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Visual Analytics: The Next Five Years

VAC Consortium Meeting, August 18-19, 2009; Richland, WA

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

Founding NVAC Director Jim Thomas announced his retirement and passed the Crown of Leadership to Richard May during the opening remarks. Carol Dumaine opened the meeting with a keynote presentation on the challenges faced by an increasingly complex world.

Following a networking break, Lee Ann Dudney had fun with her panel, giving each of them a "crown" of their own to make requests for the future if they were the King or Queen of visual analytics.

With the original Regional Visual Analytics Center (RVAC) contracts ending, the leaders of the new Center of Excellence for Command, Control and Interoperability lead a panel to discuss the partnerships and research goals of this new DHS center. Pictured here are David Ebert, Fred Roberts, and Bill Pottenger.

Several projects were introduced or reported updates with short presentations from topics as wide-ranging as text interpretation (Ed Delp), audio analysis (Mark Hasegawa-Johnson), and story tracking (Stuart Rose).

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

The evening dinner was held in the barrel storage room of the Kestrel Vineyards, providing a unique atmosphere for great wine and conversation. After dinner, Joe Kielman presented Jim Thomas a Visual Analytics Pioneer award of his own.

Wednesday opened with a special session on the future of the VAC Consortium, followed by Lucy Nowell's keynote peering into her “crystal ball” on predictions for 2025. A panel of visual analytics researchers presented their upcoming challenges in the field.

After lunch, Joe Kielman presented his views on the future, followed by a presentation by Jake Kolojejchick about his experience moving from research to production. Kris Cook finished up the day by leading a panel of commercial partners on strategies for technology transfer.