From: senay@seas.gwu.edu (Hikmet Senay)
Subject: Workshop on Automated Design of Visualizations
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 18:09:44 GMT




			     CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

		WORKSHOP ON AUTOMATED DESIGN OF VISUALIZATIONS

		Sponsored by IEEE Visualization '92 Conference
				October 19, 1992
			Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers
			      Boston, Massachusetts




Visualization is becoming an essential part of data analysis and subsequent 
decision making in many diverse disciplines where data analysts and decision 
makers typically do not possess all the knowledge needed for designing 
effective visualizations. This situation is primarily attributable to the 
interdisciplinary nature of the design process. In addition to the knowledge 
of application domain, the design process involves the utilization of knowledge
from such diverse fields as computer science, perceptual psychology, and visual
arts. One possible approach to coping with this diversity requires a team 
effort which, however, tends to increase the design time. An alternative and 
perhaps more promising approach is to design systems that are capable of 
automating the design of visualizations.

This one-day workshop will focus on the latter approach and attempt to bring 
researchers and developers who are actively involved in automating the design 
of visualizations. The goals of this workshop are: (1) to establish a 
conceptual foundation for automating the design of visualizations; (2) to 
investigate alternative frameworks and models for automation; (3) to identify 
and model various types of knowledge necessary for visualization; and (4) to 
discuss how each knowledge type can be utilized within alternative frameworks.


WORKSHOP TOPICS

The following list of topics, that is not limiting by any means, outlines the 
workshop foci in some detail.

I.	Foundations and Relation to Other Fields

 	- 	Scientific visualization design process
	- 	Purpose of automation: "default", "standard", "optimal", 
		representations; high throughput, stimulus for developing 
		cleaner and more structured approaches, etc.
	-	Which phases of the design process can be automated?
	-	How much automation is possible in visualization?
	-	How much human intervention/involvement is required/needed?
	-	Adaptive display design and automation approaches

II. 	Frameworks and Models

	-	Theoretical frameworks (theories/models/methodologies) vs. 
		computational frameworks (practical systems)
	-	How closely can methodologies be followed? What tools are 
		missing?  
	-	Complete models of visualisation automation vs. component 
		models - when do component compositions break down for 
		cognitive/perceptual reasons?
	-	How formal do we have to get to embed knowledge/intelligence?
	-	Practical constraints: dependence of automation effectiveness 
		on technology issues (tools, display resolution - spatial, 
		spectral, temporal - etc.)
	-	Relevant properties of data (data modeling issues)
	-	Goal- and task-specific visualization

III. 	Knowledge Acquisition and Modeling

	-	Taxonomy of visualization knowledge (What types of knowledge 
		are needed/used for visualization?)
	-	How do we get this knowledge? (Methods for visualization 
		knowledge acquisition)
	-	The role of domain-specific knowledge in designing/choosing 
		visualization techniques

IV. 	Application of Knowledge Within Frameworks

	-	Methods of automating decision making/support: rules, matching,
		optimisation, etc.
	-	Context-sensitive automation (contexts: user, data, aims, 
		representations)
	-	Context-dependent and context-independent automation (contexts:
		users, data, aims, representations)
	-	Standard characterizations of components of automation 
		approaches


PARTICIPATION

Workshop participation will be limited to thirty people. It is expected that 
all participants are active researchers and/or developers in the area. 
Participants should submit position papers to the workshop organizers through 
electronic mail, airmail or fax by September 15. Position papers could be 
review, original research contributions, extensions of previous work, 
applications briefs, or other contributions of interest and value. Participants
will be selected based on the merit of their position papers by a small 
committee including the workshop organizers. We plan to publish accepted
position papers which will be revised and extended based on the workshop 
findings in a post-workshop proceedings by IEEE Computer Society Press.


FEE

There is a $50 workshop registration fee with which a lunch, snacks during 
breaks, and a bound copy of the participants position papers are provided.


WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
	
Philip K. Robertson
CSIRO Division of Information Technology
GPO Box 664
Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Email :	phil@csis.dit.csiro.au
Phone :	+61-6-2750933
Fax   :	+61-6-2571052

Hikmet Senay
EE&CS Department
The George Washington University
801 22nd Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052, USA
Email :	senay@seas.gwu.edu
Phone :	(202) 994-5910	
Fax   :	(202) 994-0227