Prashant motwani biography definition

TITLE
Conceptualizing Visualizations as Functions, Spaces, and Grammars

ABSTRACT
Visualization is often regarded as a static artifact – an image-based representation of data. However, from a mathematical and programmatic perspective, it can be more accurately described as a function: an action that transforms data and parameters into visual form. By framing visualization as a function, we can investigate its properties by examining its inputs (domain) and outputs (range), both of which can be conceptualized as distinct spaces. In this talk, I first present our work on learning the input and output spaces of visualizations using neural networks. I then introduce other spaces considered by the visualization research community, such as pixel space, interaction space, and design space. Finally, I discuss our research on viewing visualizations through the lens of grammars, demonstrating how this approach helps us uncover key properties and delineate the boundaries between data, task, and visualization spaces.

PAPERS:
- NeuralCubes: Deep Representations for Visual Data Exploration: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.08983
- A Grammar of Hypotheses for Visualization, Data, and Analysis: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.14267
- Design-Specific Transforms In Visualiza