Why high performance visual data analytics is both relevant and difficult

Abstract

Data visualization, as well as data analysis and data analytics, are all an integral part of the scientific process. Collectively, these technologies provide the means to gain insight into data of ever-increasing size and complexity. Over the past two decades, a substantial amount of visualization, analysis, and analytics R&D has focused on the challenges posed by increasing data size and complexity, as well as on the increasing complexity of a rapidly changing computational platform landscape. While some of this research focuses on solely on technologies, such as indexing and searching or novel analysis or visualization algorithms, other R&D projects focus on applying technological advances to specific application problems. Some of the most interesting and productive results occur when these two activities-R&D and application-are conducted in a collaborative fashion, where application needs drive R&D, and R&D results are immediately applicable to real-world problems.