Scientific Publications

2020
5.		Aizstrauts, Artis; Burkhardt, Dirk; Ginters, Egils; Nazemi, Kawa On Microservice Architecture Based Communication Environment for Cycling Map Developing and Maintenance Simulator Proceedings Article In: Grabis, Janis; Romanovs, Andrejs; Kulesova, Galina (Ed.): 2020 61st International Scientific Conference on Information Technology and Management Science of Riga Technical University (ITMS), pp. 1-4, IEEE, 2020, ISBN: 978-1-7281-9105-8. Abstract \| Links \| BibTeX \| Tags: Easy Communication Environment, microservice architecture, Simulation @inproceedings{Aizstrauts2020b, title = {On Microservice Architecture Based Communication Environment for Cycling Map Developing and Maintenance Simulator}, author = {Artis Aizstrauts and Dirk Burkhardt and Egils Ginters and Kawa Nazemi}, editor = {Janis Grabis and Andrejs Romanovs and Galina Kulesova}, url = {https://dirk.burkhardt.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020itms-iii.pdf, Paper as PDF}, doi = {10.1109/ITMS51158.2020.9259299}, isbn = {978-1-7281-9105-8}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-11-19}, booktitle = {2020 61st International Scientific Conference on Information Technology and Management Science of Riga Technical University (ITMS)}, pages = {1-4}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {Urban transport infrastructure nowadays involves environmentally friendly modes of transport, the most democratic of which is cycling. Citizens will use bicycles if a reasonably designed cycle path scheme will be provided. Cyclists also need to know the characteristics and load of the planned route before the trip. Prediction can be provided by simulation, but it is often necessary to use heterogeneous and distributed models that require a specific communication environment to ensure interaction. The article describes the easy communication environment that is used to provide microservices communication and data exchange in a bicycle route design and maintenance multi-level simulator.}, keywords = {Easy Communication Environment, microservice architecture, Simulation}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {inproceedings} } Close Urban transport infrastructure nowadays involves environmentally friendly modes of transport, the most democratic of which is cycling. Citizens will use bicycles if a reasonably designed cycle path scheme will be provided. Cyclists also need to know the characteristics and load of the planned route before the trip. Prediction can be provided by simulation, but it is often necessary to use heterogeneous and distributed models that require a specific communication environment to ensure interaction. The article describes the easy communication environment that is used to provide microservices communication and data exchange in a bicycle route design and maintenance multi-level simulator. Close Paper as PDF doi:10.1109/ITMS51158.2020.9259299 Close
2015
4.		Burkhardt, Dirk; Nazemi, Kawa; Ginters, Egils Best-Practice Piloting Based on an Integrated Social Media Analysis and Visualization for E-Participation Simulation in Cities Journal Article In: Procedia Computer Science. 2015 International Conference Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, vol. 75, pp. 66 - 74, 2015, ISSN: 1877-0509. Abstract \| Links \| BibTeX \| Tags: e-Participation, Policy Making, Semantic Visualization, Simulation @article{Burkhardt2015c, title = {Best-Practice Piloting Based on an Integrated Social Media Analysis and Visualization for E-Participation Simulation in Cities}, author = {Dirk Burkhardt and Kawa Nazemi and Egils Ginters}, editor = {Eduardo González Mendívil and Pablo Guillermo Ramírez Flores and Jorge Martín Gutiérrez and Egils Ginters}, url = {https://dirk.burkhardt.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2015vare-ii.pdf, Paper as PDF}, doi = {10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.214}, issn = {1877-0509}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-11-19}, journal = {Procedia Computer Science. 2015 International Conference Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education}, volume = {75}, pages = {66 - 74}, abstract = {E-Participation and the engagement of citizens in politics are on the agenda in many countries. Therefore, a number of project and programs were initiated that aim at finding creative and effective solutions for involving citizens. One intended aspect is the provision of transparency that enables citizens to analyze socio-economical indicators and serves as basement for initial data storing for e-participation scenarios simulation. A beyond going step is to consider citizens’ opinions in the policy making process. Unfortunately this will only be possible; if a significant number of citizens know what concrete aspect should be realized. The growth and establishment of social media nowadays allow most people to discuss political ideas and critics virtually and anonymously achieving higher credibility of the data usable for policy making. However, the major barrier is the different topical languages, the representatives’ role and weak visualization of the results. This article dealt with a best-practice piloting approach for discussing and realizing innovative solutions with a variety of stakeholders from different domains. The core of this paper is how to deal and manage the different perspective on development process, to aim on designing a common set of requirements and development procedure. The methodology is practically and beneficial applied as social media integration solution in the EC FP7 FUPOL research project.