About Us

Following the recent development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, there have been growing research interests and opportunities in applying AI to enhance data visualizations and enrich the way people engage with data.

We, the AI4VIS research team in HKUST VisLab, are exploring AI-powered techniques for modelling, authoring, analysing, and interacting with data visualizations. In vision of formalizing visualizations as an emerging data format, we apply advanced AI techniques to visualizations. We have diverse research interests such as visualization recommendation, information extraction from visualizations and automated layouting.

News

  • WaitGPT was accepted in ACM UIST!
  • One paper was accepted in IEEE VIS! Check out to learn how good are VLM in detecting misleading vis?
  • Congrats to Haotian for winning the Honorable Mention Award at ACM CHI 2024!
  • Check out on our 4 accepted papers for CHI’2024 :-D
  • Wakey-Wakey was accepted in ACM UIST! Make your cute animated text XD
  • InkSight was accepted in IEEE VIS! Start to document your findings with ease!
  • DMiner was accepted in IEEE TVCG! Read more about dashboard mining.
  • Notable was accepted in ACM CHI.

    • Articles

    2024

    Inferring Visualization Intent from Conversation

    Haotian Li*, Nithin Chalapathi*, Huamin Qu, Alvin Cheung, Aditya G Parameswaran
    Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM). 2024. — Collaborated Project
    DOI

    Data Playwright: Authoring Data Videos with Annotated Narration

    Leixian Shen, Haotian Li, Yun Wang, Tianqi Luo, Yuyu Luo, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2024.
    DOI arXiv Website

    WaitGPT: Monitoring and Steering Conversational LLM Agent in Data Analysis with On-the-Fly Code Visualization

    Liwenhan Xie, Chengbo Zheng, Haijun Xia, Huamin Qu, Chen Zhu-Tian
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST). 2024.
    DOI arXiv Website Video Talk

    How Good (Or Bad) Are LLMs at Detecting Misleading Visualizations?

    Leo Yu-Ho Lo, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proc. VIS). 2024.
    DOI arXiv

    PyGWalker: On-the-fly Assistant for Exploratory Visual Data Analysis

    Yue Yu, Leixian Shen, Fei Long, Huamin Qu, Hao Chen
    Proceedings of the IEEE Visualization Conference (Proc. Vis). 2024. — Short Paper
    arXiv Code

    From Data to Story: Towards Automatic Animated Data Video Creation with LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems

    Leixian Shen, Haotian Li, Yun Wang, Huamin Qu
    Companion Workshop in IEEE VIS Conference on Data Storytelling in an Era of Generative AI (Gen4DS). 2024.
    arXiv

    Reviving Static Charts into Live Charts

    Lu Ying, Yun Wang, Haotian Li, Shuguang Dou, Haidong Zhang, Xinyang Jiang, Huamin Qu, Yingcai Wu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2024. — Collaborated Project
    DOI arXiv

    Where Are We So Far? Understanding Data Storytelling Tools from the Perspective of Human-AI Collaboration

    Haotian Li, Yun Wang, Huamin Qu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2024.
    Best Paper Honorable Mention
    DOI arXiv Website Talk

    OutlineSpark: Igniting AI-powered Presentation Slides Creation from Computational Notebooks through Outlines

    Fengjie Wang, Yanna Lin, Leni Yang, Haotian Li, Mingyang Gu, Min Zhu, Huamin Qu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2024.
    DOI arXiv Video

    VAID: Indexing View Designs in Visual Analytics System

    Lu Ying, Aoyu Wu, Haotian Li, Zikun Deng, Ji Lan, Jiang Wu, Huamin Qu, Dazhen Deng, Yingcai Wu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2024. — Collaborated Project
    DOI arXiv Website

    Understanding Nonlinear Collaboration between Human and AI Agents: A Co-design Framework for Creative Designs

    Jiayi Zhou, Renzhong Li, Junxiu Tang, Tan Tang, Haotian Li, Weiwei Cui, Yingcai Wu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2024. — Collaborated Project
    DOI arXiv

    2023

    Wakey-Wakey: Animate Text by Mimicking Characters in a GIF

    Liwenhan Xie, Zhaoyu Zhou, Kerun Yu, Yun Wang, Huamin Qu, Siming Chen
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST). 2023.
    DOI arXiv Talk Code

    InkSight: Leveraging Sketch Interaction for Documenting Chart Findings in Computational Notebooks

    Yanna Lin, Haotian Li, Leni Yang, Aoyu Wu, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proc. VIS). 2023.
    DOI arXiv Talk

    OldVisOnline: Curating a Dataset of Historical Visualizations

    Yu Zhang, Ruike Jiang, Liwenhan Xie, Yuheng Zhao, Can Liu, Tianhong Ding, Siming Chen, Xiaoru Yuan
    IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proc. VIS). 2023. — Collaborated Project
    DOI arXiv Website Talk Code

    AdaVis: Adaptive and Explainable Visualization Recommendation for Tabular Data

    Songheng Zhang, Haotian Li, Huamin Qu, Yong Wang
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2023. — Collaborated Project
    DOI arXiv

    Why is AI not a Panacea for Data Workers? An Interview Study on Human-AI Collaboration in Data Storytelling

    Haotian Li, Yun Wang, Q. Vera Liao, Huamin Qu
    arXiv Preprint (arXiv). 2023.
    arXiv

