Detailed Task Descriptions for All Challenges
Last updated June 11 (to clarify the
role of the optional two-page Summaries)
Questions? Send email to challengecommittee AT
cs.umd.edu
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS FIRST:
The 2008
VAST Challenge consists of a Grand Challenge and four mini-challenges described
below. Contestants can choose to work on
one, some, or all of the challenges. To successfully
respond to the Grand Challenge, contestants must tie together all data sets
with an overall scenario description using data elements from each of the four
mini challenges, but are not required to answer all the mini-challenge
questions.
The
datasets used for these challenges are synthetic: that is, they are a blend of computer- and
human-generated data. All datasets,
whether real or synthetic, have anomalies. Some anomalies may be significant,
some may not. Any anomalies reported
should be supported by the proposed hypotheses.
For example, “all first names start with a ‘M” may be interesting, but
unless it is tied to the discussion of the situation, that anomaly has no place
in your submission.
We have
included all information necessary to form working hypotheses for the purpose
of these challenges. No external data is
needed to successfully perform the analyses. Be aware that using additional
non-provided data may skew an otherwise successful solution.
The
descriptions below provides all the details for all the mini-challenges and the
Grand Challenge, the questions posed in each, and a description of what
participants need to provide for answering each question.
Before starting
1)
Read the “Paraiso Manifesto” Wikipedia page and discussion provided in the
dataset. It gives background material useful for the Grand challenge as
well as the mini-challenges.
2)
Familiarize yourself with the answer
forms. For
each challenge we provide an answer form html file template that you can save
on your local computer and use to provide your answers either by adding text to
the form itself or by linking to the separate files we ask you to
provide.
3)
Use the following definitions for the type of text explanations we
request
There are 3 formats/size for
providing answers to the questions:
Short Answer:
Short
answers are only requested in the mini challenges.
A short answer is a text
description focusing on how you arrived at the answer. It is limited to 150
words and a maximum of 2 screen shots.
Detailed Answer:
Detailed
Answers are requested both in the mini challenges AND the Grand Challenge.
A Detailed Answer is a text
description focusing on how you arrived at the answer with much more details
than the Short Answer.
- For mini challenges detailed answers are limited to 1000
words, with screen shots and captions for a maximum of 5 pages (when printed).
Although five pages is the limit, it doesn’t have to be that long.
- For the Grand Challenge there is no size limit (but less
than 10 pages is recommended).
Mini challenge detailed
answers can also reference or include a video of a maximum length of 2 minutes.
Videos are optional for mini challenges, but they are very helpful in showing
your work and especially your tools’ interactive features.
Detailed
answers should provide the answer and describe the process used to arrive at
the answer. Clearly describe what you saw in the displays that helped you
formulate or prove your hypotheses, for example do not just say: “Fig 3 shows
who was involved”, but explain what visual (or non-visual) features and
characteristics of the interface were used in your reasoning about the
question. Be specific: tell us HOW you can see who was involved? For
example don’t just say “we used advanced technique X to easily see who is
involved”; instead, be more specific and says something like “we suspected that
Joe was involved because his name appeared in red when color was mapped to the
number of oversee travels and he stood out as being outside his family
cluster”. Describe the process you used (how you started, what worked and
what didn’t work) with estimates of the effort required. Clarify what was
accomplished manually, automatically, or in between. Make sure the screen
shots are usable when printed in color (you can always link to the best
resolution versions in the html document). Do not forget to include legends for
the visual encodings of your screen shots, captions describing what data is
being shown, and what filters have been applied in the static figures presented
or discussed. In other words, help us understand what we are looking at!
If you provide a video, voice narration is essential and usage of the mouse to
point at relevant elements on the screens.
See an example
of good process description from the VAST 2007 contest. (Note: The 2007 contest had different rules, so this
example is more than 5 page long and doesn’t contain the answers per say, but
we hope you will find it useful as an example of process description)
Debrief:
Debrief are requested only in the grand challenge.
A debrief is a maximum of 2000 words narrative describing your hypothesis about
the situation at hand. Include in your narrative the relationships of the
various players. If there are uncertainties, you can suggest possible
next steps to clarify those uncertainties. In your debrief there is no
need to describe the tools were used nor discuss the process used; instead
focus on convincing us that you UNDERSTAND the situation.
