Assignment 2

This is a project-based course, which means that a substantial portion of your grade will be derived from a large semester project. This assignment is the first step in preparing for that large project. You are to develop a project proposal that could be worked on by 3 to 4 people over the course of the semester.

In about two weeks, we'll form teams of 3 to 4 people to work on a few of the projects proposed by you and your classmates. However, the first step toward our semester project is to identify potential problems to work on. Your proposal should meet all of the requirements listed below.

Individual Proposals

You are each expected to submit your own individual proposal. Be sure to submit your proposal on time, adhering to the due date listed in Sakai. Late submissions are not accepted for this assignment, will recieve a grade of 0.

Please note that this because this is a team project, means that not all proposals will be selected by a team. However, the selection (or not) of your proposal does not impact your grade in any way. Your grade will not be helped (nor hurt) by having your proposal selected (or passed over) when teams are formed.

Project Requirements

Your proposed project must describe an (1) interactive visualization of a (2) sufficiently complex data set to (3) solve a problem or answer a question. The project must make use of at least basic (4) statistical methods and include at least some derived values that are computed from the raw, original data. You must also develop some of your own software. (6) You cannot simply apply an existing software package without modification or extension.

Other than that, you are free to propose any sort of project you wish. Choose a topic that interests you, look for some data, and think about what you would find fun to visually analyze! Having trouble thinking of a topic? Look at the green box below for some suggestions.

To summarize, the minimum requirements are as follows:

Interactive visualization (static graphics are insufficient)
Sufficiently complex data set

This is admittedly a vague requirement. As a general rule (there are exceptions to every rule), your data should have multiple variables and at least thousands of individual data records. Unsure about a particular data set? Ask me!
A dataset containing 20 or 30 data points is not complex enough (e.g., a 10 day weather forecast).
Similarly, a dataset containing just one variable, even if there are thousands of measurements, is not complex enough (e.g., the historical daily closing stock price for IBM over the last 100 years).
Unsure if your dataset is appropriate? Ask me! (Don't wait until the last minute.)

Employ at least some basic statistical methods
Plans to use derived values in addition to any raw, original data.
Solves a problem or helps answer a question.
- "What would your project be used for?"
- A real task would be great!
You can't use only already-available software. You must develop some custom software as part of the project.

Need some ideas? Ask around to see who has data and with unanswered questions. It could be data from a research project, or a local non-profit, or a campus organization. Can't find a 'real' problem? Take a look at this list of open and free datasets that are easily available for download on the web.

Beware! You only have two weeks to complete your proposal. Start right away! If you run into trouble developing an idea, you must contact me by the end of the first week. After that, it may be too late for me to help you brainstorm.

Proposal Format

Your proposal should be at least 1 page in length. Under no circumstances should you have more more than 2 pages.

Your proposal document should follow the IEEE TVCG Formatting Guidelines. The same format will be used for your final paper. They have a template for Microsoft Word linked from the top of that page. Or you can get the Microsoft Word template directly via this link.

Suggested Outline

The structure of your proposal is up to you. However, at a minimum it should have the following:

Abstract: One paragraph summary of your project.
Motivation: What domain are you working in? Who are the target users? What are the questions your proposed visual analytics system would help answer? Why is it interesting to you (or others)?
Data: Describe what data you'll need, where you plan to get it, and how you plan to store it/access it for your project.
Task: Given the questions that will your project help a user answer (which you'll enumerate in the introduction), what specific tasks will the user need to perform to answer them? How (at a very high level) do you suggest to use visual analytics to help users perform those tasks?

Remember the page limit! Your proposal should only be 1 or 2 pages long. Don't write too much at this stage. If your proposal is chosen by one of our project teams, your plans will surely change as you learn more about the problem.

Submission

Save your proposal document as a PDF and submit it via Sakai by the due date listed on the class schedule. Remember, late submissions will not be accepted. All late assignments will receive a grade of 0.

Team Formation

Once everyone has submitted a project proposal, the team formation process can begin. Click here to read more about how the team formation process will unfold.