Cagatay Turkay (Professor)

Cagatay Turkay (Centre Director)

Academic profile

I have been with CIM since 2019 first as an Associate Professor and then as a Professor since 2022. Before that I've been first a Lecturer and then a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science at City, University of London between 2014 to 2019. At City, I worked with the wonderful colleagues at the giCentreLink opens in a new window. I received my PhD degree in Visualisation from University of BergenLink opens in a new window, Norway in 2014 and served as a visiting research fellow at Harvard University in 2013. I have an MSc and BSc in Computer Science from Sabanci University and Middle East Technical University in Turkey. I frequently publish my research on visualisation journals such as IEEE TVCG, CGF, and IEEE CG&A, as well as journals in machine learning and data mining. I serve on the organising and programme committees for several conferences such as IEEE VIS, EuroVis, BioVis and EuroVA, and serve on the editorial boards of Computers & Graphics and Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction journals, as well as having guest editor roles at ACM TiiS and IEEE CG&A.

I have been awarded the EuroVis Young Researcher award Link opens in a new windowand named a EuroGraphics Junior Fellow in 2019. As of October 2021, I am also a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, UKLink opens in a new window.

Research

Subject area

My research falls under the broad area that can be referred to as Visual Data Science and focuses on designing visualisations, interactions and computational methods to enable an effective combination of human and machine capabilities to facilitate data-intensive problem solving. I try to understand how people make decisions together with algorithms, investigate the role of interactive visual computing in this process, and also design & build techniques and systems that build on this foundational understanding. More recently, I am investigating the role of interactive visualisation along with other interaction mediums such as natural language to design algorithms and systems that understand and adapt to their users for eventually facilitating explainable and accountable decision-making in situations where humans co-work with algorithms.

I have a special interest in working on problems where high-dimensional, spatio-temporal, heterogenous and large datasets are used in answering questions with data. The human-side of the solutions I aspire to build is of utmost importance and I always try and take a human-centric approach when thinking about problems and solutions. Thanks to this, I have had the pleasure to work with and learn from many researchers with various different backgrounds such as biomedicine, bioinformatics, geography, social science, cyber security to name a few.

I am also involved actively in designing and co-teaching modules such as Data Science Across DisciplinesLink opens in a new window, Visualisation FoundationsLink opens in a new window and Spatial Methods and Practice in Urban ScienceLink opens in a new window as part of our educational offering at CIM.

Areas of Interest: Computer Science, Data Visualisation, Data Science, Human-Computer Interaction

Selected Publications

See my Google ScholarLink opens in a new window and DBLPLink opens in a new window profiles for a more complete list, and I publish most of my talk slides on a SlideShare accountLink opens in a new window.

Journals

Henkin, R. and Turkay, C., 2021. Words of Estimative Correlation: Studying Verbalizations of ScatterplotsLink opens in a new window. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
Lee, B., Isaacs, K., Szafir, D.A., Marai, G.E., Turkay, C., Tory, M., Carpendale, S. and Endert, A., 2019. Broadening Intellectual Diversity in Visualization Research PapersLink opens in a new window. IEEE computer graphics and applications,39(4), pp.78-85.
Nguyen, P.H., Turkay, C., Andrienko, G., Andrienko, N., Thonnard, O. and Zouaoui, J., 2018. Understanding user behaviour through action sequences: from the usual to the unusualLink opens in a new window. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics.
Chen, S., Li, J., Andrienko, G., Andrienko, N., Wang, Y., Nguyen, P.H. and Turkay, C., 2018. Supporting Story Synthesis: Bridging the Gap between Visual Analytics and StorytellingLink opens in a new window. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics.
Turkay, C., Kaya, E., Balcisoy, S. and Hauser, H., 2016. Designing progressive and interactive analytics processes for high-dimensional data analysisLink opens in a new window. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics,23(1), pp.131-140.
Beecham, R., Dykes, J., Meulemans, W., Slingsby, A., Turkay, C. and Wood, J., 2016. Map lineups: effects of spatial structure on graphical inferenceLink opens in a new window. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics,23(1), pp.391-400.