}, keywords = {e-Participation, Policy Making, Semantic Visualization, Simulation}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Close E-Participation and the engagement of citizens in politics are on the agenda in many countries. Therefore, a number of project and programs were initiated that aim at finding creative and effective solutions for involving citizens. One intended aspect is the provision of transparency that enables citizens to analyze socio-economical indicators and serves as basement for initial data storing for e-participation scenarios simulation. A beyond going step is to consider citizens’ opinions in the policy making process. Unfortunately this will only be possible; if a significant number of citizens know what concrete aspect should be realized. The growth and establishment of social media nowadays allow most people to discuss political ideas and critics virtually and anonymously achieving higher credibility of the data usable for policy making. However, the major barrier is the different topical languages, the representatives’ role and weak visualization of the results. This article dealt with a best-practice piloting approach for discussing and realizing innovative solutions with a variety of stakeholders from different domains. The core of this paper is how to deal and manage the different perspective on development process, to aim on designing a common set of requirements and development procedure. The methodology is practically and beneficial applied as social media integration solution in the EC FP7 FUPOL research project. Close Paper as PDF doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.214 Close
3.		Nazemi, Kawa; Burkhardt, Dirk; Ginters, Egils; Kohlhammer, Jorn Semantics Visualization – Definition, Approaches and Challenges Journal Article In: Procedia Computer Science. 2015 International Conference Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, vol. 75, pp. 75 - 83, 2015, ISSN: 1877-0509. Abstract \| Links \| BibTeX \| Tags: Semantic Visualization, Simulation, Virtualization, Visualization @article{NAZEMI201575, title = {Semantics Visualization – Definition, Approaches and Challenges}, author = {Kawa Nazemi and Dirk Burkhardt and Egils Ginters and Jorn Kohlhammer}, editor = {Eduardo González Mendívil and Pablo Guillermo Ramírez Flores and Jorge Martín Gutiérrez and Egils Ginters}, url = {https://dirk.burkhardt.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2015vare-i.pdf, Paper as PDF}, doi = {10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.216}, issn = {1877-0509}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-11-19}, journal = {Procedia Computer Science. 2015 International Conference Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education}, volume = {75}, pages = {75 - 83}, abstract = {The visualization of the simulation results must be done in conformity with beneficiaries perception and professional domain understanding. It means that right data must be identified before. Semantic technologies provide new ways for accessing data and acquiring knowledge. The underlying structures allow finding information easier, gathering meanings and associations of the data entities and associating the data to users’ knowledge. Even though the focus of the research in this area is more to provide “machine readable” data, human-centered systems benefit from the technologies too. Especially graphical representations of the semantically structured data play a key-role in today's research. The meaningful relations of data entities and the meaningful and labeled clustering of data in form of semantic concepts enable new ways to visualize data. With these new ways, various challenges are related with deploying semantics visualizations beyond analytical search and simulation. The goal is to give a common understanding of the term semantics as it is used in semantic web. This paper dealt with the general idea of semantics visualization. First a short introduction to semantic formalisms is given followed by a general definition. Subsequently approaches and techniques of existing semantics visualizations are presented, where-as a new classification is introduced to describe the techniques. The article concludes with future challenges in semantics visualization focusing on users, data and tasks.}, keywords = {Semantic Visualization, Simulation, Virtualization, Visualization}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Close The visualization of the simulation results must be done in conformity with beneficiaries perception and professional domain understanding. It means that right data must be identified before. Semantic technologies provide new ways for accessing data and acquiring knowledge. The underlying structures allow finding information easier, gathering meanings and associations of the data entities and associating the data to users’ knowledge. Even though the focus of the research in this area is more to provide “machine readable” data, human-centered systems benefit from the technologies too. Especially graphical representations of the semantically structured data play a key-role in today's research. The meaningful relations of data entities and the meaningful and labeled clustering of data in form of semantic concepts enable new ways to visualize data. With these new ways, various challenges are related with deploying semantics visualizations beyond analytical search and simulation. The goal is to give a common understanding of the term semantics as it is used in semantic web. This paper dealt with the general idea of semantics visualization. First a short introduction to semantic formalisms is given followed by a general definition. Subsequently approaches and techniques of existing semantics visualizations are presented, where-as a new classification is introduced to describe the techniques. The article concludes with future challenges in semantics visualization focusing on users, data and tasks. Close Paper as PDF doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.216 Close
