Managing the evolution of dataflows with VisTrails

Scientists are now faced with an incredible volume of data to analyze. To successfully analyze and validate various hypotheses, it is necessary to pose several queries, correlate disparate data, and create insightful visualizations of both the simulated processes and observed phenomena. Data exploration through visualization requires scientists to go through several steps. In essence, they need to assemble complex workflows that consist of dataset selection, specification of series of operations that need to be applied to the data, and the creation of appropriate visual representations, before they can finally view and analyze the results. Often, insight comes from comparing the results of multiple visualizations that are created during the data exploration process. For example, by applying a given visualization process to multiple datasets; by varying the values of simulation parameters; or by applying different variations of a given process (e.g., which use different visualization algorithms) to a given dataset. Unfortunately, today this exploratory process is far from interactive and contains many error-prone and time-consuming tasks.