Student

New Seminar on Data Visualization

Introducing a special topic seminar on data visualization for undergraduates and graduates in the Sciences and the Arts at UH Mānoa and UH Hilo.


Every discipline is collecting massive amounts of data because it has become so easy to do so. Companies like Google are processing 1 Million Gigabytes of data per day, and all major companies are trying to figure out how to mine it to help advance their businesses against the competition. The same is true for research in the basic sciences such as oceanography, astronomy, medicine, and even in the humanities. The game is simple, those that can make the discoveries first, win. But mining the data isn’t enough, data is useless unless a human can understand it.

The purpose of Data Visualization is to make large amounts of data understandable to the human- whether it’s for a scientist, a businessman, or the layperson on the street. The goal of this class is therefore to teach you practical techniques that you can use to create effective data visualizations that can be applied to a broad range of disciplines. Students in the class will form interdisciplinary teams to produce interactive visualizations related to Marine Science to be exhibited to the general public at the ʻImiloa Museum as well as at UH Mānoa.

How will the Class be Taught?

The class will be taught jointly by faculty in Computer Science (Jason Leigh, Jie Cheng), Art & Design (Jonathon Goebel), Creative Media (Julieta Aguilera) and Marine Sciences (Misaki Takabayashi) at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, and ʻImiloa Astronomy Center. Students will be graded on their team projects. There are no exams in the class.

Where Will This Cool Class be Held?

Class will be held in two newly constructed CyberCANOEs at the Laboratory for Advanced Visualization & Applications (at UHM in Keller 102) and the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center (at UH Hilo). At UH Hilo transportation will be provided to bring students from UH Hilo to ʻImiloa for the class.

When Is Class Held?

Class will be held on Mondays only- from 3pm – 5:30pm.

Who can Take the Class?

Eligible undergraduates and graduate students can take the course. If you are a freshman or sophomore you will need to contact the professor in the department you wish to enroll for override permission. For Mānoa contact Jason Leigh (leighj@hawaii.edu). For Hilo contact either Jie Cheng (chengjie@hawaii.edu), Jonathon Goebel (goebelj@hawaii.edu), or Misaki Takabayashi (misakita@hawaii.edu).

For Mānoa, students should enroll in ICS 484. Non ICS students can enroll as an elective and should contact Jason Leigh directly for special instructions. For Hilo, students should enroll either in MARE 494, Art 300 or CS 498

FOR ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS, email me, Jason Leigh at leighj@hawaii.edu

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