Description

This course, IST 868 Topics in Visual Analytics, introduces the fundamental principles, methods, and tools of visual analytics that enable data and security analysts to synthesize information and derive insight from massive, dynamic, ambiguous, and often conflicting data.

Decisions in business, government, and security management are increasingly driven by data. Analysts are faced with a continuously growing set of data originated from a wide range of sources and in a wide variety of formats. Such data need to be analyzed in order to understand a situation and to take actions promptly. Analysts must overcome significant information overload when dealing with the sheer volume and complexity of data. Visual Analytics (VA) offers an effective solution for making sense of massive datasets by augmenting human cognitive abilities with information visualization and interaction technologies. It helps analysts in detecting the expected and discover the unexpected, providing timely, defensible, and in communicating findings and assessment effectively for action.

The objective of this course is enhance the analytical skills of students on handling massive, heterogeneous, and dynamic set of information. The course covers both theoretical concepts and practical skills in the use of visual analytic tools for solving problems.  Students will gain knowledge on supporting human judgment with interactive visual dashboards where visual representations and interaction techniques are part of the analytical process. Such skills are critical to those professionals working as intelligence analysts, decision makers, engineers, and security investigation. 

Prerequisites

• To be added

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the fundamental principles, methods, and tools of visual analytic
  • Explore the best choices data visualization for explaining your data. We’ll look at specific types of charts including bar charts, line charts, tree maps, scatter plots, histograms, bullet charts and several others, and we’ll address charting guidelines.
  • Design visualization of temporal data. We’ll experiment with discrete and continuous dates, and explore temporal patterns at different time granularity (year/month/week/day/hour/minutes), and examine when to use each one to explain your data.
  • Create customizable visualization through the use of filters, highlighters, and parameter controls.
  • Map your data using different types of geographic references (lat/long, place names, common boundaries)
  • Create interactive dashboards with multiple linked views
• Apply visual analytic methods and tools to synthesize information and derive insight from massive, dynamic, ambiguous, and often conflicting data;
• Provide timely, defensible, and understandable assessments, and justify findings using visual and statistical evidences

Instructor

Guoray Cai, Email: gxc26@psu.edu

Office: E321 Westgate. Phone: 814-865-4448.

Office Hours

Fridays: 10am-12noon and by apt. Virtual Zoom Office: https://psu.zoom.us/j/8830207752

Instructional Materials and Resources

The course will consist of lectures, demonstrations, hands-on labs, and term projects.  We will use Tableau as the tool to learn the principles in describing, visualizing, managing data for understanding patterns, trends, and potential threats.  Basic knowledge in databases, spreadsheet, and elementary statistics is desirable.

The College of IST provides Tableau software for use by students. This software and associated data are availafrom the winLABS (winlabs.up.ist.psu.edu).

If you prefer to use your own machine for the exercise, you may request a free one-year license to activate Tableau Desktop. You will also need to download the data package (Tableau.zip) from here. After Place this dataset, it will create a folder ....\Tableau\. Feel free to move to to anywhere on your local machine, but remember where you put it. In later exercises, we will refer to this folder as \Tableau\ folder.

Textbook

There is no need to purchase textbooks. The following digital materials will be used in various topics of this class (Available as PDF)

[R1]:  Keim, D. A., Mansmann, F., Schneidewind, J., & Ziegler, H. (2006).  The Challenge of Visual Data Analysis (Links to an external site.).   In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Visualization (pp. 9–16). IEEE. .

[R2]: Keim, D., Andrienko, G., Fekete, J.-D., Görg, C., Kohlhammer, J. and Melançcon, G. 2008, Chapter 7: Visual Analytics: Definition, Process, and Challenges (Links to an external site.). In: Kerren, A., Stasko, J.T., Fekete, J.-D. and North, C. eds. Information Visualization: Human-Centered Issues and Perspectives, Springer, (pp.154–175)

[R3] "Introducing  the Tableau Desktop Workspace." Chapter 1 from:  "Tableau your Data - Fast and Easy Visual Analysis" by Daniel G. Murray,  Wiley 2013.

[R4] “The Process for Making Sense of Data .”  Chapter 1   FROM: Glenn J. Myatt and Wayne P. Johnson, 2014, Making Sense of Data I: A Practical Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Mining.  John Wiley & Sons

[R5] “Describing Data ”  Chapter 2   FROM: Glenn J. Myatt and Wayne P. Johnson, 2014, Making Sense of Data I: A Practical Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Mining.  John Wiley & Sons

[R6] “Preparing Data Tables ”  Chapter 3   FROM: Glenn J. Myatt and Wayne P. Johnson, 2014, Making Sense of Data I: A Practical Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Mining.  John Wiley & Sons

[R7] “Data visualization- a primer .”   Chapter 1 in: Wexler, S., Shaffer, J. and Cotgreave, A. (2017) A Big Book of Dashboards: visualizing Your Data Using Real-World Business Scenarios. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley

[R8] Which chart or graph is right for you ?

[R9]  "Using Maps to Improve Insight"  . Chapter 5 of Tableau your Data book

[R10]  Visual Information Seeking Mantra , by  Ben Shneiderman

[R11] Loth, A. (2019) Visual Analytics with Tableau. (1-119-56020-9, 978-1-119-56020-3).  John Wiley & Sons.

