Center for Visual & Decision Informatics

A Planned National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center

CVDI is a collaboration between the University of Louisiana at Lafayette & Drexel University

YOU’RE INVITED!

Second Pre-planning meeting of the Industry/ University Cooperative Research Center Task Force

Friday - March 4th

, 2011 – 9:00am to 12:00noon, Abdalla Hall Auditorium, 635 Cajundome Boulevard,

Lafayette, LA, 70506 (Driving Directions).

Greetings!

You are invited to the Industry/ University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) Task Force’s second pre-

planning meeting on March 4th

, 2011 from 9:00am – 12:00noon at the Abdalla Hall Auditorium. At this meeting

we will continue efforts to create an I/UCRC on the theme of Visual & Decision Informatics that will be

sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

What is an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center?

An I/UCRC (http://www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/iucrc/) is a organizational form introduced by the NSF for fostering

sustained interaction between industries and government agencies, on the one hand, and university researchers,

on the other hand, with the aim of ensuring that universities are engaged in research that lead to inventions that

directly benefit the partnering industries and government agencies.

This cooperative model of for research emphasizes that the Center members pool their research needs through

interaction with each other and the University researchers to design a shared research portfolio.

The NSF’s experience, with existing IUCRCs, shows that each dollar provided by a member organization gets

leveraged many-folds through contributions from other members, the NSF and other non-NSF sources of

funding.

What is the NSF- Center for Visual & Decision Informatics (NSF-CVDI)?

The NSF has approved a Planning Grant submitted jointly by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the

iSchool at Drexel for the establishment of an I/UCRC in the theme of Visual & Decision Informatics.

The Center’s mission is to research and develop next generation visual and decision support tools and

techniques to enable decision makers in government and industry to fundamentally improve the way their

organization’s information is interpreted and analyzed.

CVDI will bring together, analytic, visual and perceptual techniques by advancing the state-of-the-art in the

research fields of Information Visualization, Visual Analytics and Automated Analysis. This research will be

supported by advanced computing and visualization facilities to create Decision-Making Environments (DME)

– frameworks that will enable users to explore and customize information streams in a variety of modalities to

gain better insight to that information.

The proposed NSF-CVDI will become an important component in the innovation eco-system of the region and

it complements recent innovative projects undertaken by our community, like the Fiber to the Home Initiative,

the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative and LITE.

Center for Visual & Decision Informatics

A Planned National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center

CVDI is a collaboration between the University of Louisiana at Lafayette & Drexel University

RECAP From the First I/UCRC Pre-planning Meeting

At our first pre-planning meeting on Nov. 19th

, 2010:

In attendance were representatives from approximately ten local companies. They saw a need for driving

innovation within their organizations through sponsoring industry-relevant research at UL Lafayette and the

importance to the region of having a research center focusing on information visualization and automated

analysis for decision support.

Also in attendance were many members from UL Lafayette faculty with expertise in these research areas.

Following an overview presentation about the I/UCRC model, brief presentations were made by both industry

and the academic participants.

The overview presentations made by the UL researchers describing their research capabilities are available

from: http://nsf-cvdi.louisiana.edu/Documents.html

A number of questions raised at the meeting by the industry participants concerning the operational aspects of

the NSF-CVDI were addressed in a follow up communication; also available from the web link above.

At this meeting, one of the main recommendations made was for the university researchers to prepare more

concrete research project descriptions, based on industry research needs briefly introduced by the industry

representatives.

The I/UCRC Task Force’s Next Steps

In order to accomplish a successful launch of the proposed NSF- Center for Visual & Decision Informatics, the

I/UCRC Task Force is pursuing two critical steps:

Second Pre-planning Meeting

(This invitation)- To discuss technology needs of the industry and government participants relating to the theme

of information visualization, visual analytics and automated analysis.

Research project descriptions prepared by UL researchers will be made available to meeting attendees at least a

week prior to the meeting date. The meeting format will consist of presentations by representatives from

prospective industrial and governmental members.

Formal Planning Meeting

This is scheduled to be held in Philadelphia, the location of Drexel University, who is UL Lafayette’s academic

partner in the center creation initiative. The meeting is expected to be either in late April or early May (to be

decided soon).

Center for Visual & Decision Informatics

A Planned National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center

CVDI is a collaboration between the University of Louisiana at Lafayette & Drexel University

The Planning Meeting will be conducted with representatives from the National Science Foundation in

attendance. The goal of this meeting is to have presentations of revised project descriptions evaluated by

industry and government participants invited by both universities and to convince the NSF representatives that

the proposed projects focus on an industry that is in a position to support the center and

the center has the potential for securing sufficient industrial and other financial commitments.

We thank you all for your consideration and participation. We look forward to working with as many of you as

are interested in being a part of this initiative that will strengthen the innovation eco-system of this region.

Your participation is critical to the successful creation of the proposed National Center of Excellence for

Visual and & Decision Informatics, the first one of its kind in Louisiana.

In order to register for the March 4, 2011 event, please confirm by sending an email to

vijay@cacs.louisiana.edu or, alternatively, rbenton@cacs.louisiana.edu. Please respond promptly, so that we

can follow up with additional information about the Pre-planning meeting.