Hi everyone,
We will be hosting a Round Table for *Jian Zhao*, a candidate for the data vis faculty position. The round table will be *Thursday at 4:00pm, BA 5187*. This is a great opportunity to ask the candidate questions and explain what makes UofT great for you.
His talk (abstract below) will be Thursday at 11:00am, Room 244 - Galbraith Building.
See everyone Thursday,
-Peter Hamilton
Abstract: Recently, a large amount of complex and heterogeneous data is being generated in almost every domain. However, deeply understanding such data remains a fundamental challenge. Where do we start? Which analytical model should we apply, and how does it work? How can we collaboratively analyze data? My research takes a step to address these questions using interactive visualization. In this talk, I will discuss how visualization can empower users in each of the three main stages of solving a practical data problem, including exploratory analysis, model curation, and insight communication. Each example study is situated in a real-world application such as time-series analysis and social media mining. I will also outline my future research plan towards optimizing the above workflow using interactive visualization.
Bio: Dr. Jian Zhao is a Research Scientist at FX Palo Alto Laboratory (FXPAL). His research lies in the intersection of information visualization, human-computer interaction, and data science. He is dedicated to developing interactive visualizations that optimize the analytical workflow of solving complex real-world data problems. Before joining FXPAL, Dr. Zhao was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Autodesk Research. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he was advised by Dr. Ravin Balakrishnan. Dr. Zhao holds multiple patents that have successfully generated impact to products. He also has the experiences of working at other leading industry labs including Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe Research. He is the recipient of many scholarships and awards, such as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Mitacs Postdoctoral Award, and four publication awards at top-tier venues including IEEE VIS and ACM CHI.