NSF Student Travel Support for the 2019 IEEE Visualization Doctoral Colloquium (IEEE VIS DC)

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

Visualization, or the use of interactive graphic representations to support data analysis, understanding, and communication, is an increasingly integral enabling technology across a wide array of application areas. This grant provides support for approximately 18 U.S.-based graduate students to participate in the IEEE VIS Doctoral Colloquium to be held in conjunction with the IEEE Visualization Conference (VIS 2019), October 20-25, 2019, in Vancouver, Canada. IEEE VIS is the premier annual international forum for advances in the science and engineering of visualization across academia, government, and industry. IEEE VIS brings together the world's leading researchers and practitioners with a shared interest in techniques, tools, and technology for interactive data analysis, data exploration, and data communication. The focus of the VIS Doctoral Colloquium is advancing PhD students' doctoral dissertation research through mentoring and networking with global research leaders in the science of visualization. Students participating in the Doctoral Colloquium are selected chiefly on the grounds of research excellence, meaning that supported students are advancing the state-of-the-art in the field of visualization. The Doctoral Colloquium provides an opportunity the students' projects to be shaped and improved through intellectual exchange, and for the students themselves to present and communicate the character of their work to a key group of their peer professionals. Since the students and mentors are a diverse group (nationality, gender, ethnicity, scientific discipline, and research specialization), the students' horizons are broadened at a critical stage in their professional development. Supporting participation of U.S. students in the VIS 2019 DC is important for the development of the next generation of researchers, practitioners and educators in this important scientific field. IEEE VIS was established in 1996 and has become the worldwide largest and most important conference on Scientific Visualization, Information Visualization and Visual Analytics. The IEEE VIS conference regularly draws over 1,000 participants from dozens of countries to a week of research presentations, tutorials, workshops, panels, demonstrations, posters, exhibitions and scientific discussions. The IEEE VIS Doctoral Colloquium was initiated in 2006, and has been highly successful in providing mentorship opportunities to leading PhD students at a key time in their scientific development. Students at the Doctoral Colloquium present their doctoral dissertation research and receive feedback from senior professionals in the visualization community. This event provides key feedback that shapes the students' research and professional development, helps the participants build a professional network both among themselves and with senior researchers in the field, and prepares them to emerge as future leaders of the field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.