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Contents:

Research Interests

Education

Employment

Publications

Invited Talks

Awards and Honors

Teaching and Students

Contact Info
Cecilia R. Aragon

Staff Scientist
Computational Research Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(510) 486-4106
 

Research Interests

Human-Computer Interaction
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work for Scientific Collaborations
Scientist-Computer Interaction
Visualization and Visual Analytics
 

Education

Ph.D., Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2004;  Advisor: Prof. Marti Hearst
M.S., Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
B.S. with Honors, Mathematics, California Institute of Technology
 

Employment

2005 - present: Staff Scientist, Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California. Research in visualization, analytics, and human-computer interaction with applications to scientific collaborations and large scientific data sets, including supernova image data and other astrophysics data. Software group lead and architect, Sunfall project for the Nearby Supernova Factory.

1996 - 2005: Computer Scientist, Computational Sciences Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. (1996 - 2000: employed by Caelum Research Corp.) Research in human-computer interaction and information and scientific visualization with applications to aerospace. Group lead, Domain Exploration for the Information Design project. Data visualization, 2D/3D graphics and user interface software design and implementation for remote access and scientific collaboration software over very large heterogeneous databases of aeronautical and aerospace data.

1987 - 1996: Software Consultant, Aragon Consulting, Berkeley, California. Software development in 2D and 3D graphics, user interface design, image processing and aerodynamic modeling.

1991 - 1994: Founder and CEO, Top Flight Aviation, Inc., Livermore, California. Founded professional aerobatic flight school. Managed staff of 24, developed aviation curriculum and provided flight instruction at all levels, supervised design and building of aircraft, test flew completed aircraft, performed at airshows and competitions in the U.S. and Europe.

 

Selected Publications

Human-Computer Interaction, Visualization and Analytics

  • "Collaborative analytics for astrophysics explorations," Cecilia R. Aragon, Handbook of Automation, Shimon Y. Nof (ed.), Springer-Verlag, in press (2009).

  • "The impact of usability on large science projects," Cecilia R. Aragon and Sarah S. Poon, Usability and User-Centered Design in Software Development: Case Studies and Real Life Applications, Ann Blandford, Timo Jokela, Tobias Uldall-Espersen, and Erik Frøkjær (eds.), IGI Global, in press (2009).

  • "Using Visual Analytics to Develop Situation Awareness in Astrophysics", Cecilia Aragon, Sarah Poon, Gregory Aldering, Rollin Thomas, Robert Quimby, J. Information Visualization (to appear, 2009).

  • "Context-Linked Intelligent User Interfaces," Sarah S. Poon, Rollin C. Thomas, Cecilia R. Aragon, Brian Lee, Workshop on Human Interaction with Intelligent and Networked Systems, IUI 2009: International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, Sanibel Island, FL (2009).

  • "Workflow Management for High Volume Supernova Search" , Cecilia R. Aragon and Karl J. Runge, ACM SAC 2009: ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, (to appear, 2009).

  • "Context-Linked Virtual Assistants for Distributed Teams: An Astrophysics Case Study" (PDF), Sarah S. Poon, Rollin C. Thomas, Cecilia R. Aragon, Brian Lee, CSCW 2008: ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, San Diego, CA (2008). Best Paper Award Honorable Mention.

  • "Designing Scientific Workflow Management Systems for Data-Intensive Astrophysics Projects", Cecilia R. Aragon and Sarah S. Poon, Designing Cyberinfrastructure to Support Science Workshop, CSCW 2008: ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, San Diego, CA (2008).

  • "Towards Virtual Radical Collocation in Science Projects", Sarah S. Poon and Cecilia R. Aragon, Supporting Distributed Team Work Workshop, CSCW 2008: ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, San Diego, CA (2008)

  • "Using Visual Analytics to Maintain Situational Awareness in Astrophysics" (PDF), Cecilia Aragon, Sarah Poon, Gregory Aldering, Rollin Thomas, Robert Quimby, Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (IEEE VAST), Columbus, OH (2008).

  • "Sunfall: A Collaborative Visual Analytics System for Astrophysics" (PDF), C. Aragon, S. Bailey, S. Poon, K. Runge, R. Thomas, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 125 012091, (2008).

  • "The Impact of Usability on Supernova Discovery," C. Aragon and S. Poon, LBNL-62380, Workshop on Increasing the Impact of Usability Work in Software Development, CHI 2007: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose, CA (2007).

  • "A Fast Contour Descriptor Algorithm for Supernova Image Classification," C. Aragon and D. Aragon, LBNL-61182, SPIE Symposium on Electronic Imaging: Real-Time Image Processing, San Jose, CA (2007).

