The 6th Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) Challenge posed three mini-challenges for participants to solve using a combination of visual analytics software and their own analytic reasoning abilities. Teams could solve one, two, or all three mini-challenges and assess the overall situation to enter the Grand Challenge.  Mini-challenge one involved the characterization of the spread of an epidemic using given maps, geospatial and text data gathered from micro-blog tweets. Mini-challenge two involved the development of situation awareness data to identify issues in the computer networking operations at a freight shipping company. Mini-challenge three involved the exploration of a corpus of news articles to examine terrorist threats to a metropolitan area. The Grand Challenge was to determine whether the epidemic spread, the network events, and the potential terrorist groups identified in the mini-challenges were related. The Challenge received 56 submissions, drew participants from 11 different countries, and gave 12 awards.

There will also be a VAST Challenge Workshop Session on Sunday, October 23, where all VisWeek attendees are invited to attend the open session from 2:00 to 5:30pm in the Bristol/Kent Meeting Rooms of the Westin Providence Hotel. Click HERE for agenda details.