globe with pictures from partner countries

Visual Analytics Beyond Borders

VAC Consortium Meeting, November 12-13, 2008; Richland, WA

Fall 2008 VAC Consortium Meeting Photo Tour

Click on any photo to view a larger size. Please send requests for originals to Ian Roberts at nvac@pnl.gov

NVAC Director Jim Thomas began the meeting with a welcome message and introduced the two-day agenda. Dieter Fellner, Director of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute gave the keynote address to a packed house, generating lots of conversation at the first break.

Continuing the theme of Beyond Borders, a panel of international visual analytics leaders convened. Joe Kielman of DHS moderated the panel of Daniel Keim from Germany, Dario Leslie from the United Kingdom, and Andrew Vallerand from Canada.

Following a talk on transitioning technology into practice, seven consortium members presented the current state of their research. Pictured here are Howard Greenblatt from Metatomix, Shannon Ferrucci from Mercyhurst College, and Mark Whiting and Jean Scholtz from PNNL.

Always a highlight of VAC Consortium meetings, the demonstration and poster session provided hours of interesting conversation and sharing.

The Wednesday evening social and dinner provided more networking time and an opportunity for Jim to recognize the Threat Stream Generator team, and the leaders of the Regional Visualization and Analytics Centers were named Visual Analytics Pioneers.

Thursday opened with two optional special interest sessions, followed by a panel introducing the consortium to the National Science Foundation and DHS partnership, FODAVA. Panel members included Larry Rosenblum of NSF, Haesun Park, Richard Fujimoto, and John Stasko of Georgia Tech, and Rachael Brady of Duke University.

Dr. Joe Kielman of DHS provided his vision for the future of visual analytics and encouraged the attendees to participate in defining their future. The afternoon provided ample time for discussion and some domain-specific panels.