Vetria L. Byrd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology (CGT) in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Byrd is the founder and organizer of the biennial Broadening Participation in Visualization (BPViz) Workshop co-funded by CRA-W/CDC and the National Science Foundation (Award No. 1419415). The workshop is designed to broaden participation of women and members of underrepresented groups in the field of visualization. Dr. Byrd has given workshops (XSEDE13, San Diego, CA), short courses (IHPCSS'15 Toronto, Canada; IHPCSS '16 Ljubljana, Slovenia), invited talks (Plenary Talk at XSEDE'14, Atlanta, GA; The Banbury Center at Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, NY) and presentations (2015 Gordon Research Conference, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine: presenter and invited discussion leader) on visualization. Dr. Byrd's invited Plenary Talk at XSEDE14 was featured on HPCWire.com . Dr. Byrd joined Purdue University in August 2015 and was featured on Purdue University Facebook page as one of Purdue's 30 Women in Research (March 5, 2016). Dr. Byrd was the principal investigator and program coordinator for the highly competitive NSF REU Site: Research Experience for Undergraduates in Collaborative Data Visualization Applications (Award No. 1359223) for 2014/2015. The program is designed to give undergraduates a well-rounded research experience in visualization. Students who completed the program in 2014/2015 have matriculated to graduate school, are participating in other highly competitive REU sites, and given presentations at professional conferences. Prior to joining Purdue Dr. Byrd was the Director of Advanced Visualization in CCIT/CITI at Clemson University.
Donna J. Cox, MFA, PhD, is the University of Illinois’s first Michael Aiken Chair, Director of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Director of the Illinois Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media Institute (eDream), and Professor in the School of Art and Design at the College of Fine and Applied Arts. She is a member of the NCSA leadership team, and is a recognized pioneer in scientific visualization for public outreach and education and originator of the collaborative model of Renaissance Teams and the concept of visaphors (digital metaphors of computational science).
Through public outreach projects, Dr. Cox and her collaborators have inspired millions with cinematic virtual tours through astrophysics, earth sciences, engineering, and other data domains. AVL’s work is shared through venues such as international digital-dome museum shows, high-definition documentary television programs, and IMAX movies.
The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry selected Dr. Cox as one of 40 modern Leonardo DaVinci’s. As Director of eDream Institute, she is working with Illinois campus leadership to build a new interdisciplinary academic research and education program that includes visualization and interactive performance.
Workshop Team
BPViz Speakers
BPViz Hands-on Session Leaders
Everyone who worked behind the scenes at Purdue University and NCSA