Data Visualisation for Sense-Making

This session will cover principles and theories for creating data visualizations. We will learn how to use these principles and theories to enhance sense-making by discussing a series of visualisations, ranging from ancient graphs to plots in academic publications.

This is a hands-on plot making exercise (using Excel, so no programming skills required) that will allow you to practice designing your own plots using the principles to present your work for your research and teaching activities. Participants in this workshop will:

• Understand how to create plots and figures to present their research findings;
• Develop transferable skills that will increase the outreach of their research and/or teaching.

Contributors:

Dr Mengdie Zhuang is a lecturer in Data Science in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield. Her work focuses on understanding how people interact with AI systems in the process of interpreting data and then acquiring information, and how this interaction augments the user experience and influences decision-making. She specialises in using methods from Data Visualization, Machine Learning and HCI.

Important:

• This is an in-person event at The Wave, University of Sheffield (refreshments provided).
• Bookings will close at 9.00am on Monday 9th February.
• When booking, we ask that you use your institutional (.ac.uk) email address and complete all fields of the booking form. Thank you for your understanding.

Please note: The WRDTP is committed to sustainability and to reducing the waste from excess catering at events. A key challenge here is non-attendance at events. From October 1st 2025, the WRDTP will be changing the way we manage the non-attendance of PGR students who have booked place/s at WRDTP Training events. Any PGR student who does not inform the WRDTP (via training@wrdtp.ac.uk) that they will not be able to attend a WRDTP event at least 3 working days before the event takes place will have the cost of their place deducted from their RTSG (if a WRDTP-funded student), or have this charged to their department (if not funded by the WRDTP). This will allow us to better plan for events and to avoid catering waste. Thank you in advance for your cooperation on this matter.