by deciding on a language, and then look around for some task that you might be able to do in that language - that's backwards, and is likely to stifle your creativity.

Proposal format: your writeup should be at least two pages and include:

You will present the results of your project with both a presentation and a written report. The presentation will occur during the final exam slot for this course, and the report is also due at that time. The reports should be at least 8-10 pages of text (programming) or 15-20 pages (analysis), and should include screen snapshots of your running software. There is no length restriction, feel free to use as much space as you need for images. Showing live demos of your software in action is encouraged in the final presentation. If you are giving a demo, be sure to practice in advance so that you don't run over your time slot! Also remember that the audience has seen your project update, so you don't need to repeat all of that. Focus more on your results.