I hold a full professor position in Visual Data Analytics at the Department of Information and Computing Science, Utrecht University, where I lead the Visualization and Graphics group. Before, I was full professor of Multiscale Visual Analytics, SVCG group, Bernoulli Institute, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Univ. of Groningen.
Research
- information visualization and visual analytics (techniques, system design, evaluation)
- visualization for AI (dimensionality reduction, explaining machine learning)
- big data multiscale visualization (hierarchies, graphs, trails, tables)
- shape/image processing (skeletonization, segmentation, fairing, reconstruction)
- scientific visualization (fluid simulation, GPU- and PDE-based techniques)
- interactive systems design (interaction and animation for data exploration)
- program analysis (software visualization, fact extraction, software evolution)
Publications
Google Scholar profile
The Book: Data Visualization - Principles and Practice
My book gives a practical introduction to data visualization. It targets (under)graduate students and professionals interested in designing and implementing visualization applications to explore big data. Topics covered: scalar, vector, tensor, image, volume, and information visualization. Published by AK Peters/CRC Press/Routledge.
First edition: 2008. Second edition: 2014. Chinese edition: 2018. Over 5000 copies sold (2018).
New in the 2nd edition: C/C++ code samples, exam questions, projects, datasets, and ParaView scenarios.
Teaching
Below are the main courses I deliver(ed) (full details here):
- Visual analytics for big data
- Scientific visualization
- Data visualization
- Multimedia retrieval
- Software maintenance and evolution
- Computer graphics
- Software quality assurance and testing
- Meaningful linked data interaction
Students
I (have) supervise(d) around 40 PhD students as thesis director (details and theses here).
I have supervised 100+ MSc students as thesis director (selected theses here).
PhD Research
My PhD research (2000) was on the design and implementation of VISSION, an application-building environment for VIsualization and SImulation with Object-oriented Networks. VISSION proved - relevant then, and likely now too - that all one can achieve in Java can also be done in C++, only better, cleaner, faster, and easier.
Research valorization
My work led to a (>2M EUR turnover) start-up company (SolidSource BV 2006-2012) specialized in tools and services for the visual analysis of big software data for industry-scale software maintenance.