A computer-based platform for visualization and interactive analysis of complex data

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Scientific/engineering data are becoming increasingly complex and massive. Typically, such complex data are represented discretely on large grids over space and time. For decision-making, investigations based on these data need to critically analyze data attributes and their interrelations. Routinely, human experts in different disciplines undertake such analyses collaboratively in a co-located setting. The characteristics of the data imposes, however, difficulties for experts’ analyses.  Current practice for analyzing complex data relies mainly on visualization, which results in visual clutter and occlusion overloading the human cognition.  Common methods for interacting with visualized data are inadequate to meet the socio-human needs, causing ineffective collaboration. These difficulties are a bottle-neck issue, which deters experts from making use of complex data in decision-making. Hence, this research program aims to create enabling technologies to target this issue.  Its five-year objective is to catalyze a computer-based virtual environment (VE) platform, which facilitates the experts to visualize and interact with key patterns of the data for collaborative analyses. As outcomes of the program, the vital enablers of the platform are new algorithms for recognizing key patterns reliably and rendering the patterns effectively to ensure intuitive visualization and interaction. Using complex flow data as a heuristic case, the creation of the algorithms is an interdisciplinary endeavor in collaboration with engineering scientists of fluid dynamics at both national and international levels.