Information for Students

Joining My Lab

I have had the pleasure of working with many talented students as part of my research and teaching activities. I am always willing to work with new ones, but keep in mind that joining a lab is one of the most important decisions you will make during your education. Like any decision, nothing is served by going into it blind. I do not accept unsolicited applications: If I have not met you (e.g., you have not started at State), if you have not been in one of my classes, or if we have not had some sort of other working relationship (such as a project with another professor), then there is no foundation for advising. It is in everyone’s best interest for us to get to know each other and for you to determine if my advising style fits your needs before joining my lab.

The easiest way to work with me is to follow these steps:

  • Take our classes. Our faculty teach a vareity of graphics and visualization courses. Taking them is the best way for you to determine whether visualization is of interest, learn about our faculty, and come up with the vital next stem.
  • Have a fabulous idea. I want to work with students that have exciting ideas. These can be built upon my project suggestions, or crafted wholly by you. The key here is the spark of excitement: If you have that, you are a long way towards succeeding.
  • Discuss ideas with me. I have regular office hours; dropping by or making an appointment also works.

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

Potential Projects

The following are a selected sample of potential projects for students. For more inspiration, take one of my courses or dig deeper into my publications.

Understanding Visualization Foundations

While we have some models of how folks interact with visualization, more understanding of the congitive decision points made during visualization would benefit the discipline. This project involves user studies and cognition, and would be great for an applied cognitive science student or one interested in human factors.

Improved Visual Analytics for Disasters

We have made some initial efforts at a visual analytics system for hurricane season modelling. Additional efforts could investigate other types of natural disasters and focus on modelling, predition, or mitigation. This project will involve visualization tool development and could have a significant impact on the public at large.

Artistic Inspired Information Visualization

We can apply artistic methods to visualization, but a better understanding of a systemmatic approach is needed. Artistically inclined students would find direct application of their skills to this project.

Applications in Visualization

A plethora of visualization applications—bioinformatics, social networks, computer security—are all waiting for a motivated student to explore them.