See an example
of good debrief from the VAST 2007 contest.
Two-Page Summaries:
Two page Summaries are OPTIONAL.
The two-page summary should be formatted according to the
general IEEE VGTC Guidelines http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~vis/Tasks/camera.html
Those summaries allow you to give a general overview of your
tools, highlight significantly novel features, provide references to papers and
other relevant work and describe what the experience of working thru the
Challenge problem revealed about your tools. Only the two-page summaries of the
best entries (which are awarded a Certificate of Excellence) will be published
in the VAST 2008 Symposium Proceedings. Nevertheless, ALL submitted two-page
summaries will be published online - along with your answer - in a repository
at NIST (the National Institute of Standard and Technology), whether or not
they are awarded a Certificate of Excellence.
The Four Mini-Challenges
Mini Challenge 1: Wiki Editors
The Paraiso
movement is controversial and is having considerable social impact in a
specific area of the world. We have
extracted a segment of the Paraiso (the
movement) Wikipedia edits page.
Please note this is not the Paraiso
Manifesto Wiki page which is part of the background materials, but a
related different page. Please use
visual analytics to describe the social relationships of the editors (those
that have edited/modified the Wikipedia page) as they are reflected in these
files.
Use the
Mini Challenge-1 answer form
Questions:
Wiki-1: What are the
factions represented in the edit pages and who are its members? In other words, describe the groups
and their members based on their editing changes.
Provide
- a table with the names of the
factions and the names of the individuals associated with them. (a sample is provided)
- a Detailed Answer explaining how you arrived at the answer
Wiki-2: Is the Paraiso movement
involved in violent activities?
Provide:
- The answer YES/ NO (select one)
- a list of
evidence supporting the above answer, i.e. a list of wiki edits (a sample will
be provided)
- a Short
Answer explaining how you arrived at
your answer
Mini Challenge 2:
Migrant Boats (geo-temporal analysis)
This data
comprises records dealing with the mass movement of persons departing Isla Del
Sueño on boats for the
Please note:
The U.S. has the same “wet foot, dry foot” policy for Isla Del Sueño
migrants as it does for Cubans: If a
person is able to land on the U.S. soil, he/she may qualify for expedited
“legal permanent resident” status. If
caught between the waters of the two nations (i.e. during an interdiction) and
attempting to enter the
The migrant
boat records include the following fields:
EncounterCoords: Where the migrant boat was intercepted or where it landed, in
LONG-LAT format
RecordType: Interdiction (the Coast Guard
intercepted them) or Landing (the boat made it ashore)
Passengers: Number
of passengers in the migrant boat
USCG_Vessel: Name
of the Coast Guard cutter involved in
the interdiction
EncounterDate: Date
when the boat was interdicted or landed
RecordNotes: Any
additional information; usually a list of passenger names.
NumDeaths: Number
of migrant deaths
LaunchCoords: Where
the boat left the
VesselType: Type
of boat used by the migrants, i.e. a “Go Fast”, a Raft, or a Rustic vessel.
Please use visual analytics to explain migration patterns
during these years.
Use the
Mini Challenge-2 answer form
Questions:
Boat-1 Characterize
the choice of landing sites and their evolution over the three years.
Provide a Detailed Answer
Boat-2 Characterize the geographical patterns of
interdiction over the three years
Provide a Short Answer
Boat- 3 What is the successful landing rate over the time period?
Provide a Short Answer
Mini Challenge 3:
Cell Phone Calls (social network)
A set of
cell phone call records from Isla Del Sueño over a ten-day period in June 2006 was
narrowed down to about 400 unique cell phones during this period. The records provide critical information
about the Catalano social network structure.
Please use visual analytic approaches to characterize the social network
structure.
The data
set includes records with the following fields:
From:
Identifier for the
calling phone
To: Identifier for the receiving
phone
Datetime: Date
and time of the call in the format: yyyymmdd hhmm
Duration: Duration
of the call in seconds
We have
included a map of Isla del Sueño with approximate coverage of the towers in a
gridded form. However, mapping of the
cell phone tower locations is not precise.
As many of
the cell phone records were registered with false names, we have provided
numerical identifiers for callers and receivers.