2.		Burkhardt, Dirk; Nazemi, Kawa; Ginters, Egils; Aizstrauts, Artis; Kohlhammer, Jörn Explorative Visualization of Impact Analysis for Policy Modeling by Bonding Open Government and Simulation Data Proceedings Article In: Yamamoto, Sakae (Ed.): Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Knowledge Design, pp. 34–45, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2015, ISBN: 978-3-319-20612-7. Abstract \| Links \| BibTeX \| Tags: Decision Making, Impact Analysis, Information Visualization, Open Government Data, Policy Modeling, Simulation, Visual Analysis @inproceedings{Burkhardt2015, title = {Explorative Visualization of Impact Analysis for Policy Modeling by Bonding Open Government and Simulation Data}, author = {Dirk Burkhardt and Kawa Nazemi and Egils Ginters and Artis Aizstrauts and Jörn Kohlhammer}, editor = {Sakae Yamamoto}, url = {https://dirk.burkhardt.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2015hcii.pdf, Paper as PDF http://2015.hci.international, Conference Site}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-20612-7_4}, isbn = {978-3-319-20612-7}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-08-02}, booktitle = {Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Knowledge Design}, volume = {9172}, pages = {34--45}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Switzerland}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9172}, abstract = {Problem identification and solution finding are major challenges in policy modeling. Statistical indicator-data build the foundation for most of the required analysis work. In particular finding effective and efficient policies that solve an existing political problem is critical, since the forecast validation of the effectiveness is quite difficult. Simulation technologies can help to identify optimal policies for solutions, but nowadays many of such simulators are stand-alone technologies. In this paper we introduce a new visualization approach to enable the coupling of statistical indicator data from Open Government Data sources with simulators and especially simulation result data with the goal to provide an enhanced impact analysis for political analysts and decision makers. This allows, amongst others a more intuitive and effective way of solution finding.}, keywords = {Decision Making, Impact Analysis, Information Visualization, Open Government Data, Policy Modeling, Simulation, Visual Analysis}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {inproceedings} } Close Problem identification and solution finding are major challenges in policy modeling. Statistical indicator-data build the foundation for most of the required analysis work. In particular finding effective and efficient policies that solve an existing political problem is critical, since the forecast validation of the effectiveness is quite difficult. Simulation technologies can help to identify optimal policies for solutions, but nowadays many of such simulators are stand-alone technologies. In this paper we introduce a new visualization approach to enable the coupling of statistical indicator data from Open Government Data sources with simulators and especially simulation result data with the goal to provide an enhanced impact analysis for political analysts and decision makers. This allows, amongst others a more intuitive and effective way of solution finding. Close Paper as PDF Conference Site doi:10.1007/978-3-319-20612-7_4 Close
2014
1.		Ginters, Egils; Aizstrauts, Artis; Baltruks, Mikelis; Nazemi, Kawa; Burkhardt, Dirk; Sonntagbauer, Peter; Sonntagbauer, Susanne; Gutierrez, Jorge Martin Fupol Simulators and Advanced Visualization Framework Integration Proceedings Article In: Affenzeller, Michael (Ed.): 26th European Modeling and Simulation Symposium, EMSS 2014: Held at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference, pp. 523–529, International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference (I3M) Curran, Red Hook, NY, , 2014, ISBN: 978-1-63439-314-0. Abstract \| Links \| BibTeX \| Tags: Policy Modeling, SemaVis, Simulation, Visualization @inproceedings{Ginters2014, title = {Fupol Simulators and Advanced Visualization Framework Integration}, author = {Egils Ginters and Artis Aizstrauts and Mikelis Baltruks and Kawa Nazemi and Dirk Burkhardt and Peter Sonntagbauer and Susanne Sonntagbauer and Jorge Martin Gutierrez}, editor = {Michael Affenzeller}, url = {https://dirk.burkhardt.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2014emss.pdf, Paper as PDF http://www.msc-les.org/conf/emss2014/, Conference Site}, isbn = {978-1-63439-314-0}, year = {2014}, date = {2014-09-20}, booktitle = {26th European Modeling and Simulation Symposium, EMSS 2014: Held at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference}, pages = {523--529}, publisher = {Curran}, address = {Red Hook, NY, }, organization = {International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference (I3M)}, abstract = {FP7 FUPOL project No.287119 (see www.fupol.eu) aims at a new approach to traditional politics modeling. The FUPOL will be able to automatically collect, analyze and interpret opinions expressed on a large scale from the Internet and social networks. This will enable governments to gain a better understanding of the needs of citizens. Likewise the software will have the capabilities to simulate the effects of policies and laws and to assist governments in the whole policy design process. Basic visualization of the simulation results are supported by the simulators however visualization facilities are limited, therefore for detailed visual analysis of simulation data SemasVis environment is used.}, keywords = {Policy Modeling, SemaVis, Simulation, Visualization}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {inproceedings} } Close FP7 FUPOL project No.287119 (see www.fupol.eu) aims at a new approach to traditional politics modeling. The FUPOL will be able to automatically collect, analyze and interpret opinions expressed on a large scale from the Internet and social networks. This will enable governments to gain a better understanding of the needs of citizens. Likewise the software will have the capabilities to simulate the effects of policies and laws and to assist governments in the whole policy design process. Basic visualization of the simulation results are supported by the simulators however visualization facilities are limited, therefore for detailed visual analysis of simulation data SemasVis environment is used. Close Paper as PDF Conference Site Close