Don Pellegrino's Blog

Below is a list of some of the research ideas I am currently working on.  These ideas all need further refinement to get more specific research questions and to build out the theoretical orientations, methodologies and evaluation strategies that will be used.  If these are subjects that interest you please let me know.

An Information Theoretic Framework for Visual Analytic Reasoning

This project is concerned with analyzing the structural properties of associative networks that are related to knowledge structures.  The knowledge structures may be concept maps representing the conceptualizations of an individual about a domain or they may be aggregate networks that describe conceptualizations across multiple actors within a domain.  The associative networks are not limited to the concept maps, but are used to aggregate heterogeneous data into a single integrated representation.  This representation is then further refined by relating the higher level concepts with their supporting data.  There are two primary research questions being pursued under this project:

1. How can temporal patterns be distinguished from other structural patterns?
2. Can can information metrics be expanded to integrate latent semantics of the information with the structural and temporal properties?

Answers to these questions will likely take the form of measures and algorithms that relate patterns in such structures with sense-making and analytical reasoning processes.

Post-hoc Analysis of the VAST 2008 Challenge

Participation in the VAST 2008 Challenge was a rich experience that provided a lot of data from a longitudinal, purposeful application of Visual Analytics tools.  With the event now over the focus can now shift from answering the questions of the Challenge itself to a more reflective posture of analyzing the process that was used.  It is hoped that a post-hoc analysis will help to identify opportunities for future research.  It is also expected that opportunities for generalizing the practice to other domains will be found.  Based on [ Liu, Z.; Nersessian, N. J. & Stasko, J. T., Distributed Cognition as a Theoretical Framework for Information Visualization, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2008, 14, 1173-1180 ] it appears the that distributed cognition framework will provide a useful perspective for analysis of the results.  The primary research question here is:

1. What can a post-hoc analysis of the VAST 2008 Challenge teach us about the role of Visual Analytics in Distributed Cognition?

Knowledge Structure in Experimental Chemistry

Open notebook science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_notebook_science) offers a new and exciting source of data that has the potential to tells us a lot about how science is done.  Bibliometric research has been very productive for the study of knowledge domains.  Bibliometricians use formal research publications and their citations as the unit of analysis.  The act of citing a work is a behavioral indicator that hints at the intentions of the author.  With open notebook science the digital laboratory notebook record is now available as a unit of analysis.  Exploratory research in this area can help us answer the following questions:

1. Do open notebook entries include new behavioral indicators that can be useful for analyzing knowledge structures?
2. How can information science and systems take advantage of open notebook entries to support the hypothesis formulation and discovery processes in Chemistry?

All three of these projects tie together.  The data from a “Post-hoc Analysis of the VAST 2008 Challenge” and from “Knowledge Structure in Experimental Chemistry” might serve to inform the development of a robust “Information Theoretic Framework for Visual Analytic Reasoning.”  The Information Theoretic Framework might be combined with the Distributed Cognition Framework so that we have a way of studying how knowledge structures develop and change over time.

1. Jean-Claude Bradley Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 4:24 am

   I look forward to collaborating with you on the information science perspective you’re taking on Open Notebook Science.

2. chemistry science projects | Digg hot tags Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

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