  • "Sunfall: A Collaborative Visual Analytics System for Astrophysics," C. Aragon, S. Bailey, S. Poon, K. Runge, R. Thomas, IEEE VAST poster, Sacramento, CA (2007) (2-page abstract). Winner of Best Poster Award.

  • "Supernova Recognition using Support Vector Machines," R. Romano, C. Aragon, and C. Ding, LBNL-61192, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of Machine Learning Applications, Orlando, FL (2006). Winner of Best Application Paper Award.

  • "Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: A Flight Simulation Study," C. Aragon and M. Hearst, CHI 2005: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Portland, OR (2005).

  • "Airflow Hazard Visualization for Helicopter Pilots: Flight Simulation Study Results," C. Aragon and K. Long, American Helicopter Society 61st Annual Forum, Grapevine, TX (2005).

  • "Using Visualization in Cockpit Decision Support Systems," C. Aragon, IEEE SMC 2005: Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Hawaii (2005).

  • "Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots," C. Aragon, University of California, Berkeley, Computer Science Ph.D. Dissertation (2004).

  • "Usability Evaluation of a Flight-Deck Airflow Hazard Visualization System," C. Aragon, 23rd IEEE Digital Avionics Systems Conference, Salt Lake City, UT (2004). Winner of Best Student Paper Award.

  • "A Prototype Flight-Deck Airflow Hazard Visualization System," C. Aragon, SAE World Aviation Congress, Reno, NV (2004).

  • "Data Visualization of Invisible Airflow Hazards During Helicopter Landing Operations," C. Aragon, Grace Hopper Conference, Chicago, IL (2004).

  • "Prediction of aerodynamic coefficients for wind tunnel data using a genetic algorithm optimized neural network," T. Rajkumar, C. Aragon, J. Bardina, and R. Britten, Data Mining III, Third International Conference on Data Mining, A. Zanasi, C. Brebbia, N. Ebecken, and P. Melli, eds. (2002) 473-485.

  • "Experimental and Computational Data Analysis in CHARLES and DARWIN," D. Korsmeyer, J. Walton, C. Aragon, A. Shaykevich, L. Chan, ISCA-97, 13th International Conference on Computers and Their Applications (1998).

Astrophysics

  • "Object classification at the Nearby Supernova Factory"   (PDF), S. Bailey, C. Aragon, R. Romano, R. C. Thomas, B. A. Weaver and D. Wong, Astronomische Nachrichten Vol. 329, Issue 3, pp. 292-294 (2008).

  • "Data Taking in a Virtual Control Room: the SNfactory Example," Antilogus, P.; Thomas, R. C.; Aldering, G.; Aragon, C.; Copin, Y.; Gangler, E.; Hornero, E.; Pecontal, A.; Poon, S.; Runge, K.; Scalzo, R.; Bailey, S.; Baltay, C.; Buton, C.; Bongard, S.; Childress, M.; Loken, S.; Nugent, P.; Pain, R.; Pecontal, E.; Pereira, R.; Perlmutter, S.; Rabinowitz, D.; Rigaudier, G.; Smadja, G.; Tao, C.; Wu, C. Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems II. Edited by Brissenden, Roger J.; Silva, David R. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7016, pp. 70161L-70161L-12 (2008).

  • "How to Find More Supernovae with Less Work: Object Classification Techniques for Difference Imaging," S. Bailey, C. Aragon, R. Romano, R. C. Thomas, B. A. Weaver and D. Wong, LBNL-62659, Astrophysical Journal 665:1246T (2007).

  • "Nearby Supernova Factory Observations of SN 2006D: On Sporadic Carbon Signatures in Early Type Ia Supernova Spectra," The Nearby Supernova Factory: R. C. Thomas, G. Aldering, P. Antilogus, C. Aragon, S. Bailey, C. Baltay, E. Baron, A. Bauer, C. Buton, S. Bongard, Y. Copin, E. Gangler, S. Gilles, R. Kessler, S. Loken, P. Nugent, R. Pain, J. Parrent, E. Pecontal, R. Pereira, S. Perlmutter, D. Rabinowitz, G. Rigaudier, K. Runge, R. Scalzo, G. Smadja, L. Wang, B. A. Weaver, LBNL-61745, Astrophysical Journal 654:L53-L56 (2007).

