Foreword

Visualization,as a discipline in computer science,is a rather young field of study.The field has made many advances over the past 25 years through tremendous basic and application-driven research efforts,and also successfully transferred some of these advances into products and services for data-intensive applications.Visualization as a problem-solving and knowledge discovery tool has become even more important as we enter the Big Data era.Its applications grow from scientific computing,engineering design,biomedicine,cyber security,and intelligence,to social science,transportation studies,and commerce.Visualization will be considered a basic skill,and will likely become part of the standard curriculum in science and engineering.

There is clearly a fast-growing interest in visualization as a discipline,a technology,or a practice.Over the years,I have been asked by many to suggest readings in visualization.So far,no book has ever managed to provide a comprehensive overview of the field,since even the good ones focus on a subarea of visualization,typically reflecting the author's research endeavors.A visualization textbook is definitely needed.I know a few other book projects are underway,but this book is by far the most comprehensive one I have seen.It provides a fairly complete introduction to essential topics in visualization,as well as information on where the field is today,effectively serving the needs of both practitioners and future researchers in the field.As the field evolves rapidly to cope with demands from new applications and exploiting Big Data,I believe the authors will update the content regularly to reflect the latest and greatest developments in the field,which will make this book a lasting,valuable resource.

While visualization has become an active area of study and practice in the United States and Europe,visualization research and education in Asia would benefit from increased promotion and development.Thus,the publication of this textbook is timely.I praise the dedicated effort of Professor Wei Chen and his co-authors in creating this book,which will help accelerate visualization education,research,and practice in China and other Chinese-speaking countries.I hope to see this book translated into other languages.It will then become an important reference in the field of visualization.I found the book very informative and easy to read.I believe you will enjoy reading it.

Kwan-Liu Ma

Davis,CA

September 20,2013