Petter Bivall’s research while affiliated with Linköping University and other places

Information superiority is one of the primary enablers for military dominance; the exploitation of all relevant information from multiple sources is a key factor for NATO’s information superiority. Visualization and visual analytics research are essential to address the needs of the 2015 NATO targets of emphasis in Information Analysis (IA) & Decision Support (DS): IA&DS-1 on Decision Support and IA&DS-2 on Big Data & Long Data Processing & Analysis. Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. The Group investigated, researched and fostered collaborations in knowledge extraction and data analysis for timely situation awareness to support effective decision making. The IST-141 group researched, developed and applied exploratory visual analytics techniques: (1) to exploit and make sense of large and complex data sets, i.e. Big Data; (2) to help make tacit knowledge explicit; (3) to provide acute situation awareness, and; (4) to support informed decision making across a wide range of defence and security application domains including cyber, maritime, genomics and social media domains, as well as post analysis and in situ visualization for simulation data.

This study explored whether adding a haptic interface (that provides users with somatosensory information about virtual objects by force and tactile feedback) to a three-dimensional (3D) chemical model enhanced students' understanding of complex molecular interactions. Two modes of the model were compared in a between-groups pre- and posttest design. In both modes, users could move and rotate virtual 3D representations of the chemical structures of the two molecules, a protein and a small ligand molecule. In addition, in a haptic mode users could feel the interactions (repulsive and attractive) between molecules as forces with a haptic device. Twenty postgraduate students (10 in each condition) took pretests about the process of protein--ligand recognition before exploring the model in ways suggested by structured worksheets and then completing a posttest. Analysis addressed quantitative learning outcomes and more qualitatively students' reasoning during the learning phase. Results showed that the haptic system helped students learn more about the process of protein–ligand recognition and changed the way they reasoned about molecules to include more force-based explanations. It may also have protected students from drawing erroneous conclusions about the process of protein–ligand recognition observed when students interacted with only the visual model. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed95:700–719, 2011