  • "The Nearby Supernova Factory: toward a high-precision spectro-photometry"   (PDF), Copin, Y.; Buton, C.; Gangler, E.; Smadja, G.; Pecontal, E.; Rigaudier, G.; Antilogus, P.; Bailey, S.; Pain, R.; Pereira, R.; Wu, C.; Aldering, G.; Aragon, C.; Bongard, S.; Childress, M.; Loken, S.; Nugent, P.; Perlmutter, S.; Runge, K.; Thomas, R. C.; Weaver, B. A.; Baltay, C.; Bauer, A.; Rabinowitz, D.; Scalzo, R. Proc. of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Grenoble, France (July 2007).

  • "The Supernova Integral Field Spectrograph: keys to high-precision spectro-photometry"   (PDF), Buton, C.; Copin, Y.; Gangler, E.; Smadja, G.; Pecontal, E.; Rigaudier, G.; Antilogus, P.; Bailey, S.; Pain, R.; Pereira, R.; Wu, C.; Aldering, G.; Aragon, C.; Bongard, S.; Childress, M.; Loken, S.; Nugent, P.; Perlmutter, S.; Runge, K.; Thomas, R. C.; Weaver, B. A.; Baltay, C.; Bauer, A.; Rabinowitz, D.; Scalzo, R. Proc. of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Grenoble, France (July 2007).

  • List of all astrophysics publications from ADS, the Astrophysics Data System.

 

Theoretical Computer Science

Scientific Visualization and Simulation

  • "Automated Analysis for Detecting Beams in Laser Wakefield Simulations," Daniela Ushizima, Oliver Ruebel, Prabhat, Gunther Weber, E. Wes Bethel, Cecilia Aragon, Cameron Geddes, Estelle Cormier-Michel, Bernd Hamann, Peter Messmer, Hans Hagen. Seventh International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, Proceedings of IEEE ICMLA'08, 2008.

  • "Seeing the Unseeable," E. Wes Bethel, Chris Johnson, Charles Hansen, Claudio Silva, Steven Parker, Allen Sanderson, Lee Myers, Martin Cole, Xavier Tricoche, Sean Ahern, George Ostrouchov, Dave Pugmire, Jamison Daniel, Jeremy Meredith, Valerio Pascucci, Hank Childs, Peer-Timo Bremer, Ajith Mascarenhas, Ken Joy, Bernd Hamann, Christoph Garth, Cecilia Aragon, Gunther Weber, and Prabhat. SciDAC Review, Number 8, Summer 2008.

  • "DOE's SciDAC Visualization and Analytics Center for Enabling Technologies - Strategy for Petascale Visual Data Analysis Success," Bethel, E. W., Johnson, C., Aragon, C., Prabhat, Ruebel, O., Weber, G., Pascucci, V., Childs, H., Bremer, P.-T., Whitlock, B., Ahern, S., Meredith, J., Ostrouchov, G., Joy, K., Hamann, B., Garth, C., Cole, M., Hansen, C., Parker, S., Sanderson, A., Silva, C., Tricoche, X. CTWatch Quarterly, Volume 3, Number 4, November 2007.

  • "A Unified Approach to Building Accelerator Simulation Software for the SSC," V. Paxson, C. Aragon, S. Peggs, C. Saltmarsh, L. Schachinger, Proc. 1989 IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference (1989).

 

 

Presentations

  • Panel on Selling Your Ideas: Developing Computer Science Research Funding, CAHSI Annual Meeting, Mountain View, CA (Jan. 2009).

  • Facilitating Scientific Insight with Sunfall, CITRIS Research Exchange Seminar Series, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (Nov. 19, 2008).

  • Visual Analytics for Collaborative Astrophysics Experiments, Purdue University Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series, West Lafayette, IN (Nov. 4, 2008).

  • Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab, Berkeley Edge Conference, University of California, Berkeley (October 2008).

  • Facilitating Scientific Insight with Collaborative Software Tools, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA (October 2008).

  • Sunfall and Collaborative Visual Analytics, IEEE VisWeek Workshop on Immersive Interfaces, Columbus, OH (October 2008).

  • How to Deploy a Lightweight Context-Linked Event Notification System to Reduce Uncertainty in Time-sensitive, Cross-cultural Scientific Collaborations, Collaborative Expedition Workshop, NSF, Ballston, VA (August 19, 2008).

  • Sunfall: A Collaborative Workflow Management System for the Nearby Supernova Factory, SNAP Collaboration Computing Meeting, Fermilab, Batavia, IL (July 2008).

  • Sunfall: A Collaborative Workflow Management System for the Nearby Supernova Factory, SciDAC conference, Seattle, WA (July 2008).

  • Sunfall: A Collaborative Visual Analytics System for Astrophysics, Advanced Computing for Science Department Meeting, LBNL (July 2008).

