May 2011
US-Sweden Workshop: A Visualization and Analytics Approach to Flooding and Pandemics
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
On March 27-28, 2011, a contingent from the U.S joined their Swedish partners for a US-Sweden Workshop entitled “A Visualization and Analytics Approach to Flooding and Pandemics Workshop,” in Norrkoping, Sweden. The conversations of this workshop will help to define areas for potential US-Sweden collaboration in the area of visualization and analytics as it pertains to flooding and pandemic scenarios. Participants defined requirements for a joint approach to addressing these challenges. The requirements will lead to recommendations for developing programs and relevant technology utilizing visualization and analytics tools and techniques.
The workshop included presentations from end users from US and Sweden, outlining their needs when preparing for, responding to, and recovering from floods and pandemics. A Technology Showcase allowed workshop participants to interact with a number of tools under development in the U.S. and Sweden. The second day of the agenda consisted of panels looking at anomaly detection techniques, integrating visualization and interaction strategies, and data fusion tools and techniques.
VAW2011: 3rd International UKVAC Workshop on Visual Analytics
United Kingdom Visual Analytics Consortium (UKVAC)
Proposals are invited for VAW2011, the third international UKVAC Workshop on Visual Analytics (VAW). VAW addresses the exciting emerging field of Visual Analytics - the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visualisation. The workshop aims to bring together UK and overseas academics, government and industry experts with an interest in the role of visual analytics for supporting people in solving information intensive problems. VAW 2011 is supported by the US Department of Homeland Security and HM Government in the UK.
"What is Watson?"
Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis
The title of this blurb is a question whose answer is "An IBM computer system that recently won over seventy thousand dollars on Jeopardy against two stalwart human champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter."
The match followed more than a decade of work by IBM computer scientists developing and harnessing capabilities that enabled Watson to do “open question answering” – answering questions delivered in unstructured formats, about unknown topics, with all of the nuance and uncertainty of natural language. The Jeopardy format is particularly challenging because it requires understanding the puns and deliberately obscure allusions common to Jeopardy categories. Humans filter, interpret, and cross-reference to push the buzzer in Jeopardy – Watson needed these same skills, which are all part of “data analytics.”
2011 VAC Consortium Meeting
National Visualization and Analytics Center
How do great ideas grow into software that helps people derive insight from complex data? Come to the 2011 Visual Analytics Community Consortium meeting on May 3 and 4, 2011, at the University of Maryland Conference Center to talk with your colleagues and meet people from government, industry, and academia around the world who are working every day to transform ideas into visual analytics solutions. Hear success stories, discuss challenges, see the latest in visual analytics software and emerging research, and connect with the community.
2011 DHS University Network Summit
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano gave the opening remarks at the 2011 DHS University Network Summit. She discussed the role of the nation’s academia and promoted science as a public service.
The 2011 DHS University Network Summit, organized and managed by the DHS Office of University Programs, featured research and development (R&D) activities addressing the topic of “Catastrophes and Complex Systems,” with a focus on the role of transportation systems in preventing, mitigating, responding to, and recovering from natural or man-made disasters. Complex transportation systems can be hit by natural disasters, targeted for terrorist attacks, or used to spread disease or toxins with wide-scale consequences. They also comprise an integral component of response and recovery systems.
Infrastructure Protection and Evacuation Planning Symposium
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Jim Slusser of the Maryland Stadium Authority, in a presentation with Roy Sommerhof of the NFL Baltimore Ravens, outlines the evacuation challenges and concerns of M&T Bank Stadium in downtown Baltimore.
On March 28, 2011, the Infrastructure Protection and Disaster Management Division (IDD) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) hosted the Infrastructure Protection and Evacuation Planning (IPEP) Symposium in conjunction with the 2011 DHS University Network Summit. The IPEP Symposium convened 65 participants from 23 organizations including but not limited to the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (or FEMA), the National Football League, the American Red Cross, as well as representatives from the DHS Center of Excellence Network and the private sector, to discuss current DHS S&T evacuation planning research and development efforts, and to discuss a path forward for these efforts.
Student Workshop on Mathematical & Computational Modeling in Service of Society
Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA)
Clockwise from center top: Attendees at a reception following the workshop; Brian Thompson; Cindy Hui; Scott Kulp; Brad Greening
One rarely views math and computer science as inherently “social sciences”; yet, they can play an important role in helping to understand and address problems facing society. Computational and mathematical algorithms can optimize the use of scarce resources; they can model the spread of disease and the propagation of warnings during an emergency; identify patterns and anomalies that signal a disease outbreak, cyber attacks, or simply equipment needing maintenance; they can help one understand and respond to the dynamics of human behavior during an evacuation; improve cargo screening; and help a computer become a Jeopardy! champion. These are just a few of the uses of mathematical and computational algorithms that are underway at the Center for Command Control and Interoperability for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence led by Rutgers.