Analytical Data Visualization
Praktikum (4 SWS)
Course description
As modern applications across science, engineering, economics, medicine, environmental studies, and the social sciences generate increasing amounts of data, visualization techniques have become essential for exploring patterns, relationships, and structures that are often difficult to interpret from numerical data alone. At the same time, visualizations play a crucial role in communicating scientific findings to non-expert audiences and supporting informed decision-making in academia, industry, and society. Examples range from monitoring patient data and disease trends in medicine and public health, to analyzing market developments in economics and finance, studying climate and biodiversity data in environmental sciences, exploring social interactions and information diffusion through network analysis, and monitoring complex technical systems and sensor data in engineering.
Despite the wide variety of application domains, the central challenge remains the same: transforming large and complex datasets into visual representations that are rigorous, intuitive, and meaningful. Effective data visualization therefore requires not only technical expertise, but also an understanding of visual perception, communication principles, and domain-specific interpretation.
In this praktikum, students will learn the principles and best practices for designing clear and informative visualizations that support the exploration and analysis of complex data. Rather than following a fixed set of recipes, students will develop an understanding of what makes a visualization effective and faithful to the underlying data. Through theoretical foundations, critical discussion of existing approaches, and hands-on work with real-world datasets, participants will gain practical experience creating accessible and meaningful visual representations using modern programming and visualization tools.
Parameters
Time: Wed, from 15:00 to 17:00
Location: TBD
Language: English
Evaluation: Regular attendance, active participation, and a final project.
Schedule
TBD