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Abstract

Visualization has been a part of computing for a long time, however with the growth in data produced by researchers and the computing resources available visualization capability has not developed in a way that provides researchers with the ability to include visualization as part of their standard analysis. To address this issue and to understand how visualization systems must adapt to meet the new needs the eResearch brings we examine the past, present and begin to look into the future at visualization systems and architectures, to aid in understanding how visualization may be used or wish to be used a scenario involving a variety of Earth Science researchers working at a variety of locations to collect data and conduct analysis is presented.

Reviewing traditional visualization systems, in particular, Modular Visualization Environments and Visualization Toolkits, to understand the heritage of visualization systems and the challenges that researchers have identified face. We look at current visualization systems that begin to take advantage of grid computing technologies, including those that modify traditional systems, those that a new architectures and those that have been developed in a bespoke manner for particular eResearch projects. Whilst these current visualization systems address some of the challenges of visualization for eResearch several challenges still exist and we examine ways in which these systems need to develop into the future to meet these challenges relating to use of multiple datasets, display devices, variation in bandwidth availability, the need for interaction and the role that predictive rendering can play in this, the need for new and revised algorithms, a focus on the end to end performance of visualization pipelines and the ability to integrate in to a researchers workflow rather than be an additional activity.

About the speaker

Stuart Charters is currently Lecturer of Software and Information Technology in the Applied Computing Group at Lincoln University, NZ, and received his BSc(Hons.) and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Durham, UK. As part of the Computer Science Department and e-Science Research Institute at the University of Durham, Stuart was involved with projects funded through the UK e-Science programme focussed on Visualisation and Grid Computing. Stuart conducts research into visualisation architectures, particularly service oriented architectures, and supervises research students working on visualisation and eResearch projects. He is a member of the University eResearch Steering Committee and is eResearch champion for the Environment, Society and Design Division promoting the use of grid computing and eResearch within research and teaching projects. Stuart is a member of the British Computer Society and the ACM, and has served as a reviewer or on the programme committee of a number of e-Science, Grid Computing and eResearch conferences. Stuart’s research interests are in Visualisation, Grid Computing and Software Engineering.