M259 Visualizing Information (4 units)


George Legrady
Jieliang Luo Office Hours Wednesdays 10:00am-1:00pm

Lecture/lab: Tues-Thurs 10:00-11:50 Ellings Studio 2611

The course provides a comprehensive approach to data visualization with conceptual, technical, and production activities in 1) culture analytics as a means to develop skills in both quantitative and qualitative analyses, 2) data mining, 3) data aggregation and 4) visualization in the java based Processing environment. Knowledge acquired include 1) how to identify and retrieve significant data from a dataset with MySQL 2) Develop skills in the fundamentals of visual language through programming 3) Visualize abstract data to reveal patterns and relationships 4) Normalize data to enhance legibility and coherence 5) Implement interactivity within 3D volumetric visualization. 

The course begins with MySQL exercises in data mining to develop skills in retrieving meaningful information from a unique multivariate resource consisting of over 80 million datasets generated from a public resource. The data provides hourly activities since September 2005. The dataset represents a broad cultural content in books, cds, dvd’s checked-out hourly by patrons of the Seattle Public Library. Each transaction contains scalar, numeric, time-based, semantic and other forms of multivariate metadata which allow for a multiplicity of subject matter. Every student in the course creates their own visualizations using the same dataset source to allow us to quickly master examples from prior student assignments and to share solutions. The final project is open-ended, students choosing their subject matter, method of data analyzing, and visualization.

Graphics of Large Datasets, Unwin, Theus, Hofmann (Statistics & Computing)[UCSB online]
Visualizing Data, [Examples] Ben Fry (Online text by the co-author of Processing)
MySQL Crash Course | Online Ben Forta