Visual Analytics of Temporal Event Data

There is today a vast and rapidly growing number of data-driven applications in society and industry producing temporal event data. Temporal event data comprise sequences of point or interval events occurring over time, for example, electronic health records, various types of tracking and monitoring data, and life history or daily time-use data. Effective analysis of this data can enable analysts to gain crucial understanding of complex and interconnected processes. For the examples above, such analyses can correspond to the study of patients’ medical records for diagnostics and treatment planning, analysis of monitoring events and alarms for process control and predictive maintenance, and the capturing of individuals’ activities for understanding behavioral patterns and social processes. With this as our starting point, we aim to conduct in this focus area innovative research at the intersection of temporal data mining and interactive visualization and produce visual analytics methods that facilitate human-centered analysis of large and complex temporal event data sets.