[Ieee_vis_open_positions] 3-year PhD position @ Aarhus University on Map-like Visualization

[Hans-Jörg Schulz]

Please distribute this call for a 3-year, fully funded PhD position at Aarhus University, Denmark starting November 2018 to prospective candidates.

== DataMaps: Map-like Visualization for Non-spatial Data ==

Are you ready to step onto uncharted territory and to map the unmappable? Maps are powerful tools for viewing, navigating, and communicating spatial information. By mapping geospace onto screen space, maps provide a spatial frame of reference using a commonly understood set of visual elements. This concept comes so natural and is so compelling that we even apply it to information that does not necessarily have a geospatial reference - for example, Site Maps for website structures or Mind Maps for thoughts and ideas.

This PhD project sets out to bring map-like space-filling visual representations to non-spatial multi-variate data in general, such as biomedical data or financial data. For data like these, different ways of turning them into a map are possible - leading to different meanings of a data item's position, of the distance between two data items, and of the area spanned by multiple data items. It will be your task to research such meaningful "DataMaps" that bring added value to the visual analysis of multi-variate data.

Research questions to pursue in this project are:


·         What characteristics and elements make a map a map? Which of them must be present to recognize and use a visual display as a map-like graphic? How to employ them to turn a "mere" chart or diagram into a map?

·         What could a generic map-like visualization for numerical multi-variate data look like? Which modes of interaction should it support? How can it be extended to cope with time-varying, textual, or network data?

·         Which stages of a data analysis benefit from map-like visualizations and how? How does a map for providing an overview of the raw data differ from a map for showing the outcome of a computational operation, like a clustering? And why?

Work on this PhD topic will be conducted in close collaboration with the DABAI project (https://dabai.dk), which provides the datasets and analysis scenarios on which the developed visualizations are tested. In addition, this research topic is embedded in a larger ongoing research effort to develop a visual analytics method and system that will center on the map-like visualizations. These will provide the basis for interactive manipulation and augmentation, for example through smart lenses or locally inserted "in situ visualizations".

For more information please refer to http://talent.au.dk/phd/scienceandtechnology/opencalls/calls-on-specific-projects/august-2018/datamaps-map-like-visualization-for-non-spatial-data/

Application deadline is 1 August 2018 at 11.59 PM MET.

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Assoc. Prof. Hans-Jörg Schulz
Department of Computer Science
Aarhus University
Åbogade 34
8200 Aarhus N, Denmark
eMail: hjschulz at cs.au.dk<mailto:hjschulz at cs.au.dk>

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