We have
medium confidence that Ferdinando Catalano is identifier 200. Close relatives and associates he would be
calling would include David Vidro, Juan Vidro, Jorge Vidro, and Estaban
Catalano. We believe Ferdinando would
call brother Estaban most frequently. We
also believe that David Vidro coordinates high-level Paraiso activities and
communications.
Using the Mini Challenge-3 answer
form,
Questions:
Phone-1: What is the Catalano/Vidro social network, as reflected in the
cell phone call data, at the end of the time period?
Provide the network node and link files (using this format)
Phone-2 Characterize the changes
in the Catalano/Vidro social structure over the ten day period.
Provide a Detailed Answer
Mini Challenge 4:
Evacuation Traces
In August
2007, a small improvised explosive device was set off at a
It is
suspected that Paraiso supporters were involved in the DOH bombing. Paraiso leaders have publicly denied
this. Please use visual analytics to
investigate the incident.
Fortunately,
the DOH building involved in the bombing was being used as a test facility for
RFID (radio-frequency identification).
All employees and visitors to the building wore badges enabling their
location to be recorded during the time of the incident. Although not sophisticated,
it may help the investigation. The data
you will analyze contains records with the following fields:
Time:
Ticks, representing
intervals between tag readings
Person Id:
Tag identification of all
employees and visitors
Xcor: The
location x-coordinate
Ycor: The
location y-coordinate
The
coordinates are mapped to a 91x61 grid space.
The building itself is represented by a binary datafile against the
91x61 grid: “1”s represent solid space
(walls, closed doors, etc) and “0”s represent open space. All movement occurs within this grid
space.
The file
includes data before and throughout the incident. It is expected a visual presentation will
greatly clarify what happened during the event.
Your visual analytic investigation will help police follow up on this
incident.
Use the
Mini Challenge-4 answer form
Questions:
Traces-1 Where was the device set
off?
Provide:
- the grid cell number of where the device
went off
- a Short Answer.
Traces-2 Identify potential suspects
and/or witnesses to the event.
Note: Potential suspects and/or
witnesses are people who were near the area just prior to the explosion and
exhibit suspicious behavior
Provide:
- In the answer form provide a list of RFID tag
numbers (sample provided)
- a Short Answer explaining how you arrived at
your answer
Traces-3 Identify any suspects
and/or witnesses who managed to escape the building.
Provide:
- a list of RFID tag numbers
- a Short Answer
Traces-4 Identify any casualties.
Provide:
- a list of RFID tag numbers
- a Short Answer
Traces-5 Describe the evacuation
Provide
a Detailed Answer
Grand Challenge
For the
Grand Challenge, you will need to combine data from the four mini-challenges and
the introductory Wiki pages to provide an analysis of the activities of the
Paraiso movement. Assumptions must be
supported by evidence and specify in which dataset you found it.
The last
question Grand-4 is the most general question and your detailed answer to that
question should explain how you arrived at the answers to all the previous
smaller questions (Grand-1, 2 and 3).
Because of the complexity of the overall problem, we anticipate that the
answers cannot easily be written separately.
Use the
Grand Challenge answer form
Questions:
Grand-1. Based on ALL
the data available (i.e. using the data from all 4 mini - challenges) what is
the social network of the Paraiso movement at the end of the time period?
Provide the network node and link files describing the social network (using this format)
Grand-2. What name or names can be associated with
individual activities?
Provide a list of activities and the
names of people associated with them (a sample is provided in the answer
form)
Grand 3. What is the
geographical range of the Paraiso Movement and how it changes over time.
No specific data to
provide (as explained above, the answer to that question and how you arrived at
it should be combined with the answer to the next question which is more
general.)
Grand-4. How do the major beliefs of the Paraiso
movement affect their activities?
Provide:
- a Debrief
- a
Detailed Answer (for this Grand Challenge there are no
page limits - but we recommend you use less than 10 pages)
- a Video
For the grand challenge you
MUST provide a maximum of 10 minute video showing how you used your system to assess
the situation. The purpose of the video is to help the judges
understand the interactive features of your tools. Videos should
have well synchronized audio commentaries. We are interested in seeing
especially the different interactions that might have resulted in views that
provided more insights into the analysis. Use the video to show different
interactions with different visualizations. Focus on those interactions
that were most useful to you. The video does not need to cover the entire
process since that is covered in the detailed answer.