National Visualization and Analytics Center

NVAC Q&A

1. What is visual analytics?

Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive, visual interfaces. The goal of visual analytics is to obtain insight into massive, dynamic and often conflicting pieces and formats of information; to “detect the expected and to discover the unexpected”; and to yield timely assessments with evidence and confidence levels. Visual analytics supports the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to secure our homeland and protect Americans by providing the tools needed by analysts and emergency responders to stop terrorism.

2. Why is it needed?

The government faces a critical challenge in identifying and preventing attacks on the U.S. With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and in collaboration with existing agencies, resources are being focused on the problem of stopping terrorism.

Detecting threats early requires the continuous fusion and analysis of enormous, dynamic and complex information streams. These streams may contain structured and unstructured text documents, emails, measurements, images and video. Visual analytics tools offer the best opportunity for analysts and researchers to make sense of the information efficiently and effectively.

3. What is the National Visualization and Analytics Center (NVAC)?

NVAC is a national resource that provides strategic direction and coordination of activities to discover, develop and implement innovative visual information analysis methods. Established in 2004, it’s funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate and led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. NVAC’s goal is to help counter future terrorist attacks in the U.S. and around the globe.

4. Why was PNNL selected to lead NVAC?

DHS would be the more appropriate respondent to this question, but as background, PNNL is nationally and internationally recognized for scientific leadership and has a long history of high-impact contributions in information visualization and analysis for homeland security, intelligence and defense. PNNL has extensive expertise in developing visual analytic tools for several government and private clients since the early 1990s. PNNL also has extensive experience with the analytical challenges of the intelligence community and its researchers have worked alongside government analysts to bring fundamentally new analytical capabilities into their working environment.

5. Why is NVAC important?

NVAC is important because the nation needs a “place” to harness its science and technological expertise in the area of visual analytics, and to develop and then deploy tools that could help thwart terrorist threats.

The types of activities that are part of NVAC include: research and development of technologies to help us detect early warnings of possible terrorist activities; education of the next generation of scientists and engineers in areas such as visual analytics; evaluation and implementation of new technologies; and integration of research and development programs across government agencies and research institutions to effectively execute NVAC’s mission.

6. Who determined what the four core activities would be?

After considering PNNL’s suggested focus areas, DHS made the final determination.

7. What is the timeline for NVAC activities and/or major milestones?

NVAC was officially announced in May 2004. Since then, a multidisciplinary panel representing government, academia and industry has developed a Research and Development Agenda for visual analytics. This agenda provides a roadmap for future R&D efforts in visual analytics. The roadmap was unveiled at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in February 2005. The Agenda can be downloaded from the NVAC website or purchased as a softbound book from IEEE Press.

In September 2005, NVAC invited proposals from US-based universities for the establishment of Regional Visualization and Analytics Centers (RVACs). Proposals focused on one or more of the major visual analytics research areas described in Illuminating the Path: The Research and Development Agenda for Visual Analytics. The evaluation team—nationally recognized senior technical talents and experienced managers of large government programs from academia, industry, and government—reviewed each proposal and selected four for funding.

8. What are Regional Visualization and Analytics Centers (RVAC) and where will they be located?

RVACs are centers that will be established at key universities to provide both research expertise and training and education programs, supplementing the knowledge centered within NVAC.

Current RVACS are:

The national and regional centers will together create educational programs with universities and industry to help develop highly interdisciplinary skills that are key to visual analytics R&D. In the programs, faculty and students become more effective contributors to the visual analytics research agenda because they’ll have teamed with NVAC to develop and evaluate advanced technologies. The ultimate goal is to continue feeding the pipeline of visual analytics experts.

9. What are visualization tools? And are they all under NVAC? Who uses the tools? Can you give me one or two examples?

Visualization tools are often referred to as either “information visualization” or “visualization analysis.” Recognizing that humans have a keen ability to process visual representations of information, researchers are creating computer tools that can interpret and analyze vast amounts of data, including text, images, sounds, voices, videos and numbers, and enabling analysts to uncover hidden associations and relationships and ultimately detecting what might be happening and discovering the unexpected.

PNNL is well known for two of its widely used visualization tools, IN-SPIRE™ and Starlight™. Even though these two tools were created prior to NVAC’s creation, they will become part of the suite of tools available for various users associated with the center. However, PNNL anticipates much more revolutionary tools being developed and implemented as NVAC grows.

Visualization tools are used by a wide variety of organizations in a variety of ways. Examples include:

- Competitive Intelligence
- Enterprise Knowledge Management
- Environmental Security
- Intellectual Asset Management
- Intelligence Analysis
- Market Assessments
- Medical Informatics
- Medical Research
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation
- Research Program Management
- Science and Technology Scanning
- Translingual Text Analysis

10. What other universities, government agencies and/or institutions are involved in NVAC?

NVAC continues to partner with government, industry, academia and national laboratories to leverage and enhance the vast resources and expertise to develop and deploy new visual tools and capabilities to prevent terrorism.