The ACCES visualization contest rewarded digital projects presented in images

Sarah Aubort in EPFL Magazine n° 15, March 2018, adapted and translated from French

Organized by ACCES, the EPFL platform for Application-Centered Computational Engineering Science, and supported by MARVEL, the second edition of the ACCES visualization contest rewarded digital projects presented in images (static, dynamic or interactive). Twenty-nine participants, all students, PhD students or postdocs from EPFL, presented the result of a work integrating concepts of computational thinking. The participants were judged according to three criteria: the first one encompasses creativity, clarity and aesthetics; the second one, the visual communication of science, and the third one, the use of computational thinking.

"Our goal was to develop the pedagogical aspect of the contest. We wanted to push the students to think about the tools of computational thinking and on the impact of developing their visual communication skills on their careers," says Mark Sawley, senior scientist and coordinator of the contest. The aim was to make participants aware of the importance of communication though images. "As researchers and engineers, it is essential to show our work to the public in a clear and interesting way," emphasized Nicola Marzari, president of ACCES and director of the NCCR MARVEL, co-organizer of the contest.

All the projects were exhibited from 26 February until 21 March at EPFL. They are still visible on the ACCES website.

ACCES Visualisation Contest 2017 — left: Sandip De, MARVEL member, won the first prize in the "interactive" category with his work representing atomic structures thanks to virtual reality (© Nathalie Jongen / MARVEL); right: exhibition of the projects at EPFL (© MARVEL)

The winners of this edition are:

For the “static” category:

• 1^st prize : Michele Simoncelli, "Molecular dynamics in a supercapacitor"
• 2^nd prize: Vytautas Navikas, "Ion channel clustering"
• 3^rd prize: Jonathan Rafael-Patino, "From particle dynamics simulations to a magnetic resonance signal"

For the “dynamic” category:

• 1^st prize: Sina Shamsoddin, "Flow through a vertical axis wind turbine farm"
• 2^nd prize: Enrico Milanese, "Akantu through time"
• 3^rd prize: Sebastian Leguizamon, "A multiscale model of hydroabrasive erosion"

For the “interactive” category:

• 1^st prize: Sandip De, "Interactive virtual reality visualization of atomic structure data"
• 2^nd prize: Quentin De Longraye, Victor Le et Aymen Gannoumi, "DataMoviz - Deep into the movie scene"
• 3^rd prize: Raphaël Steinmann, Semion Sidorenko et Alain Milliet, "Evolution of nuclear experiments on our planet"

A special mention for the use of computational thinking was awarded to Sebastian Leguizamon.