The Science of (Bio) Data Visualisation

Is there a right way and a wrong way of presenting biological information? Is this supported by evidence? Welcome to the Science of Data Visualisation...

Last meetup we explored the challenges in data visualisation from the perspective of the biological scientist. Next month the tables are turned and we hear from visualisation scientists giving their take on biological data. We are delighted to welcome two London-based visualisation experts;

Cagatay Turkay joins us from City University, where he studies the application of interactive visualisations to high-dimensional, temporal data from bioinformatics and the biomolecular modelling. His talk is;

"Designing Interactive Visualisations to Solve Analytical Problems: The rapidly expanding application of experimental high-throughput and high-resolution methods in biology is creating enormous challenges for the analysis of biological data. Data sets are often highly heterogeneous, multi-scalar, and have significant levels of uncertainty. Visual analysis methods, in particular those that incorporate computational analysis, offer powerful solutions to empower analysts in coping with these challenges. This talk will walk you through methodologies in visualisation over examples that try to address these challenges in biological data."

Marek Kultys is a professional designer specialising in visual communication at the Science Practice, which he combines with a personal research interest into the interplay of design, visual structures and sciences. His talk is:

“Sequence Bundles. Designing visualisation to enable discovery of things that would otherwise remain hidden: We present Sequence Bundles — a novel method for visualising and exploring Multiple Sequence Alignment data, exposing hidden sequence motifs and feature discovery. We will discuss our design process from motivation and initial sketches to prototyping a powerful desktop tool. We will also explain why it is valuable to allow users to design their own visualisations and how do build visualisation tools to enable as much flexibility in this. Finally, we will introduce Sequence Bundles web and desktop apps, available for users online. http://science-practice.com/projects/sequence-bundles/"

Please join us at the Fountain on 15th January at 7.30pm for what promises to be an exciting and illuminating session. Talks start at 8pm followed and will be followed by discussion at the bar.