The Andrew Wade VA Challenge program is a student-focused branch of VIVA where students are trained in visual analytic techniques and tools using real world data provided by industry or academic partners.

It is named in the memory of one of it's students, Andrew Wade, who paved the way for the paired analysis concept. ANDREW WADE, from Denver, Colorado, was the first graduate from the Master's Degree program in Visual Analytics in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) at SFU. Sadly, Andrew's degree was bestowed posthumously in October 2011. At the age of 26, having just completed his final thesis revisions, Andrew and 18 others perished in a plane crash in Nepal on September 25, 2011. He had recently traveled to India to use his Visual Analytic expertise to solve software problems in data sets - a joint project with SFU, Boeing Co. and Optimus India Information Systems.

The challenge group is based at UBC/SFU and the students get involved through volunteering, directed studies courses, and internships with industry partners.

There are three main goals of the program:

1. To gain knowledge and further the research scope of VA by studying the interaction between different visual analytics techniques, types of data, and the tools currently available.

2. Providing students with the opportunity to gain valuable experience in visual data analysis and the field of VA in general.

3. To expose both industry and academic partners to the potential of VA through the application of VA tools to datasets and problems within their field.

For more information on specific Andrew Wade VA Challenge projects, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/challengeva/

If you’re interested in working with the challenge group on a dataset or analysis problem please contact: vamanager@ubcviscog.com.