HCII Seminar Series - Lace Padilla
Speaker
Lace Padilla
Assistant Professor in the Cognitive and Information Sciences Department at the University of California Merced
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305
Video
Video link
Description
"Making Uncertainty Cognitively Accessible"
We live in an uncertain world. From extreme weather events to pandemic forecasts, we are confronted with uncertainty every day. Unfortunately, uncertainty is highly challenging for both the general public and trained experts to understand, which is why effectively conveying uncertainty in scientific findings is critical. Visualizations afford thinking with such complex data, as they capitalize on the visual system's highly advanced pattern recognition system to process vast data sets at once. This efficient processing is in stark contrast to the limitations of sequential reading required by sets of symbolic numbers. This talk will discuss state-of-the-art uncertainty visualization techniques and the cognitive processes that can lead to misunderstandings of data with uncertainty. We will discuss best practices in information visualization to support researchers' awareness of how visualization choices influence their audience's understanding of data, supporting accessible and ethical decisions about conveying statistical results.
Speaker's Bio
Dr. Lace Padilla is an Assistant Professor in the Cognitive and Information Sciences Department at the University of California Merced and was an NSF Postdoctoral Scholar at Northwestern University. Padilla is the PI and CO-PI on grants funded by NSF, DOE, and NASA. She received the best paper award at IEEE VIS 2022 and an Early Career Award from APA in 2020. In her spare time, she is a strong advocate for minoritized groups in STEM, serving on the IEEE VIS Inclusivity Committee and the Governing Board of Spark Society. She has received several grants and awards for her diversity work.
Speaker's Website
http://space.ucmerced.edu/LacePadilla.html