<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>(Apologies if you receive multiple copies.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>VAST Challenge 2012 Call for Participation</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Mini-challenge 2 data now available! See <a href="http://www.vacommunity.org/vastchallenge2012">http://www.vacommunity.org/vastchallenge2012</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>This year’s VAST Challenge focuses on visual analytics applications for both large scale situation analysis and cyber security. There will be two mini-challenges to test your visual analytics applications and your analytical skills.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Available now: </span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>In mini-challenge 1, (the imaginary) BankWorld's largest financial institution, the (fictitious) Bank of Money needs your best situation awareness visualizations to understand the health of its global corporate network. How do you visualize status data for a network containing nearly <b>a million computers</b> in a way that you can perceive network health and identify problems? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Available now: </span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>In mini-challenge 2, unusual events are occurring in one of the Bank of Money's regional offices. Some of them may very well wreak havoc across the institution if they turn out to be malicious. What are these unusual events? And if you were in charge of computer security, what actions should be taken to safeguard the network and quite possibly save the Bank of Money from disaster? (Participants from last year's VAST challenge may find their firewall and IDS log analysis tools useful for this challenge as well.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>We encourage participation by individuals and teams in industry and academia. Creative approaches to visual analytics are encouraged.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Please visit <a href="http://www.vacommunity.org/vastchallenge2012">http://www.vacommunity.org/vastchallenge2012</a> for more information about the challenge and to download datasets and instructions. Data for mini-challenge 1 is available now. Data for mini-challenge 2 will be available soon. For more information, please contact <a href="http://visweek.vgtc.org/visweek/2012/info/call-participation/vast_challenge@visweek.org">vast_challenge@visweek.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>The submission deadline is July 9, 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>We look forward to seeing your creative solutions!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Kris Cook and Georges Grinstein, VAST Challenge Committee co-chairs<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>