Collaborative Research: ABI Development: RUI: From Data to Knowledge in Grand Challenge Environmental Science Research: VISTAS

长青州立学院和俄勒冈州立大学(OSU)获得了在Vistas项目上合作的赠款，以开发视觉分析软件，使科学家能够更好地理解和沟通跨越空间和时间尺度的大型复杂环境问题。这项研究将帮助科学家了解相同和不同尺度上的生态过程之间的关系，开发新的可检验的假说，并解释研究结果。该项目有三个目标：1)进行生态信息学研究，以实现所需的视觉分析，并实施概念验证软件工具：陆地-水生系统可视化(Vistas)。2)与环境科学家共同开发Vistas，他们将在跨越空间和时间尺度的研究中使用Vistas。3)应用社会科学方法研究Vistas及其可视化分析的协同开发和可用性。项目负责人还将召集一个由6名成员组成的小组--西北计算机科学联盟，以加强对气候变化的研究，该联盟将为Vistas的科学家和开发人员提供建议，并动员CS研究社区参与适用于环境科学的研发。Vistas项目将广泛影响环境科学研究，着眼于用视觉分析改进自然资源管理的循证实践。该项目将确保研究成果和工具开发的传播、技术转让和可持续性，并将具体包括：1)超越正常传播渠道(学术出版和展示)的成果技术转让，即向自然资源管理者和政策制定者、科学软件生产者、为科学家服务的信息管理者和计算机科学家交流成果(从而鼓励在有利于科学软件开发和产生对科学及其他领域有用的新技术的领域进行基础研究)。2)向自然资源管理者和政策制定者以及专业硕士学生介绍科学家对前景的利用。3)让本科生和研究生参与研究，并利用这项工作的材料加强我校的环境科学和计算机科学教育。4)继续过去成功地传播跨学科教育材料，并将这项工作的可视化内容纳入针对中学女生的现有方案。由于超越时间和空间尺度的方法尚未得到很好的理解，该项目将确定以新的方式可视化自然现象是否有助于科学家在多个空间尺度上发展直觉和假设--形成关于复杂环境系统中生态系统服务、模式和过程的新见解。同样重要的是，可视化还有助于科学家与非科学家交流见解。有关该项目的更多信息请访问网站：http://blogs.evergreen.edu/vistas。

The The Evergreen State College and Oregon State University (OSU) are awarded grants to collaborate on the VISTAS project to develop visual analytics software that will enable scientists to better understand and communicate about large and complex environmental problems spanning spatial and temporal scales. The research will help scientists understand relationships among ecological processes at the same and different scales, develop new testable hypotheses, and explain research results. The project has three objectives: 1) Conduct Ecology Informatics research to enable the required visual analytics and implement a proof of concept software tool: VISualization of Terrestrial-Aquatic Systems (VISTAS).2) Co-develop VISTAS with environmental scientists who will use VISTAS in studies spanning spatial and temporal scales. 3) Apply social science methods to study the co-development and usability of VISTAS and its visual analytics. The project leaders will also convene a six-member panel, The Northwest Computer Science Consortium to Enhance the Study of Climate Change, which will advise VISTAS scientists and developers, and enlist the CS research community in R&D applicable to environmental science. VISTAS project will broadly impact environmental science research with a long term vision to improve evidence-based practice of natural resource management with visual analytics. The project will assure dissemination, technology transfer, and sustainability of research results and tool development and will specifically include: 1) Technology transfer of results beyond normal dissemination channels (scholarly publication and presentation), i.e., communication of results to natural resource managers and policy makers, producers of scientific software, information managers serving scientists, and computer scientists (thus encouraging basic research in areas that would benefit scientific software development and lead to new technology useful in science and beyond). 2) Presentation of scientists' use of VISTAS to natural resource managers and policy makers, and to professional master's students. 3) Involving undergraduate and graduate students in research, and enhancing environmental science and computer science education at our institutions with materials from this work. 4) Continuation of past successful dissemination of interdisciplinary educational materials and integration of visualizations from this work into an existing program for middle school girls. Because methods to transcend time and spatial scales are not well understood, this project will determine if visualizing natural phenomena in new ways helps scientists develop intuition and hypotheses at multiple spatial scales -- formulating new insights about ecosystem services, and patterns and processes, in complex environmental systems. As important, visualizations also help scientists communicate insights to non scientists. Additional information about the project is available on the web: http://blogs.evergreen.edu/vistas