National Visualization and Analytics Center

National Science Foundation: Partnering to Advance Data and Visual Analytics


The Georgia Institute of Technology is the lead institution for the NSF's Foundations of Data Analysis and Visual Analytics (FODAVA). More information is at http://fodava.gatech.edu

In July 2007, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation announced that a formal partnership between NSF and DHS had been created to conduct a joint research program in data and visual analytics. Data and Visual Analytics uses the fields of mathematical and computational sciences to transform all types of digital data into ways that make visual understanding possible

Foundations of Data and Visual Analytics (FODAVA)

Those involved with science, engineering, commerce, health and national security all increasingly face the challenge of synthesizing information and deriving insight from massive, dynamic, ambiguous and possibly conflicting digital data. The goal of collecting and examining these data is not to merely acquire information but to derive increased understanding from it and to facilitate effective decision-making.

To capitalize on the opportunities provided by these data sets, NSF solicited proposals from academia that capitalize on knowledge and expertise in the fields of mathematics, computational science and intelligent systems. FODAVA is concerned only with a subset of the overall problem, namely the creation of the mathematical and computational sciences foundations required to transform data in ways that permit visual-based understanding.

The Georgia Institute of Technology (http://fodava.gatech.edu) will lead and coordinate this new initiative. It will perform foundational research in massive data analysis and visual analytics through advances in areas such as machine learning, numeric and geometric computing, optimization, computational statistics, and information visualization. It will work to establish FODAVA as a distinct research field and build a community of researchers that will collaborate through research workshops and conferences, industry engagement and technology transfer.

FODAVA Partners

“This partnership with NSF is the most important event since the creation of NVAC in March 2004. It brings to the front stage efforts by folks within DHS, NVAC and NSF to jointly fund the development of basic research in visual analytics supporting DHS applied mission needs.”
~Jim Thomas, NVAC Director