    DMiner: Dashboard Design Mining and Recommendation

    Yanna Lin, Haotian Li, Aoyu Wu, Yong Wang, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2023.
    DOI arXiv Talk

    Notable: On-the-fly Assistant for Data Storytelling in Computational Notebooks

    Haotian Li, Lu Ying, Haidong Zhang, Yingcai Wu, Huamin Qu, Yun Wang
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2023.
    DOI arXiv Talk

    2022

    Structure-aware Visualization Retrieval

    Haotian Li, Yong Wang, Aoyu Wu, Huan Wei, Huamin Qu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2022.
    Best Paper Honorable Mention
    DOI arXiv Talk

    ComputableViz: Mathematical Operators as a Formalism for Visualization Processing and Analysis

    Aoyu Wu, Wai Tong, Haotian Li, Dominik Moritz, Yong Wang, Huamin Qu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2022.
    DOI arXiv Talk

    DashBot: Insight-Driven Dashboard Generation Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

    Dazhen Deng, Aoyu Wu, Huamin Qu, Yingcai Wu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2022. — Collaborated Project
    DOI arXiv Talk

    2021

    AI4VIS: Survey on Artificial Intelligence Approaches for Data Visualization

    Aoyu Wu, Yun Wang, Xinhuan Shu, Dominik Moritz, Weiwei Cui, Haidong Zhang, Dongmei Zhang, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2021.
    DOI arXiv Website Talk Slides

    MultiVision: Designing Analytical Dashboards with Deep Learning Based Recommendation

    Aoyu Wu, Yun Wang, Mengyu Zhou, Xinyi He, Haidong Zhang, Huamin Qu, Dongmei Zhang
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2021.
    DOI arXiv Code

    KG4Vis: A Knowledge Graph-Based Approach for Visualization Recommendation

    Haotian Li, Yong Wang, Songheng Zhang, Yangqiu Song, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2021.
    Best Paper Honorable Mention in IEEE VIS Conference
    DOI arXiv Website

    InfoColorizer: Interactive Recommendation of Color Palettes for Infographics

    Linping Yuan, Ziqi Zhou, Jian Zhao, Yiqiu Guo, Fan Du, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2021.
    DOI arXiv Website Video

    Deep Colormap Extraction from Visualizations

    Linping Yuan, Wei Zeng, Siwei Fu, Zhiliang Zeng, Haotian Li, Chi-Wing Fu, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2021.
    DOI arXiv Website

    Learning to Automate Chart Layout Configurations Using Crowdsourced Paired Comparison

    Aoyu Wu, Liwenhan Xie, Bongshin Lee, Yun Wang, Weiwei Cui, Huamin Qu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2021.
    DOI arXiv Talk Code

    2020

    MobileVisFixer: Tailoring Web Visualizations for Mobile Phones Leveraging an Explainable Reinforcement Learning Framework

    Aoyu Wu, Wai Tong, Tim Dwyer, Bongshin Lee, Petra Isenberg, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2020.
    DOI arXiv Video

    Augmenting Static Visualizations with PapARVis Designer

    Zhutian Chen, Wai Tong, Qianwen Wang, Benjamin Bach, Huamin Qu
    Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2020.
    DOI PDF Talk

    2019

    LassoNet: Deep Lasso-Selection of 3D Point Clouds

    Zhutian Chen, Wei Zeng, Zhiguang Yang, Lingyun Yu, Chi-Wing Fu, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2019.
    DOI arXiv Website Talk

    DeepDrawing: A Deep Learning Approach to Graph Drawing

    Yong Wang, Zhihua Jin, Qianwen Wang, Weiwei Cui, Tengfei Ma, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2019.
    DOI arXiv Talk

    Towards Automated Infographic Design: Deep Learning-based Auto-Generation of Extensible Timeline

    Zhutian Chen, Yun Wang, Qianwen Wang, Yong Wang, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Transaction on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). 2019.
    DOI arXiv Website Video

    2018

    Evaluating the Readability of Force Directed Graph Layouts: A Deep Learning Approach

    Hammad Haleem, Yong Wang, Abishek Puri, Sahil Wadhwa, Huamin Qu
    IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (CGA). 2018.
    DOI arXiv

    Current Members

    Prof. Huamin Qu
    PI
    Linping Yuan
    RAP
    Yanna Lin
    Postdoc
    Liwenhan Xie
    PhD Candidate
    Yuzhe Jiang
    PhD Candidate
    Leixian Shen
    PhD Student
    Yue Yu
    MPhil Student

    Alumni

    Loann Giovannangeli
    Uni. Bordeaux
    AP
    Leo Yu-Ho Lo
    TBA
    Haotian Li
    MSRA
    Researcher
    Wai Tong
    TAMU
    AP
    Aoyu Wu
    Harvard
    Postdoc
    Xinhuan Shu
    Newcastle Univ.
    AP
    Qianwen Wang
    UMN
    AP
    Chen Zhu-Tian
    UMN
    AP
    Yun Wang
    MSRA
    Senior Researcher
    Yong Wang
    NTU
    AP
    Weiwei Cui
    MSRA
    Senior Researcher

    Collaborators

    Grants & Funding

    "An Integrated Framework for Extracting and Utilizing Information from Data Visualizations in Digital Documents", awarded by Hong Kong Research Grants Concil — General Research Fund: 16210722 (1,039,978 HKD).