TLS - Applied Visual Analytics for Economic Decision-Making

科学家们发现，由于认知能力的限制，当问题很复杂时，个体往往无法做出最佳决策。这个跨学科的项目采用可视化分析作为经济学的转型分析工具。研究人员使用可视化分析来改进决策，并确定各种经济问题中知识创造的关键动机。这个项目吗?S的工具套件允许用户交互式地探索数据集和决策空间，以及比较替代假设和开发新的假设。此外，还记录了与理解决策和知识生成相关的击键和信息，使研究人员能够在更大范围内预测决策过程，并为决策的理论模型提供指导。这是对可视化分析对经济决策价值的第一次全面调查。这个项目汇集了一组来自经济学、电气和计算机工程以及认知科学领域的科学家，这些领域很少有联系。这个为期三年的项目的基本目标是通过引入视觉分析作为处理复杂信息集的必要工具来改善个人和群体的经济决策。这个项目吗?S的第二个目标是量化可视化分析对决策的有效性。视觉分析已经成为许多领域数据分析的重要方法，如医学、商业和物理科学，研究者是第一个使用严格的实验方法量化其决策价值的人。最终目标是开发一套独特的可视化分析工具，以帮助经济学家和政策制定者分析大型数据集。更广泛的影响：在经济决策中使用可视化分析对政策制定者非常有益。使用这些工具应该对分析复杂经济数据集的能力产生直接和积极的影响。这些工具也可以用于分析推理问题的许多领域。项目完成后产生的可视化分析工具将在网上提供给课堂使用，这将对教育产生广泛的影响。视觉分析工具的独特之处在于，它们既简单又吸引K-12学生，同时对本科生和研究生也很有帮助。该项目将使用650多名本科生的研究对象，这些学生来自于庞大而多样化的学生群体，并将为这些学生提供接触现代研究方法的重要机会。普渡大学的VSEEL实验室在本科生和研究生阶段都有涉及代表性不足的少数群体成员的优秀记录，该项目有望延续这一传统。超过40%的学生将是女性，约三分之一是代表性不足的少数民族。根据过去的经验，我们预计至少有一半的博士生研究员将是女性和/或少数族裔。

Scientists have discovered that individuals are often unable to make optimal decisions when problems are complex due to limitations on cognitive abilities. This interdisciplinary project employs visual analytics as a transformational analytical tool in economics. The investigators use visual analytics to improve decision making and identify key motivations in knowledge creation in various economic problems. The project?s suite of tools allows users to interactively explore datasets and decision spaces as well as compare alternate hypothesis and develop new hypothesis. Further, keystrokes and information pertinent to understanding decision-making and knowledge generation are recorded, allowing the investigators to make predictions about the decision-making process on a broad scale and providing guidance for theoretical models of decision-making. This is the first thorough investigation of the value of visual analytics for economic decision-making.Intellectual MeritThis project brings together a team of scientists from economics, electrical and computer engineering and cognitive science, fields that are rarely linked. The fundamental objective of this three-year project is to improve individual and group economic decision making through the introduction of visual analytics as a necessary tool for dealing with complex information sets. The project?s second objective is to quantify the effectiveness of visual analytics for decision making. Visual analytics has emerged as an important approach to data analysis in many fields such as medicine, business, and the physical sciences, and the investigators are the first to quantify its value for decision-making using rigorous experimental methods. The final objective is to develop a unique suite of visual analytics tools to help economists and policy-makers analyze large datasets. Broader Impact: The use of visual analytics for economic decision-making is extremely beneficial to policy makers. Use of these tools should have an immediate and positive impact on the capacity to analyze complex economic datasets. These tools can also be used in many fields with problems in analytical reasoning. The visual analytics tools that result at the completion of the project will be made available online for classroom use, which will have a broad impact on education. Visual analytics tools are unique in that they are both simple enough and captivating for K-12 students, while also being helpful to students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The project will use over 650 undergraduate student subjects drawn from a large and diversified student population and will provide these students with important exposure to modern research methods. The VSEEL laboratory at Purdue has an excellent record of involving members of underrepresented minority groups at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and this project is expected to continue this tradition. Over 40 percent of these student subjects will be women and about one-third will be underrepresented minorities. Based on past experience, we expect that at least one-half of the Ph.D. student researchers will be women and/or minorities.