VAST Challenge 2013

VAST Challenge Workshop Agenda is now available. Please visit the agenda page for more information.

There is something for everyone in this year’s VAST Challenge. This year’s challenge presents three distinct mini-challenges to test your skills. These challenges are open to participation by individuals and teams in industry, government, and academia. Creative approaches to visual analytics are encouraged.

The Mini-Challenges

Mini-Challenge 1 focuses on predictive analytics for movie openings. It will challenge your ability to use visual analytics for predictive analysis, as well as your ability to manage large data and to make decisions in a short timeframe. Using data we specify, you will use your interactive visualization tools to predict upcoming movies’ opening weekend box office successes and viewer ratings. It is decidedly different from previous VAST Challenges in that it will be continuous and iterative with reviewing and recognition being presented from now until the final judging session.

Mini-Challenge 2 tests your skills in visual design. The fictitious Big Enterprise is searching for a design for their future situation awareness display. The company’s intrepid network operations team will use this display to understand the health, security, and performance of their entire computer network. This challenge is also very different from previous VAST Challenges, because there is no data to process and no questions to answer. Instead, the challenge is to show off your design talents by producing a creative new design for situation awareness.

Please visit VAST Challenge 2013: Mini-Challenge 2 for more information.

Mini-Challenge 3 focuses on unusual happenings on the computer network of a marketing company. Can you identify what looks amiss on the network? And can you ask the right questions to help you piece together the timeline of events?

Please visit VAST Challenge 2013: Mini-Challenge 3 for more information.

Which Mini-Challenges Are Right for You?

Mini-Challenge 1 is a movie prediction challenge. Visual analytics researchers and developers should find this challenge easy to understand.
Mini-Challenge 2 is a design challenge. This challenge is appropriate for anyone with a background in user experience, human-computer interaction, graphic design, illustration, or the visual arts.
Mini-Challenge 3 is a challenge in visual analytics for cyber security. This challenge is appropriate for visual analytics researchers and developers. It may be helpful to have some network security experience, but this is not required. We encourage you to team with a colleague with cyber security expertise if you would like to get a greater understanding of the data.

Important Information about the VAST Challenge

Participants are welcome to enter one, two, or all three of the Mini-Challenges. Entries may be submitted by teams or individuals. Anyone not associated with the VAST Challenge Committee may submit an entry. This year, the instructions for submission differ by Mini-Challenge.

Submission deadline is July 8, 2013 at 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time (UTC/GMT -9 hours).

Entries will be judged based on the criteria appropriate to the specific Mini-Challenge. Award winners will receive a recognition certificate. Award winning participants will be contacted by August 10, 2013.

All participants are also invited to submit a two-page summary of their entry for inclusion in the IEEE VIS 2013 electronic conference proceedings.

All participants are invited to attend the VAST Challenge 2013 Workshop, to be held in conjunction with IEEE VIS 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. At this workshop, challenge organizers, participants, and conference attendees come together to discuss their work on this year's Challenge. Award certificates are presented during the workshop. The workshop includes presentations by selected participants, invited speakers, a poster session for the participants, and other activities.

Following the workshop, the submissions will be posted to the Visual Analytics Benchmark Repository. Submissions from previous years can also be found in this repository.

For questions, please email vast_challenge at ieeevis.org.

VAST Challenge Committee Chairs

Kris Cook, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Georges Grinstein, University of Massachusetts-Lowell
Mark Whiting, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory