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University of Minnesota
School of Statistics
Next: October 12: Bradley Efron, Up: Fall 1999 Previous: Fall 1999

September 30: Forrest Young, University of North Carolina

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
SEMINAR
School of Statistics
College of Liberal Arts

Seeing What Your Data Seem To Say With ViSta,
the Visual Statistics System

Forrest Young
Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina

Thursday, September 30, 1999
4:00-5:00 PM, Room 2-215 Carlson School of Management
Social at 3:30 PM in Room 531 Heller Hall (formerly Management/Economics)

Abstract
When you use statistical visualizations to look at your data, you can gain an intuitive understanding of the information in your data. This intuitive visual understanding complements the classical approach to understanding data, which is based on the mathematics of probability and inference: Statistical visualization provides a way to generate hypotheses about your data, whereas classical statistics provided tools for accepting or rejecting hypotheses.

Prof. Young has spent the last decade developing ViSta, a Visual Statistics system. This system uses highly dynamic and very interactive visual methods to structure your data analysis experience;to reveal information in your data; to model what you think you see in your data; and to guide you through entire sessions of complex data analyses. ViSta can also perform ``canned'' script-based analyses, ``automagically'' visualizing data you have in Microsoft's Excel or Access.

ViSta is based on a theory of human-computer interaction derived from work in computational cognitive science and in artificial intelligence; on the data analysis philosophy championed by John Tukey; and on Luke Tierney's XLisp-Stat system for computational and graphical statistics.

ViSta is a free and open software system to which numerous people around the world have contributed. It is available for Windows, Macs and Unix, in English, French and Spanish.

Sponsored jointly with the Department of Psychology.


next up previous
University of Minnesota
School of Statistics
Next: October 12: Bradley Efron, Up: Fall 1999 Previous: Fall 1999
Luke Tierney
2000-04-24