[Infovis] IEEE VIS 2015: VAST challenge: Grant challenge deadline extended / optional two-page papers

[Jian Chen]

Updated Due Dates!  MC1 and MC2 due July 7; Grand Challenge due July 9!

For more information, please visit
http://ieeevis.org/year/2015/info/call-participation/vast-challenge.

*VAST Challenge 2015 Call for Participation*

VAST Challenge 2015 is underway. See
http://vacommunity.org/VASTchallenge2015 for details.

This year’s VAST Challenge presents two related mini-challenges and an
overall Grand Challenge for your consideration. The challenges are open to
teams and individuals in academia, industry, and government.

This year, we would like to encourage participants create innovative
visualizations to support their analyses of the data. There will be many
different features within the data sets that could use creative approaches,
so even if your particular approach doesn’t address the entire Challenge
problem set, please enter and show us your new ways of working with this
data.

*Background*

*Note: This scenario and all the people, places, groups, technologies,
contained therein are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, places,
groups, or technologies is purely coincidental.*

DinoFun World is a modest-sized park amusement park, sitting on about 215
hectares and hosting thousands of visitors each day. It has a small town
feel, but it is well known for its exciting rides and events.

One event last year was a weekend tribute to Scott Jones, internationally
renowned football (“soccer,” in US terminology) star. Scott is from a town
nearby DinoFun World. DinoFun World declared “Scott Jones Weekend” where he
was scheduled to appear in two stage shows each on Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday to talk about his life and career. In addition, a show of
memorabilia from his career would be displayed in the park’s Pavilion.

However, the event did not go as planned. Scott’s weekend was marred by
crime and mayhem perpetrated by a poor, misguided and disgruntled figure
from Scott’s past.

While the crimes were rapidly solved, park officials and law enforcement
figures are interested in understanding what happened during that weekend
to better prepare themselves for future events. They are interested in
understanding how people move and communicate in the park, as well as how
patterns change and evolve over time, and what can be understood about the
motivations for changing patterns.

*The Challenges*

*Mini-Challenge 1 *

Mini-Challenge 1 focuses on movement of people around the park. You are
asked to characterize the movement of groups and individuals, with a
special emphasis on what might be relevant to better understanding the
incident that occurred in June 2014.

Please visit VAST Challenge 2015: Mini-Challenge 1
<http://vacommunity.org/2015+VAST+Challenge%3A+MC1> for more information
and to download the data.

*Mini-Challenge 2 *

Mini-Challenge 2 asks you to dive into the communications over time that
took place among the park visitors using the park app. Linkages between
visitors and among park patrons and park staff could reveal behaviors of
interest.

Please visit VAST Challenge 2015: Mini-Challenge 2
<http://vacommunity.org/2015+VAST+Challenge%3A+MC2> for more information
and to download the data.

*The Grand Challenge *

The Grand Challenge requires you to blend your knowledge obtained from the
two mini-challenges to answer questions of interest to law enforcement
officials. How was the crime executed and who was responsible?

Please visit VAST Challenge 2015: Grand Challenge
<http://vacommunity.org/2015+VAST+Challenge%3A+Grand+Challenge> for more
information.



*For Further Information*

For more information, please see http://vacommunity.org/VASTchallenge2015 or
contactvast-challenge at ieeevis.org.

The submission deadlines are as follows:

·       Mini-Challenge 1 and Mini-Challenge 2 submissions:  July 7, 2015,
11:59 pm PDT

·       Grand Challenge submissions:  must be initiated in Precision
Conference by July 7; must be completed by July 9, 2015, 11:59 pm PDT

·       Optional 2-page paper due August 19, 2015

We look forward to seeing your creative solutions!

 *VAST Challenge Committee co-chairs*

Kris Cook, Georges Grinstein, and Mark Whiting


Best regards,
-- Jian
-------------------------------------------------------------
Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Prof.
CSEE, University of Maryland Baltimore County
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen/index.html