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Statistics and Data Visualisation Seminars
7 January, 2008
Leland Wilkinson will present his research and talk about the development of visual analytics and statistics. This research has been published recently in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics and presented at Harvard, Berkeley and AAAS meetings.
- Melbourne, Tuesday 19th February, 9:30 - 11:30, Parkview Hotel, 562 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.
- Sydney, Thursday 21st February, 9:30 - 11:30, Vibe Hotel, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.
Visually-Motivated Exploration of High-Dimensional Spaces
Visualisation is a centuries-old field. Visual analytics is relatively new.
What distinguishes visual analytics from ordinary visualisation is the active role played by the computer in the presentation of information to the viewer. We have, for the first time, a marriage of analytic statistical algorithms and visual presentation in an interactive environment.
From Karl Pearson through John Tukey, statisticians have warned against the blind application of statistical models without the support of visualisation. However, visualisation without the support of models can be equally perilous. Exploring high-dimensional data with iconic widgets like rotation controls, filter sliders, data lenses and selection brushes is a haphazard enterprise subject to the curse of dimensionality.
In contrast, visual analytics offers the prospect of guided exploration. Given interactive tools and underlying analytic components, a user can explore views of high-dimensional data that are highlighted by statistical algorithms. The result is the blending of the strengths of each approach: the analytic spotlight of statistical models and the inferential floodlight of visual displays.
Leland Wilkinson profile:
- A Fellow of the American Statistical Association and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.
- Adjunct Professor of Statistics at Northwestern University and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
- Created the SYSTAT statistical software package in 1984 and the first graphing package SYGRAPH in 1987.
- Senior Vice President at SPSS from 1994 until 2006. Worked on research and development of visual analytics and statistics.
- Currently Executive Vice President at SYSTAT Software Inc.
Dr. Krishnan will give a short presentation on SYSTAT version 12 and what is expected in the next release.
SYSTAT version 12
SYSTAT is a comprehensive statistical package for data analysis and visualisation which offers more scientific and technical graphs than any other desktop statistics package. SYSTAT’s intuitive Windows interface and flexible command language are designed to make your research time more efficient. Easily locate advanced options through clear and comprehensive dialogs. Instantly visualise your results with SYSTAT’s QuickGraphs which are produced automatically.
"I have used SYSTAT in successive versions for over 20 years. During that time, I have searched for the ‘perfect’ statistics package and have tried out spss, sas, Statistica and Minitab. However, I have always rejected them in favour of SYSTAT because of its combination of user-friendliness and breadth of coverage "- John Ludbrook, Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne.
Dr. Krishnan profile:
- Master of Statistics (M.Stat.) degree and a Ph.D degree from the Indian Statistical Institute.
- After completing his Ph.D he joined the faculty of the Indian Statistical Institute. He remained with the Institute until 1998 when he retired as Professor of Applied Statistics.
- Co-author with Professor G. J. McLachlan from the University of Queensland on the book `The EM Algorithm and Extensions' published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997. A second edition of this book is due to appear in early 2008.
- Dr Krishnan has made several academic visits to Australia for collaborative work at the University of Queensland and teaching at the University of WA.
- At present he is a full-time technical consultant at Cranes Software International Ltd in Bangalore. Here he is engaged in the development of SYSTAT.
Registration
To attend one of these free Statistics Seminars you must register>> with Hearne Scientific Software beforehand. Seating at this seminar is strictly limited.