An Excursion into nD Geometry

University of Bergen, Norway; vis.UiB.no & UiB.no/cedas 

Abstract 

While we usually are ourselves well embedded within a 3D world, disregarding time for a moment, we regularly deal with nD representations of a large variety of phenomena. In data visualization, we even claim that visualizing nD data is a (partially) solved problem, especially when n is not large. In this talk, we make an excursion into higher-dimensional geometry, to make a few observations, which challenge our natural attempt to consider higher-dimensional spaces as a natural extension of our three-dimensional world. This talk is not about scientific findings, but it’s an invitation to think along. It’s also intended to ask for some caution when dealing with higher-dimensional spaces and to approach higher-dimensional geometry with a good deal of modesty, resulting from the re-peated surprises which these spaces have in stock for us. 

Short Bio 

Helwig Hauser is professor in visualization and the (co-)leader of the Center for Data Science, CEDAS, at the University of Bergen (UiB), Norway. Before joining UiB in 2007 to build up a new research group on visualization (vis.UiB.no), Helwig Hauser was the Scientific Director of the VRVis Research Center in Vienna, Austria, where he earlier led the basic research group on visualization (since 2000). Helwig Hauser got his education (in Computer Science, with specialization on visualization) from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria (TU Wien), where he also completed his PhD in 1998 and his Habilitation in 2003 (later awarded by the Heinz Zemanek Award). Since 2019, Helwig Hauser is the (co-)leader of UiB’s Center for Data Science, CEDAS (UiB.no/cedas), with focus on interdiscipli-nary research in data science, as well as data science education and applications. His interests are broad within visualization, visual data science, and related fields, and he’s an active member of the international visualization community, having served / serving, for ex., as the Editor in Chief for jour-nal Computer Graphics Forum, as Overall Paper Chair for the IEEE VIS conference, as well as on a variety of Steering Committees.