Visual analytics of terrorist activities related to epidemics

Enrico Bertini, Juri Buchmüller, Fabian Fischer, Stephan Huber, Thomas Lindemeier, Fabian Maass, Florian Mansmann, Thomas Ramm, Michael Regenscheit, Christian Rohrdantz, Christian Scheible, Tobias Schreck, Stephan Sellien, Florian Stoffel, Mark Tautzenberger, Matthias Zieker, Daniel A. Keim

Abstract: The task of the VAST 2011 Grand Challenge was to investigate potential terrorist activities and their relation to the spread of an epidemic. Three different data sets were provided as part of three Mini Challenges (MCs). MC 1 was about analyzing geo-tagged microblogging (Twitter) messages to characterize the spread of an epidemic. MC 2 required analyzing threats to a computer network using a situational awareness approach. In MC 3 possible criminal and terrorist activities were to be analyzed based on a collection of news articles. To solve the Grand Challenge, insight from each of the individual MCs had to be integrated appropriately.