  • Sunfall: Visual Analytics for Astrophysics, CAHSI Lecture Series, Univ. of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX (Apr. 2008).

  • SpectraVis: Visualization and Analytics for Physics and Astrophysics, VACET All-Hands Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT (Apr. 2008).

  • SpectraVis: Visualization and Analytics for Astrophysics, SciDAC Computational Astrophysics Consortium Meeting, SLAC, Menlo Park, CA (Apr. 2008).

  • Women in College of Engineering Leadership Retreat, Fresno State University, Fresno, CA (Apr. 2008).

  • High Performance Computing at Berkeley Lab, Berkeley Edge Program, UC Berkeley, CA (Mar. 2008).

  • Sunfall: A Visual Analytics System for Astrophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (Feb. 2008).

  • Sunfall: A Visual Analytics System for Astrophysics, UCB BEARS research symposium, CSE session, Berkeley, CA (Feb. 2008).

  • Panel on Challenges and Opportunities on Strengthening Competitiveness, CAHSI Annual Meeting, Miami, FL (Dec. 2007).

  • SpectraVis: Visualization and Analytics for Supernova Spectra, VACET Meeting, IEEE Vis 2007 (Nov. 2007).

  • SC 07 Broader Engagement panel on careers in supercomputing, SC 07, Reno, NV (Oct. 2007).

  • Presentation on overcoming obstacles in getting a PhD in computer science, Grace Hopper conference, Orlando, FL (Oct. 2007). Most highly-rated presentation at the conference.

  • Overview of NERSC Analytics Program, NERSC, Oakland, CA (Sep. 2007).

  • Sunfall: NERSC Analytics for Astrophysics Users, NERSC, Oakland, CA (Sep. 2007).

  • Visualization Research at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (Jun. 2007).

  • High-Volume Supernova Search Image Processing Techniques, Astronomy Visualization Workshop, San Diego, CA (Nov. 2006).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, DOE Computer Graphics Forum, Monterey, CA (May 2006).

  • LBNL Analytics Support for Astrophysics: The Nearby Supernova Factory, DOE Computer Graphics Forum, Monterey, CA (May 2006).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (Jun. 2005).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA (Apr. 2005).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA (Mar. 2005).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA (Mar. 2005).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (Mar. 2005).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, Aerospace Engineering Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (Mar. 2005).

  • Improving Aviation Safety with Information Visualization: Airflow Hazard Display for Helicopter Pilots, Computational Sciences Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA (Feb. 2005).

  • Making the Invisible Visible: Augmented-Reality Airflow Hazard Visualization for Pilots, Adaptive Displays Conference, SIGGRAPH 2004, Los Angeles, CA (Aug. 2004).

 

 

Awards and Honors

  • Best Paper Award Honorable Mention, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2008
  • Best Poster Award, IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology, 2007
  • Most Highly Rated Presentation, Grace Hopper Conference, 2007
  • Best Application Paper Award, 5th International Conference of Machine Learning Applications, 2006
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Spot Awards, multiple years
  • Best Student Paper Award, 23rd IEEE Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 2004
  • Eugene L. Lawler Award, 2004
  • U.S. patent pending for video image stabilization system (UnshakerTM)
  • NASA Space Act Award (twice)
  • Bell Laboratories Graduate Fellowship
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship (declined)
  • Tau Beta Pi - Engineering Honor Society
  • United States Aerobatic Team (twice)

 

Teaching

Instructor, 8th Grade Honors Algebra, Berkeley, CA, Sept. 2007 - June 2008.

Co-Instructor, Industrial Design and Human Factors, IEOR 170 (upper division engineering course with enrollment of 60 juniors and seniors), University of California, Berkeley, Spring 2006.

Certificated Flight Instructor, Oakland, Livermore, and Tracy Airports, over 2400 hours of flight instruction given, over 3000 hours of ground instruction given, 1987 - 2008.

Teaching Assistant, Computer Graphics, CS 284 (graduate computer science course), University of California, Berkeley, 1984.

Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Computer Science, CS 1 (freshman introductory computer programming course), University of California, Berkeley, 1983.

Students

Former students:
Wayne Ryan
Elena Caraba
Sarah Poon
Adarsh Uppula
Daniel Wong

Research programs for undergraduates:

 


Contact Info

Cecilia R. Aragon
Computational Research Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
One Cyclotron Road, MS 50B-2239
Berkeley, California 94720

(510) 486-4106 (tel)
(510) 486-5812 (fax)

Projects and Groups:
Advanced Computing for Science
Visualization Group
Nearby Supernova Factory
NERSC Analytics
Deep Sky
Particle Data Group