Visualisation: an unmatched research tool and disseminator of knowledge

Visualisation plays a decisive roll in the exploration of data and in human interaction with computers. It is also a powerful tool for communication and learning that also bridges the gap between scientists and the general public.

Research in visualisation enables us to analyse enormous quantities of data to images that can be absorbed and understood by both experts and non-specialists. The visualisations can take us down to the tiniest structures of the human body and up to the outermost reaches of space. Algorithms allow us to see with our own eyes how a molecule in a cell behaves during a nanosecond, and events that occurred at the beginning of time, billions of light years away.

Anders Ynnerman and his colleagues are now about to embark on a journey into the theoretical foundations of visualisation, in order to provide impetus to all the branches of science in which visualisation has become an indispensable tool, and to explore in depth artificial intelligence.

One of the goals is to use the power of visualisation in opening the black box of AI, to reveal not only the contents of the enormous quantities of training data, but also the structure of the neural networks after training. With this knowledge, we will be able to better understand and possibly also influence and improve the algorithms that control machine learning.

A fundamental requirement of the research that is being carried out within the Wallenberg AI Autonomous Systems and Software Program, WASP, in which Anders Ynnerman plays a central role, is to put the human in the loop. The autonomous systems are in many cases acting as decision-support systems, and humans must be able to obtain information from them while at the same time providing feedback to the automatic systems and then visual interfaces will play an enabling role.