NSF Travel Support for 2020 Visualization Early Career Faculty Workshop

Tufts University, Medford MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Visualization Early Career Faculty Workshop offers specialized mentoring to junior faculty whose research spans broad areas in information visualization. Its goal is to develop the next generation of faculty in data science and visualization research so as to strengthen and diversify this field. This workshop provides a forum where junior faculty can interact with each other in a setting that promotes positive career growth and contributes to sharing knowledge. This event addresses both an important and timely need, as researchers in this field come from a wide array of demographic and technical backgrounds. Many departments have at most one researcher in visualization, and thus the mentoring the junior faculty receive from their home institution cannot address the unique challenges of building an academic career in this field. Junior faculty from underrepresented groups will be encouraged to participate. The workshop experience will support and retain this interdisciplinary workforce of researchers and educators in the important area visualization that enables decision making and knowledge discovery. Specifically, this workshop complements traditional academic mentoring by offering a peer support and mentoring group for junior faculty so as to exchange information with peers. Faculty recently transitioning from junior to mid-career stages also participate to help structure the content of the workshop and provide guidance. This event fosters the growth and development of new faculty as they begin their careers in academia. Its unique, small group format produces an intensive workshop that helps build identity as well as to bridge newcomers to the larger ecosystem of academics in visualization across the country. The group of attendees is curated so as to offer diverse perspectives that might not appear in each attendee's home department. Since visualization research is broad in scope, our attendees hail from multiple universities that serve a wide range of students as well as departments in multiple fields (such as Computer Science, Information Science, Computational Media, and Digital Humanities). Therefore, workshop topics span numerous cross-cutting concerns such as developing a visualization research program, recruiting and managing a research group, handling the academic responsibilities of teaching and service, and strategies for collaboration, achieving visibility, and work-life balance. 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.