Regional Centers: National Visualization and Analytics Center

Regional Centers

US Map showing location of RVACs The National Visualization and Analytics Center has, as one of its major objectives, the establishment of several Regional Visualization and Analytics Centers (RVACs) to assist the Department of Homeland Security to develop visual analytics tools in identifying and thwarting terrorist threats to the nation. RVACs have been established at key academic institutions to provide both research expertise and training and education programs, supplementing the knowledge centered within NVAC.

The national and regional centers together are creating educational programs with academia and industry to develop highly interdisciplinary skills that are essential to visual analytics research and development. In the programs, faculty and students become more effective contributors to the visual analytics research agenda because they will have teamed with NVAC to develop and evaluate advanced technologies. The ultimate goal is to continue feeding the pipeline of visual analytics experts.

“Beyond developing innovative technologies, NVAC and the RVACs also have the responsibility to stimulate the next generation of talent that's required for both invention and operation of the field’s new suite of tools. This means a steady flow of staff exchanges, building new curriculums, and hosting interdisciplinary workshops and conferences among academia, industry and other laboratories.”
~Jim Thomas, NVAC Director

Pennsylvania State University [NEVAC Website]
Penn State develops visualization tools designed to extract and safely store pertinent information, such as place and time, from a variety of data formats which can help analysts anticipate, prevent and respond to major events. Armed with this information, researchers will develop new methods to integrate the data and visualization tools to uncover and interpret emergent patterns.
Penn State Press Release

Purdue University and Indiana University School of Medicine [PURVAC Website]
Purdue and IUSM perform research that allow homeland security personnel at all levels to quickly and effectively extract, visually analyze and synthesize information so that they can make quick and accurate decisions. The team's focus is on three homeland security areas – intelligence analysis; emergency planning and response; and healthcare monitoring and management.
Purdue Press Release

Stanford University
Stanford performs research on network traffic analysis for intrusion detection; cognitive and perceptual principles supporting reasoning with space and time; and methods to support exploratory analysis of graphs in relational databases. These three research elements enhance analytical reasoning with complex information.
Stanford Press Release

University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Georgia Institute of Technology [SRVAC Website]
UNC Charlotte and Georgia Tech develop techniques and tools to assist homeland security analysts and then combine the tools in an artificial analytic reasoning system. The system will analyze enormous multimedia databases, such as the data generated by the Web in the forms of text, imagery, video and webcast.
UNCC Press Release

University of Washington [PARVAC Website]
UW established a Pacific Rim regional center, which includes experts from UW, British Columbia, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. Industrial partners include the Boeing Company and ChangeTools, Inc. of Huntsville, Ala. Rather than individuals analyzing data, the interdisciplinary team works together to conduct their analysis, a process known as "collaborative visual analytics."

Language Translation: