Example of a visualization approach designed for the analysis of sentiment and stance in online social media texts

InfraVis will help Swedish researchers visualize data

A project called InfraVis will build a new national infrastructure for visualization and analysis of scientific data. Linnaeus University is one of nine Swedish higher education institutions that will give researchers access to expertise and development of competence in this field.

Big data is the term for the large and complex amounts of data that are acquisited in today’s society, within a variety of fields. A key issue in this context is how to interpret and understand all this data, as well as discover trends and identify patterns. One answer to this need is data visualization, that is, making data visible graphically.

Today, the latest technology in data visualization is available at several universities in Sweden, among them Linnaeus University. However, for the individual researcher it may be difficult to get started as the technology requires expertise, time and resources.

A common gateway

The new project InfraVis will remedy this, by creating a common gateway to the Swedish resources and also enhancing the competence of researchers in various fields around the country. The resources include both hardware and software but, above all, human expertise. The project is an initiative of nine Swedish universities, with Chalmers University of Technology as principal investigator and Linnaeus University as one of the partners, and is funded by the Swedish Research Council.

At Linnaeus University, InfraVis will be coordinated by Andreas Kerren, Professor of information visualization and head of the research group Information and Software Visualization (ISOVIS).

“InfraVis will provide all researchers at Linnaeus University access to expertise and a wide range of techniques for analysis and visualization. ISOVIS’ researchers will contribute to InfraVis with their expertise in information visualization and visual analytics.”, states Andreas Kerren.

A wide range of disciplines

InfraVis will promote Swedish research in all fields. The project expects users from a wide range of disciplines, such as humanities, medicine and technology, already during the first year. Max IV, CERN, life sciences, archaeology and digital humanities are examples of other institutions and areas that will be able to benefit from InfraVis.

In addition to supporting researchers, the InfraVis experts around the country will be strengthened themselves through the opportunities of collaboration that will arise.

More information

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“The idea of a visualization competence infrastructure is novel, timely and needed. InfraVis combines national strength in this field to propose a new model for making this competence accessible to other fields. It could serve as a blueprint for other IT competence fields in Sweden and for visualization in other countries. This is an excellent project that addresses an important need, especially that this infrastructure is relevant to all sciences and also addresses important societal aspects. It would be unique in the world.”

From the international panel’s remark on the project application