Assessment of Performance

Students will be assessed through weekly assignments, two mid-term exams, and a mini-project.  Grades will be assessed on required activities throughout the semester.

Course Grading Breakdown

Grading Category	Percentage of Final Grade
Worksheets (10)	50%
Midterm exam (2)	30%
Term Project	20%
TOTAL	100%

Course Grading Scale

The following are minimum cutoffs for each grade:

A	100%	to	93%
A-	< 93%	to	90%
B+	< 90%	to	87%
B	< 87%	to	83%
B-	< 83%	to	80%
C+	< 80%	to	77%
C	< 77%	to	70%
D	< 70%	to	60%
F	< 60%	to	0%

Course Policies and Expectations

• Late submission. Weekly assignments and project reports must be submitted on time. Permission for late submission must be requested from the instructor before any late submission can be accepted. A penalty of up to 30% will be assessed if a submission is within 3 days after the deadline. No submissions will be accepted three days after the deadline.
• Communication through Canvas. Students are expected to use Canvas for all course email communication. Please login regularly to check for course updates, announcements, emails, discussions, etc. The teaching team will make best effort to respond to email questions within 24 hours.
• Webcam Use. This class will have significant remote learning components, and students are encouraged to have a webcam for use. During any regular office hours and exam sessions, the use of a camera for Zoom is optional. To protect the integrity of exams, quizzes, and other assessments, instructors may require students to turn on their webcams in order to monitor the assessment. In those circumstances when the surrounding of a student does not allow the use of webcam, the student should notify the instructor in writing.
• Make-up exams/quizzes. All exams will be conducted in synchronous remote mode at specified time frame. Accommodations can be made for special circumstances. For accommodations, you must contact your instructor 3 days before an exam.
• Technical Issues regarding the use of software and Canvas. This course will require the use of data analysis software provided via classroom computers as well as virtual laboratory (winlabs.up.ist.psu.edu). If you run into any issues using these software packages for assignments, it is your responsibility to document issues by contacting both your instructor and IT Helpdesk to create a record of the incident. If you run into any issues when submitting an assignment through Canvas, report such issues to both your instructor and IT Helpdesk.

Academic Integrity

Penn State and the College of Information Sciences and Technology are committed to maintaining Penn State's policy on Academic Integrity in this and all other courses. We take academic integrity matters seriously and expect you to become a partner to the University/College standards of academic excellence.

For more information, please review these policies and procedures:

• Penn State World Campus Academic Integrity Resources
• College of IST Academic Integrity Resources

While utilizing additional sources outside of this class is encouraged for gaining a better understanding of course concepts, seeking explicit answers for graded assignments from outside sources (e.g. Course Hero, Chegg, tutoring services like tutor.com, etc.) is considered CHEATING and will not be tolerated. Sanctions range from failure of the assignment or course to dismissal from the University. Additionally, sharing course content without permission is a violation of copyright and may result in university sanctions and/or legal ramifications. Contact your instructor with questions related to this topic.

University Policy

Students with disabilities. Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. It is Penn State's policy not to discriminate against qualified students with documented disabilities. If you have a disability-related need for modifying your exam or test environment, notify your instructor during the first week of classes so that your needs can be accommodated. You will be asked to present documentation from the Office of Disability Services (located in 105 Boucke Building) that describes the nature of your disability and the recommended remedy. You may refer to the Nondiscrimination Policy in the Student Guide to University Policies and Rules.

PSU Statement on Academic Integrity. Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. All students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts. Academic integrity includes a commitment by all members of the University community not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person, or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Any violation of academic integrity will be thoroughly investigated, and where warranted, punitive action will be taken.

Reporting Educational Equity Concerns. Penn State takes great pride to foster a diverse and inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff. Acts of intolerance, discrimination, or harassment due to age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or veteran status are not tolerated and can be reported through Educational Equity via the Report Bias webpage (http://equity.psu.edu/reportbias/).

Counseling & Psychological Services. Many students at Penn State face personal challenges or have psychological needs that may interfere with their academic progress, social development, or emotional wellbeing. The university offers a variety of confidential services to help you through difficult times, including individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, consultations, online chats, and mental health screenings. These services are provided by staff who welcome all students and embrace a philosophy respectful of clients’ cultural and religious backgrounds, and sensitive to differences in race, ability, gender identity and sexual orientation. Conact Counseling and Psychological Services at University Park (CAPS)(http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/): 814-863-0395

Resources

Find extensive information and links to many Penn State and IST resources (including the Penn State libraries, video conferencing tools, technology and software, writing and research help, and much more) on the Resources page.

Technical Requirements

Standard World Campus computer technical specifications are assumed for this course. Please test your computer for requirements. In addition, a webcam and a headset with a microphone are REQUIRED for the course. These may be used for virtual meetings, virtual office hours, interactions with classmates and your instructor, and group presentations - which are all conducted with virtual meeting tools. No special software is required.

Schedule

"To do (by)" and "Due by" descriptions of dates and times are used interchangeably in this course.

The following schedule outlines the topics covered in this course, along with the associated time frames, readings, activities, and assignments. All due dates reflect Eastern Time (ET). Specifying the time zone ensures that all students have the same deadlines, regardless of where they live.