Ursula Laa: High-dimensional data visualisation with tours

Networking and refreshments: 6:00 pm
Program: 6:30 pm

Abstract:
How can we visualise data beyond 3D, what does that even mean, and what does it have to do with physics problems?

Just like a photograph is a 2D projection showing aspects of our 3D world, we can use 1 or 2D projections of high-dimensional distributions to see aspects of our data. By looking at a smoothly interpolated sequence of projections (this is called a tour) we can understand structures beyond 2D and learn about shapes in the high-dimensional space. I will first introduce these concepts and demonstrate them with simple examples, before showing how I have used tour methods in my physics research.

Bio:
Ursula is an interdisciplinary research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She holds a PhD in particle physics and her current research interests focus on the application of statistical data visualisation methods to problems in physics, and on the development of new tools for the visualisation of high-dimensional data.