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Visualization for the Blind
Niklas Elmqvist
Virtual-https://umd.zoom.us/j/93637673064?pwd=TzJYcE15UXg0MTJSQXJ5UFFLMlBNZz09
Friday, November 20, 2020, 11:00 am-12:00 pm Calendar
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Abstract
Data visualization is all about the use of colored pixels (computer graphics) to represent data: all kinds of data, from stock markets and sales trends, to social networks and spatial scan statistics. However, there is a population of users totally immune to such efforts: blind people, who are entirely locked away from data visualization and unable to enjoy its benefits. In this talk, I will discuss how we can  fuse vision with the other senses -- primarily hearing and touch, but even smell -- in order to convey data. In particular, I am interested in finding creative new ways for the blind to deal with even big data, which is becoming increasingly important when navigating the modern world.
 
Bio

Niklas Elmqvist is a full professor in the iSchool (College of Information Studies) at University of Maryland, College Park. He received his Ph.D. in computer science in 2006 from Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden. Prior to joining University of Maryland, he was an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Since 2016, he is the director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) at University of Maryland, one of the oldest and most well-known HCI research labs in the country. His research area is information visualization, human-computer interaction, and visual analytics. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award as well as best paper awards from the IEEE Information Visualization conference, the ACM CHI conference, the International Journal of Virtual Reality, and the ASME IDETC/CIE conference. He was papers co-chair for IEEE InfoVis 2016, 2017, and 2020, as well as a subcommittee chair for ACM CHI 2020 and 2021. He is also associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Visualization & Computer Graphics, the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, and the Information Visualization journal, and co-editor of the Morgan & Claypool Synthesis Lectures on Visualization. His research has been funded by both federal agencies such as NSF, NIH, and DHS as well as by companies such as Google, NVIDIA, and Microsoft. He is also the recipient of the Purdue Student Government Graduate Mentoring Award (2014), the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award (2012), and the Purdue ECE Chicago Alumni New Faculty award (2010). He was elevated to the rank of Distinguished Scientist of the ACM in 2018, one of only 40 people receiving this recognition that year.

This talk is organized by Richa Mathur