Turkay, C., Slingsby, A., Hauser, H., Wood, J. and Dykes, J., 2014. Attribute signatures: Dynamic visual summaries for analyzing multivariate geographical dataLink opens in a new window. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,20(12), pp.2033-2042.

Turkay, C., Lundervold, A., Lundervold, A.J. and Hauser, H., 2012. Representative factor generation for the interactive visual analysis of high-dimensional dataLink opens in a new window. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,18(12), pp.2621-2630.

Turkay, C., Filzmoser, P. and Hauser, H., 2011. Brushing dimensions-a dual visual analysis model for high-dimensional dataLink opens in a new window. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics,17(12), pp.2591-2599.

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Projects

Sep. 2020 – Feb. 2022: Visualising Contact Networks in Response to COVID-19Link opens in a new window, UKRI, £174k for Warwick (Turkay, Joint PI)
Feb 2021 – Jan. 2022: RAMP VIS: Making Visual Analytics an Integral Part of the Technological Infrastructure for Combating COVID-19Link opens in a new window, £11k for Warwick (Turkay, Co-I)
Aug. 2020 - Jul. 2022: DECIDE - Delivering Enhanced Biodiversity Information with Adaptive Citizen Science and Intelligent Digital EngagementsLink opens in a new window, NERC, £96k for Warwick (Turkay, Co-I)
Mar. 2020 - Jul. 2020: More-than-human data interactions in the smart city, EPSRC HDI Network+, £62k (Turkay, Co-I)
Jan. 2019 – June. 2019: Investigating Interactive Visualisation Techniques for AI Explainability, City, University of London, Pump-priming Fund, £5k, (Turkay, Co-I with R. Henkin)
Dec. 2017 – March. 2019: NlViS: Natural Language Interaction for Visual Data AnalysisLink opens in a new window, EPSRC First Grant, £100k, (Turkay, PI)
April. 2018 – March. 2019: Agent based modelling and visualisation of the causes and consequences of knockon delays, RSSB, £80k, (Turkay, Co-I)
Sept. 2016 – Aug. 2019: DiSIEM: Diversity-enhancements for Security Information and Event ManagementLink opens in a new window, EU H2020, € 4 million total (€ 910k for CITY) (Turkay, City PI with I. Gashi)
Jan. 2016 – Dec. 2018: Interactive Visualization of Large Email Data, Industrial Funding (Redsift Inc.Link opens in a new window), £86k, (Turkay, PI)
May 2014 – November 2015: FareViz, Technology Strategy Board (£120k for City, £472k total) (Turkay, Researcher Co-I)

Teaching

Modules

At CIM, I teach the following modules

My office hours are Thursday, 3.30pm - 4.30pm.

Supervision

I am happy to discuss with PhD candidates interested in topics including but not limited to:

Data visualisation, as understood as a method, as an artefact and as practice, e.g., how can data visualisations enable richer dialogues both in applied practices and within society at large, empirical research that tries to understand the limits and capabilities of human reasoning and decision making.
Human-centred AI and Data Science, e.g., new computational methods and tools designed in dialogue with humans, society and more-than-human in mind, how experts (data scientists, researchers, modellers) work with AI and data science methods, and how can interactive methods and visualisation can transform these practices (i.e., visual data science, visual analytics)
Topics at the intersections of data-algorithm-human-society, e.g., how data and algorithmic results are understood by individuals and publics, novel computational methods to facilitate "better" interactions ("better" understood critically & broadly)

When reaching out to discuss the possibility of a PhD, please include a few details about your background (a CV would be great) and a brief note around the topics that you are interested in researching on. You can see the details of the CIM's PhD degrees and funding options hereLink opens in a new window. We also have a new EPSRC Centre for doctoral training on Data Visualisation coming up in 2025/26Link opens in a new window so watch out the news pages for updates. We are expecting to announce scholarships in January 2025 at the latest for a start October 2025.

Contact details

Email:

Cagatay.Turkay@warwick.ac.uk

Mailing address:

Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies

Room B0.08

University of Warwick

Coventry

CV4 7AL