IEEE VIS 2021 Panel: What is the Role of VIS in Combating COVID-19?
Overview
Visualization and visual analytics (VIS) plays an important role in combating COVID-19. We can clearly observe this fact in the charts and graphs for public consumption in the media, and can also identify various visual analytics techniques that have been developed for domain experts in their analysis and modeling of COVID-19 data. In this panel, we ask four researchers - "What is the Role of VIS in Combating COVID-19?". Our panelists will cover a number of topics including developing VIS techniques and systems, conducting empirical studies, and deploying VIS for public health surveillance and intervention planning. The panelists will discuss a range of questions, reflecting on the recent and ongoing work by VIS colleagues and examining challenges in deploying a wide range of VIS techniques in emergency responses.
In this panel, we ask four panelists to reflect on the question "What is the Role of VIS in Combating COVID-19?" based on their observation and experience. Our objectives are:
- to reflect on the recent and ongoing work by VIS colleagues in supporting different efforts for combating COVID-19;
- to demonstrate the broad and important role of VIS in emergency responses;
- to examine challenges in deploying a wide range of VIS techniques in emergency responses; and
- to stimulate new research programs for addressing such challenges.
Why This Panel at IEEE VIS 2021?
While combating COVID-19 is no doubt an important application of VIS, one may wonder how VIS research in other areas of VIS may play a direct role in combating COVID-19. The four panelists will show that all six areas of VIS research indeed have a direct role to play. To prompt the panel discussion, we ask panelists to consider following questions:
- What are the major advances in VIS that have informed us how VIS can and should be deployed in the emergency response for combating COVID-19?
- Does the availability of different VIS techniques correspond well with the current level of deployment of VIS techniques in combating COVID-19? If not, what can we do to enhance the deployment of VIS techniques?
- In combating COVID-19, is existing X adequate or we need new X, where X may be VIS systems, visual representations, interaction techniques, data transformation algorithms, theories, methodologies, guidelines, taxonomies, understanding of perception and cognition, and so on.
- Is the perception of visualization primarily as an effective means for information dissemination by many domain experts an advantage or an hindrance in deploying VIS in the fight against COVID-19?
- Is there more that the VIS community can to do to increase the role of VIS in future emergency responses?
Above are just some of the questions for our panel to engage with the audience. It is important that we review the current role of VIS in combating COVID-19 and what lessons that can be learnt, in order for us to prepare the VIS discipline better for future emergency responses.
