Welcome to CS444, Data Visualization. In this course, you will learn how, and why, to create data visualizations. Please read this syllabus carefully, and contact the instructor should you have any questions about its content.
A “visualization” is simply a visual representation of an object of our interest. It’s visual: we consume them with our eyes, and so it is essential that we know how our eyes work — and, more importantly, the parts of our brains connected to our eyes. It’s also a representation; we get to choose what this representation will be, and different choices lead to different pictures, some good and some bad. We will learn how to tell those apart, and how to make pictures that are more good than bad.
Good data visualization involves perceptual psychology, mathematics, and computer science. This makes our subject uniquely challenging: sometimes the way our eyes work stands in way of applying some beautiful result from computer science. Sometimes it’s the other way around: something deep about the math in the data will help guide the design process and let us make a picture that is beautiful, informative, and truthful.
The content of the course is split roughly in three distinct aspects: mechanics, principles, and techniques.
First of all, you will learn why and how to build data visualizations in order to understand complex data sets. This will involve a mix of computer science, mathematics, and perceptual psychology. You will understand why certain visualizations work well, why some of them are easier to build than others, and the limits of what we can currently do with our computers and eyes.
You will learn this by a combination of presentation of lecture material, programming assignments and in-class discussions.
You will be assessed based on your performance on the programming assignments, one midterm exam and one final exam, and in-class participation.
The UA’s policy concerning Class Attendance, Participation, and Administrative Drops is available at this page.
The UA policy regarding absences for any sincerely held religious belief, observance or practice will be accommodated where reasonable: see this page.
Absences preapproved by the UA Dean of Students (or dean’s designee) will be honored. See this page.
Participating in the course and attending lectures and other course events are vital to the learning process. As such, attendance is required at all lectures and discussion section meetings. Students who miss class due to illness or emergency are required to bring documentation from their health-care provider or other relevant, professional third parties. Failure to submit third-party documentation will result in unexcused absences.
A central part of this course is a large number of small programming assignments. If you register after the first class meeting, you will be allowed to make up missed assignments, but those will all be due at the day that the next assignment is due. You are responsible for notifying me about a late registration so we can make grading accommodations.
Online communication will be made on piazza. For urgent communications with the instructors, send email to fall16cs444@cs.arizona.edu
There is no required textbook. All material will be available online, including lecture slides.
There are many good visualization textbooks, all optional:
As mentioned above, you will be assessed based on your performance on programming assignments, one midterm exam and one final exam, and in-class participation.
I will grade your assignments, midterms, and final exam on a scale from 0 to 100, with respective weights of 50%, 20% and 30%. In addition, I will give class participation 5% weight. This will give you a score from 0 to 105. Your final grade in the course of be the best of a per-class grading curve and overall performance:
Overall performance:
By October 30th (your last day to withdraw), you will know more than 40% of your grade by weight.
The class participation grading is discretionary. I will give you feedback on class participation on request.
Grades for assignments, midterm and final project will be posted on D2L as soon as we have them. The grading for each assignment will be provided one week after the assignment is due.
Please refer to the UA Final exam regulations for more information.
There will be a total of eleven programming assignments, each due a week after they are posted, 11:59PM of that day. Tentative dates for assignments:
| Assignment | Post | Due (@11:59PM) | Grades returned (@9:30AM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 23 | Aug 30 | Sep 6 |
| 2 | Aug 30 | Sep 6 | Sep 13 |
| 3 | Sep 6 | Sep 13 | Sep 20 |
| 4 | Sep 13 | Sep 20 | Sep 27 |
| 5 | Sep 20 | Sep 27 | Oct 4 |
| 6 | Sep 27 | Oct 4 | Oct 11 |
| 7 | Oct 4 | Oct 18 | Oct 25 |
| 8 | Nov 1 | Nov 8 | Nov 15 |
| 9 | Nov 8 | Nov 15 | Nov 22 |
| 10 | Nov 15 | Nov 22 | Nov 29 |
| 11 | Nov 29 | Dec 6 | Dec 13 |
These assignments will test whether you understood the concepts discussed in the previous week, and will be small and self-contained. You’ll submit a webpage, typically, with a demonstration of the concept we discussed and a short explanation (around a paragraph or two).
