Communicating Data Visually

Spring 2020 IRisk Lab Hack Nights

Date and Time: Wednesday, April 29, 2020, 7:00 PM (CST)

Abstract: Data can be communicated in a wide variety of ways, from transferring a file of raw data between parties to summarizing the key results of a dataset using a few sentences.  Somewhere in the middle of that spectrum lies Data Visualization which can allow communicators to explain key points visually, or even allow audiences to explore the data on their own.  In this lecture, we’ll break down some of the key concepts to consider when communicating data, a short list of DOs & DON’Ts, and survey a variety of techniques that current practitioners use to effectively communicate data.

About the speaker: Matt Dzugan is a Data Science Manager at Uptake in Chicago, IL. After earning his MS in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University he spent 5+ years at The Boeing Company as a systems engineer at the “Satellite Design Center” before ending up at Uptake in Data Science.  He first caught the visualization bug during a demo of Processing (a Java-like language) in 2009, but now primarily builds things using Javascript (especially D3.js), and R.  He can be found online at mattdzugan.com and @mattdzugan on Twitter.