Archive for the ‘News’ Category

I’ve added a new project page on Futurisland, a project I worked on almost a decade ago (it’s absurd how time flies when you’re having fun). Futurisland was a web-based multi-user environment for kids developed in Flash. I had the opportunity to collaborate with some really good artists and developers for this project, the results of which I’m still proud of!

Data Driven Dynamical Networks

From September 26 till October 1, we organized the Data Driven Dynamical Network workshop in Les Houches, France. We brought together a group of people from a variety of scientific backgrounds to share insights in the collection, analysis, application and visualization of data driven dynamical networks.

Connecting the Dots

On 22 October, I gave a talk about Visualizing SocioPatterns at Connecting the Dots, a Network Visualization Symposium at Harvard University, organized by Samuel Arbesman, Michael Barnett, and Jukka-Pekka Onnela from the Harvard Medical School.

GLEaMviz Simulator v2.6

We recently released a new version -v2.6- of the GLEaMviz Simulator application in which we provide an improved visualization of the epidemic spreading. The following movie provides some examples of how this new visualization shows the number of new cases at the cell-level, instead of the less precise basin-level incidence representation used in the previous versions.

The user can now also select from a number of backdrop maps onto which the visualization is projected, details of which are shown in the following figure. The left option is based on the NASA Blue Marble map, while the other two provide a more neutral base onto which the cell-level cases can be inspected with greater visual accuracy.

Epidemic Planet

A new version of the Epidemic Planet exhibit, now with the new visualization of GLEaMviz Simulator v2.6, was shown in the Exhibition hall of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC10), that was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, from November 13th to 19th. The exhibit was hosted at the booth of the Indiana University, partner of the GLEaMviz project.

The Epidemic Planet is currently also shown in CosmoCaixa Mòbil – Tecnorevolución, a traveling exhibition by the Cosmo Caixa science museum that will set up show in a number of cities in Spain.

Epidemic Planet poster

I am currently working on the next version of the Epidemic Planet installation, which will be exhibited at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in collaboration with the British Society for Immunology. In this new version, visitors will observe the evolution of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic since its early origin in Mexico, and will discover how the air traffic and commuting flows determined the spreading patterns of the flu worldwide, and how different intervention scenarios could have influenced this spreading. For more information see this post on gleamviz.org.

I started adding pages in this website that provide more details on the projects I am or was involved in. See: http://www.addith.be/projects/

Let me kindly invite you to join us for the “Data driven dynamical networks” workshop from 26 September till 1 October, 2010, in Les Houches, France, right next to the Mont Blanc. We will consider various aspects of dynamic networks, including the visualization of such networks.

After having spent close to three years at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) in Paris, I’m shifting gears and will join the Complex Networks unit of the Complex Systems Lagrange Laboratory at the Institute for Scientific Interchange (ISI) in Torino, Italy (locate ISI in Google Earth.)

I will be joining a top-notch team whose members routinely blend statistical physics and computer science in order to study the topology and behaviour of complex systems. My contribution will be to further extend the use of contemporary internet technologies such as collaboration-oriented socio-technical systems for conducting internet-based experiments in e.g. social dynamics.

What I plan to do in Torino could be described as a next step in the reintegration of my recent activities as a scientific researcher, and my earlier activities as a new-media artist/developer.

A perfect time, I figured, to start communicating on a more regular basis about these activities, hence this new blog-like website. You can subscribe to the accompanying low-volume RSS feed if you wish to be kept up-to-date.