Mathematical Methods in Counterterrorism

Abstracts

The VAST Contests – Mathematical Challenges

Georges Grinstein
Professor - Computer Science Department
Director - Institute for Visualization and Perception Research
Director - Center for Biomolecular and Medical Informatics
University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract:

In this presentation I will briefly describe the Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) contests run in 2006, 2007 and the VAST 2008 and 2009 challenges. These contests were designed to provide a better understanding of the tasks and data that face potential counterterrorist analysts, homeland security analysts and even more generally any data analyst. Access to many of these end users is limited due to time constraints and the classified nature of the tasks and data. In that respect, the contests serve as an intermediary, with the metrics and feedback serving as measures of utility to the end users. I will discuss mathematical problems arising in the generation of contest data as well as from the evaluations of submitted answers.

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