Plans and Goals

On this page the members of the VRL record and refine their goals for the current semester. This is a living document in which dhl will provide feedback. See the bottom of the page for links to past plans & goals documents.

Current Schedule

Meetings are on Tuesdays. The authoritative list is in dhl's calendar. (updated here 9/24/10)

• 2:30 - Dawn
• 2:50 - Brad
• 3:00 - Radu
• 3:10 - Steve G
• 3:20 - Nathan
• 3:30 - Jadrian
• 3:40 - Caroline
• 3:50 - Ryan
• 4:00 - Wenjin

Current Plans and Goals (Spring '11)

Brad

Projects

• Support the ongoing VRL Group projects:
  • Jadrian's brain research.
  • Radu's Protein project:
    

Assist Radu to integrate a test and any recent code.

• Support collaborative projects.
  • Wrist cartilage support for Eni and Michael.
  • Migrate Win's mri pipeline to run in CIT.
  • Andy Loomis and Andy Forsberg's Adviser program.

• Contribute to the design and development of the new cave. Integrate changes to vrg3d. Simplify the configuration and provide a quick start path for student projects.

• Set up public distribution of diffusion imaging data.

Infrastructure

• Manage the migration to the new file system.

• Continue to write Wiki entries as needed.

• Continue setting up third party software for students to use. Current imported packages are: blitz, cg, g3d, qt, camino, dtk, afni, nifti, vivro, vrpn, glut, and sdl.

• Extend the build system to make kits for public source and binary distributions.

• Improve support for remote development.

• Launch the Windows test system.

• Continue extend the make files to support new features such as additional third party packages.

• Upgrade migrated Linux code to work with gcc 4.3 in conjunction with the summer Debian upgrade.

• Continue to integrate any new tests written by students into nightly test runs.

• Finish integrating the new version of the Nag libraries.

Knowledge

• Learn more about the cave; particularly vrg3d software development.

• Meet (SciVis talk) with students to address any integration issues.

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Çağatay

1. Give a good proposal talk.

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Caroline

Explore cognitive modeling for assessing multiview visualization interfaces

• Literature review: guidelines for multiview design, evaluations of multiview visualization, cognitive science perspective on problem solving with multiple perspectives etc.
• Identify an application area (brain circuits, proteins, etc.)
• Identify tasks for user study / modeling
• Identify ways to define the similarity of models between two different visual representations
• Build a model of multiview context-switching given a certain type of task, to predict response times (and accuracy?)
• Test the model's predictions against a user study
• Aim for VisWeek publication?

Identify potential modeling projects based on visual structure for future work...

• Intrinsic quality measures of visual representations
• How decision-making is affected by visualization design
• Simple ways to define and measure the mental model of a visualization

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David

1. get diffusion normals, one library, and one executable distributed (late...)
2. get one diffusion analysis completed and out (Paul? Cohen? hire?)
3. visweek papers
   • Steve: comps (need title, brain diagrams and events expanded?)
   • Cagatay: coloring manifesto? more?
   • Radu: nudging results?
   • Caroline: experiment or observations on multi-view?
   • Ryan: get involved with Cagatay's? Cohen analysis (maybe not vis)?
   • Wenjin: too far from Vis?
   • Jadrian: modeling curve bundles? small problem results?
4. support 7 phd students' progress toward graduation and careers
5. new Cave creation on track
6. more dissemination: talks/slides?, datasets (animals?)?, more/better images?
7. si^2 and expedition proposal followthrough?
8. keep Vis '11 on track
9. cs facilities vision document

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Eni

• Make progress in the surface analysis/congruency problem
• Draft a proposal for my work
• Read more literature that’s related to my work
• Submit a paper to MRM on tracts

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Jadrian

• Initial thesis proposal, submitted 2009-06-22
• Proposal second revision, prepared 2009-10-15

1. Write up dissertation table of contents, outline, and some hole-filled chapters by July 31st
   • Done.
2. Write up departmental proposal document by September 1st
   • Initial submission on September 10th.
3. Present the proposal formally to the department in October
   • Proposal presentation on October 7th.
4. Define a macrostructure model and cost function
   • The committee has been very involved in refining the idea of the "cost functions" for various fitting steps. The macrostructure model has gone through several revisions and is almost done.
5. Implement curve clustering using the macrostructure model; write up for ISMRM
   • Not done. Intended ISMRM submission on Rician noise correction turned out not to be novel, though I did learn about a ton of related work that has been quite successful.
6. Extend the macrostructure cost function to include DWI values
   • Not done.
7. Implement macrostructure adjustment from DWIs; write up for an MRM paper
   • Not done.
8. Get preliminary histological data of some kind, either by doing it in-house, working with collaborators, or outsourcing
   • Not done.
9. Derive a minimal set of microstructure measurements from histological data
   • Not done.
10. Copy South Africa data from DVDs and work with Amanda to import and process it
    • All data are organized on the data server but not processed.

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Nathan

• Diffusion pipeline work
  • Medical Image library
  • Possible further work, including:
    • Tubegen replacement
    • New (or updated) dfit utility
    • Others
• Independent research
  1. Develop interesting research question
     • Related to my interests in human-computer interaction, behavioral economics/cognitive biases, etc.
  2. Come up with a project based on it
  3. Apply for UTRA for this project (deadline: February 9)
  4. Apply for NSF REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) grant (deadline: February 15)
  5. Begin work on the project
• Help with data processing for our collaborators
  • Including, possibly, new tools that may be required
• (Ongoing) Provide support and documentation for previously-written tools

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Radu

1. Learning distance metrics from users (with Cagatay)
2. Finalize(revision)/Resubmit maps paper
3. Analysis "nudge" pilot study
4. Prepare thesis proposal talk
5. Create a daphne-module map
6. Deploy existent maps at Immgen
7. Design collaborative module for maps + instrumentation

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Wenjin

• MICCAI paper submission? due 3/9/2011
• NeuroImage journal submission
• Get real brain data on double-PGSE acquisition (work with Ed)
• good CONNECT meeting ( MRI of brain microstructure and connectivity) talk in Feb
• Ponder on disease applications
• Long-term research goals and plans: research plan, statement of interest, teaching statement, etc.

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Steve

Comps progress

1. Receive brain+code dump from Trevor re: interaction histories (meet to discuss before 6/7)
2. Application integration for interaction histories
   • Get G3D history library from Trevor asap, and implement sample app and some basic interactions w/ history collection by 6/20
   • BrainApp, Brain circuit vis?
3. LCS algorithm over histories for required interaction patterns
   • first draft, test on synthetic data by 6/25
4. Algorithm for remaining time estimation from pattern
   • first pass by 7/1

ImmGen

1. Build Radu's code and look for contribution to extend tools (6/15) - meet with Radu?

Misc

1. VASS Application/Registration
   • draft of app materials (essay, cv) by 6/1 (deadline: 7/23)
2. Work on poster submission for vis (deadline: 7/1)
3. Learn more about Caroline's work before she gets here (read her "Implied Dynamics" and "Visual Metaphors" papers)
4. NSF Grad Fellowship application -- first draft on all parts by 8/30
   • search other fellowships

...

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Ryan

• Get oriented in lab and on campus
• Progress with coursework
• Work on NSF GRFP Application and Research Comps projects
  • Cortical connectivity (vis)
  • Surface registration (vis and modeling)
  • Surface descriptors (algo and applications)

Past Plans and Goals

• Summer-Fall '10
• Spring '10
• Fall '09
• Summer '09
• Spring '09
• Fall '08
• Summer '08