Launching a Data Revolution: Ilya Zaslavsky, Ph.D., Speaking on February 23

This post was authored by Tomoko Steen, Ph.D., Science Research Specialist in the Science, Technology, and Business Division of the Library of Congress.

On Thursday, February 23, 2017, Dr. Ilya Zaslavsky will be speaking at the Library of Congress about online systems for visual analysis, sharing of surveys and image collections, and applications for analyzing indicators of sustainable development goals. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a United Nations (UN) initiative known officially as “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” is a set of seventeen aspirational “Global Goals” with 169 targets. The aim of this initiative is “to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.” The goals were adopted in 2015 as part of the UN’s new sustainable development agenda. Zaslavsky will demonstrate how each country’s progress towards the SDGs can be analyzed using the program, SuAVE (Survey Analysis via Visual Exploration). This free software, developed with support from the National Science Foundation, has already been used in several fields, including social surveys, visual arts and humanities, biology and ecology, and the geosciences. Applications of SuAVE—from the ability to find patterns in paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso to visualizing large camera traps and geological image collections—will be shown during the presentation.

Samples of reports, conference proceedings, encyclopedia, and monographs on this topic, published in various parts of the world and collected by the Library of Congress include:

Sustainable development goals and indicators for a small planet / Asia-Europe Environment Forum

Africa regional report on the sustainable development goals: summary / United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Sustainability: key issues / edited by Helen Kopnina and Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet

Encyclopedia of global environmental governance and politics / Cheltenham, UK Edward Elgar

Dr. Zaslavsky is director of the Spatial Information Systems Lab at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego. His research focuses on distributed information management systems and spatial and temporal data integration. Zaslavsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington (1995), and earlier, a Ph.D. equivalent from the Russian Academy of Sciences (1990). He has led design and technical development for several large cyber-infrastructure projects supported by the National Science Foundation, including EarthCube and the national-scale Hydrologic Information System. He is also a co-chair of the OGC/WMO Hydrology Domain Working Group, which develops international standards for water data.

Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017

Time: 11:30a.m.-12:30p.m.

Place: Montpelier Room, 6th Floor, James Madison Building

Free, no reservations needed!

For inquiries about this program, contact Dr. Tomoko Steen in the Science, Technology and Business Division at [email protected] or the division office at: (202)-707-1212. Individuals requiring accommodations for this event are requested to submit a request at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].

The lecture will be later broadcast on the library’s webcast page and YouTube channel “Topics in Science” playlist.