The assignments will be given equal weights (towards the 50% total weight of assignments, as posted above).
Assignments will be posted on tuesdays, and will be due on the following tuesday at the time class starts. My office hours are tuesday, 1:00-3:00PM.
Late assignments will not be allowed outside of extenuating circumstances. Students who miss assignments due to illness or emergency and want to submit them later are required to bring documentation from their health-care provider or other relevant, professional third parties. Failure to submit third-party documentation will result in a zero grade for those assignments.
Requests for incomplete (I) or withdrawal (W) must be made in accordance with University policies, which are available here, (under “incomplete” and “withdrawal”, respectively).
If you wish to dispute a grade on an assignment, midterm, or final, you have two weeks after the grades have been posted.
Please see the main course webpage for schedule and assignment descriptions.
The Department of Computer Science is committed to providing and maintaining a supportive educational environment for all. We strive to be welcoming and inclusive, respect privacy and confidentiality, behave respectfully and courteously, and practice intellectual honesty. Disruptive behaviors (such as physical or emotional harassment, dismissive attitudes, and abuse of department resources) will not be tolerated. The complete Code of Conduct is available on our department web site. We expect that you will adhere to this code, as well as the UA Student Code of Conduct, while you are a member of this class.
To foster a positive learning environment, students and instructors have a shared responsibility. We want a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment where all of us feel comfortable with each other and where we can challenge ourselves to succeed. To that end, our focus is on the tasks at hand and not on extraneous activities (e.g., texting, chatting, reading a newspaper, making phone calls, web surfing, etc.).
Students are asked to refrain from disruptive conversations with people sitting around them during lecture. Students observed engaging in disruptive activity will be asked to cease this behavior. Those who continue to disrupt the class will be asked to leave lecture or discussion and may be reported to the Dean of Students.
Some learning styles are best served by using personal electronics, such as laptops and iPads. These devices can be distracting to other learners. Therefore, students who prefer to use electronic devices for note-taking during lecture should use one side of the classroom.
The UA Threatening Behavior by Students Policy prohibits threats of physical harm to any member of the University community, including to oneself. See http://policy.arizona.edu/education-and-student-affairs/threatening-behavior-students.
Students are encouraged to share intellectual views and discuss freely the principles and applications of course materials. However, graded work/exercises must be the product of independent effort unless otherwise instructed. Students are expected to adhere to the UA Code of Academic Integrity as described in the UA General Catalog. See http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/academic-integrity/students/academic-integrity. Recommended language, if applicable: The University Libraries have some excellent tips for avoiding plagiarism, available at http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/plagiarism/index.html. Recommended language, if applicable: Selling class notes and/or other course materials to other students or to a third party for resale is not permitted without the instructor’s express written consent. Violations to this and other course rules are subject to the Code of Academic Integrity and may result in course sanctions. Additionally, students who use D2L or UA e-mail to sell or buy these copyrighted materials are subject to Code of Conduct Violations for misuse of student e-mail addresses. This conduct may also constitute copyright infringement.
The University is committed to creating and maintaining an environment free of discrimination; see http://policy.arizona.edu/human-resources/nondiscrimination-and-anti-harassment-policy Recommended language, if applicable: Our classroom is a place where everyone is encouraged to express well-formed opinions and their reasons for those opinions. We also want to create a tolerant and open environment where such opinions can be expressed without resorting to bullying or discrimination of others.
UA Academic policies and procedures are available at http://catalog.arizona.edu/policies
Student Assistance and Advocacy information is available at http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/student-assistance/students/student-assistance
Please refer to this webpage for information on confidentiality of student records.
Our goal in this classroom is that learning experiences be as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. You are also welcome to contact the Disability Resource Center (520-621-3268) to establish reasonable accommodations. For additional information on the Disability Resource Center and reasonable accommodations, please visit the DRC website.
If you have reasonable accommodations, please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss accommodations and how my course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate. Please be aware that the accessible table and chairs in this room should remain available for students who find that standard classroom seating is not usable.
Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policy, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.