SUBMIT to the VAST Challenge - Due June 29

Did you play with the data but are NOT planning to submit? You SHOULD! Everything to gain, nothing to lose.

Date: Jun 11, 2010

Hi to all of you who downloaded the VAST challenge data set Did you play with the data but are NOT planning to submit?

You SHOULD! The deadline is June 29th.

Everything to gain, nothing to lose:

your work will be better known
you'll get feedback on how well you did
you might do well and win an award,
you get a small publication (which may go in the proceedings if you get an award),
there is no risk (e.g. we won't publish your materials if you change your mind later).
you help your community develop evaluation methods

We had more than 400 downloads so you are not alone, and you don't want to be left out.

Only those who submit something get a ticket to attend the participant workshop (Sunday before VAST) to see what others have done, learn from them, and influence next year's challenge.

You can submit even if you used off the shelf commercial tools (it's great as a reference point)

Now you ARE planning to submit, right?

The deadline for submission is still JUNE 29th, when we will start reviewing submissions immediately.
we have a very short review cycle so we cannot grant extensions

About publication:

the 2 page summary is optional, but we will need it to see it eventually if you want it published!!! The IEEE camera ready deadline is August 25th and we will need to see your paper 3 days before if you had not submitted a draft before. Make sure you main contact person submitting the entry is around at that time.
the most deserving entries who get an award will also see their 2 page summary published in the Proceedings
the two page summaries of ALL teams submitting an entry to any Challenge will be published in the VAST Challenge Compendium, and all materials placed in Visual Analytics Benchmark repository after the conference (hcil.cs.umd.edu/localphp/hcil/vast/archive/index.php)

Travel support for students:

this year again NSF will help with PARTIAL support for selected students (watch for instructions after the submission deadline).
Discuss the cost of travel with your advisor and apply to be a student volunteer on JULY 1st when the visweek SV site opens. You can always cancel later... so sign up!

One person from your team has to attend the conference to receive the award (:-)

SO don't forget to SUBMIT!

QUESTIONS: use the BLOG! (or email challengecommittee@cs.umd.edu)

Catherine, Georges, Jean and Mark
VAST challenge chairs
www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/VASTchallenge2010