DOE Data Visualization for Scientific Discovery, Decision-Making, and Communication: Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline

DOE Data Visualization for Scientific Discovery, Decision-Making, and Communication
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: April 27, 2022
FAS/SEAS/OSP Pre-Application Deadline: May 5, 2022
Sponsor Pre-Application Deadline: May 10, 2022
FAS/SEAS/OSP Full Proposal Deadline: June 10, 2022
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: June 21, 2022
Award Amount: Up to $300,000/year for three years

The DOE SC program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) has announced its interest in basic research in computer science exploring innovative approaches in data visualization to support scientific discovery, decision-making, and communication. The ASCR Workshop on the Visualization for Scientific Discovery, Decision-Making, and Communication was held in January of 2022 to determine opportunities and challenges in visualization tools for scientific computing, with focus on DOE-relevant application areas. Building on the outcomes of the prior community activity, and aligned with needs highlighted by interagency planning, the three following important priority research directions (PRDs) were identified:

1. Advancing theory and techniques for visualization to support the analysis and understanding of complex scientific data . New techniques and corresponding theory are needed to develop novel representations, algorithms, and systems to promote scientific understanding of the many different data types of interest to DOE (multivariate, multimodal, high dimensional, etc.). Furthermore, abstract information about the behavior of a complex system or about the inherent uncertainty of a decision could be more accessible through intuitive visualizations.
2. Introducing interoperable and adaptable visualization to support diverse scientific workflows across all scales. Design, develop, and deploy new portable visualization tools to support different use cases, that can leverage common infrastructure, maintain data provenance, and represent uncertainty information, while spanning the needs of a diverse set of domain users.
3. Harnessing technology innovations to accelerate science through visualization. Rapidly evolving technologies are creating opportunities and challenges for visualization in areas such as novel interfaces (touch screens, virtual reality, haptic devices, etc.) and disruptive computing modalities (exascale, edge devices, etc.). New techniques are needed to take advantage of these areas.

Each pre-application and application submitted in response to this FOA must address at least one of the PRDs described above. Additionally, submissions that can combine one or more of the following research themes with one or more of the three PRDs above are highly encouraged:

1. Improving equity in accessing and engaging with scientific data and processes. New approaches to visual communication are needed to change the scientific discourse and accelerate science into decision making. Visualization to communicate complex ideas across domains, educational backgrounds and cultures are needed, with a focus on accessibility to data, transparency, and trustworthiness to promote engagement and understanding of results from scientific computing.
2. Developing intelligent approaches for adaptive, context aware visualization of scientific data and artificial intelligence (AI). Technical advances are needed across multiple fronts: (i) development of mathematical models of perception and cognition to drive the development and adaptation of next-generation visualization tools and serve as surrogates for large-scale visualization evaluation studies, (ii) methods to enable the personalization of visualization tools that enhance the user’s experience while assisting the user with scientific insights, and (iii) development of robust, scalable, and unbiased evaluation methods and metrics for visualization tools.