Tim Dwyer

My research concerns many different aspects of Information Visualisation and Visual Analytics. In other words, I am interested in visual interfaces for the exploration and communication of data. An area of key interest for me is network visualization, which I believe has a critical role to play in helping people to understand complex, interlinked data. Network visualisation is already widely used in disciplines like software engineering, biology and social network analysis; however, I believe it can play a greater role in many other areas of our lives if we can present complex information to people in an understandable and engaging way.

Much of my work has focused on the problem of finding high-quality layout for network diagrams. To create such diagrams automatically, we must compute positions for nodes and paths for links that are both readable and aesthetically pleasing. This computation is a significant optimisation challenge that tests the limits of current technologies. I am also interested in the development of novel representations of data and all aspects of interaction design for data exploration.

Another aspect of my research is the exploration of how we can effectively use emerging display technologies—such as large interactive surfaces and augmented and virtual reality—to help people perform data analysis. We are bringing data "out of computers and into the world around us". We call this research initiative Immersive Analytics.

Biography
I received my PhD on "Two and a Half Dimensional Visualisation of Relational Networks" from the University of Sydney in 2005. I was a post-doctoral Research Fellow at Monash University from 2005 to 2008, then a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research, USA in 2008-2009. From 2009 to 2012 I worked as a Senior Software Development Engineer with the Visual Studio product group at Microsoft, USA. A highlight of this period was shipping the Code Map software dependency visualisation tool with Visual Studio 2012. In late 2012 I returned to Monash University as a Larkins Fellow where I now lead the Immersive Analytics Lab.