UCSC Data Visualization Collective, led by Jessica Kendall-Bar and Jennifer Parker

Jessica envisioned the possibility of a Data Visualization Collective with OpenLab during the pandemic and brought together a group of bright, driven students at the undergraduate and graduate levels from diverse fields such as Art: Games and Playable Media, Computational Media, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, & Astronomy and Astrophysics.

These students worked together with UCSC scientists to create five types of data visualizations: graphical abstracts with custom graphics, publication-ready figures coded in R, Python, or Javascript, animations (2D and 3D) visualizing critical scientific concepts, interactive websites (RShiny, HTML/CSS/Javascript, ObservableHQ, Jupyter Notebooks, etc.), as well as final projects combining concepts from throughout the quarter.

At the end of the quarter, Jessica created a virtual exhibition with the support of Professor Jennifer Parker

This immersive virtual exhibition showcased the incredible work the collective and shared the diverse research perspectives of each participant.