Assistant Teaching Professor Anselm Spoerri was honored with a 2017 Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Award for DataVis, a product he helped create. It won eProduct/Best in Physical Sciences and Mathematics. PROSE awards are given to publishers and authors “for their commitment to pioneering works of research and for contributing to the conception, production, and design of landmark works in their fields.”

Spoerri is proud to receive “recognition by an organization that reviews and evaluates the best work created by the leading education and professional publishers in the English-speaking world.”

DataVis is an interactive data visualization platform for engineering students. It allows them to illustrate key material properties that need to be considered when designing products, such as airplanes. Spoerri was the lead data visualization expert on the project. Its website says that he leveraged his expertise “to guide the visual display and interactive functionality that are key to AccessEngineering's DataVis.”

The illustrative component to this program allows educators to display complex information in simpler ways. Spoerri said, “Interactive visualizations enable students to learn to look for patterns, ask questions and investigate the data in a purposeful way that promotes conceptual understanding and can make their learning more enjoyable. The increased availability of modern data visualization tools has the potential to transform education in major ways.”

Although the program is intended for use by engineering students and faculty, Spoerri uses it to demonstrate concepts in his visualization classes at the School of Communication and Information. He said, “So far, I have briefly mentioned it in some of my information visualization classes and I plan to feature it more extensively in future courses if it is appropriate.”