About Me

A headshot of Andreas Bueckle

Hi, Andreas here.

I am the Research Lead in the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington (and affiliated with the Luddy Data Science Program). My research interest is interactive information visualization in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other immersive techniques. Born and raised in Germany, I hold a B.A. in Media Studies from Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, an M.A. in Communications from Berlin University of the Arts, and a Ph.D. in Information Science from Indiana University. From early on, I developed a deep interest in digital artifacts, most notably videography and photography. After working as a video journalist and cameraman on projects in Germany, France, India, and the US, I decided to switch to a more technical education and started to pursue and finish my Ph.D. in Information Science, working with Dr. Katy Börner at Indiana University Bloomington.

I have a TEDx talk titled “Living and Learning in the Metaverse,” which you can view on YouTube and on the TED website.

I received an NIH JumpStart Award (2023-2024) for our work on the HRA Organ Gallery (with Lu Chen from Stony Brook University). More information about the JumpStart program: https://hubmapconsortium.org/jumpstart-program. As part of the award, we organized a hackathon with the Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch (BCBB) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

I will serve as co-chair of the planning committee for the NIH-CZI Junior Investigators Atlas Builders Meeting 2025 (details forthcoming). Previously, I served as co-chair of the planning committee and as lead of the Workshop Working Group for the for the NIH-CZI Junior Investigators Atlas Builders Meeting in North Bethesda, MD, March 17-19, 2024. Preceding this, I served on the organizing committee for the NIH Junior Investigators Meeting in NYC, March 1-3, 2023.

Additionally, I am leading a workshop at the International Society for Informetrics and Scientometrics (ISSI) Conference titled “Show me in VR? A Workshop on Visualizing Network Data in Virtual Reality,” Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 2023. Register here: https://cns-iu.github.io/workshops/2023-07-02-issi-vr-workshop

My responsibilities as the Research Lead entail:

  • Lead the Center’s human-subject research and development projects in the areas of data visualization, virtual/augmented reality, and human-computer interaction (primary)
    • Provide research and technical expertise as well as supervision for the design, setup, and implementation of human subject studies with the goal of producing publications on these user studies in scientific outlets while ensuring compliance with the University’s policies on human-subject research.
    • Engage in research and development involving augmented/virtual reality technology as needed for ongoing or new CNS projects to expand the range of the Center’s potential foci of research and sources of funding
    • Research the state of the art in areas related to data visualization, human-computer interaction, and virtual/augmented reality.
    • Participate in the development of new data visualization services and standards
    • Serve as a consultant in assisting with data visualization needs of faculty, staff, and students
    • Organize research events at CNS, including a biweekly talk series called CNS Research Showcase
    • Organize weekly virtual writing hours for CNS
    • Lead the paper production at CNS and serve as hub for best practices for scientific writing, citation management, handling of IRB-restricted data, and obtaining IRB approval
    • Track the paper production at CNS together with the CNS Director
    • Ensure that new papers are uploaded to preprint servers and advertised via social media in collaboration with the CNS Center Assistant
    • Ensure that data associated with publications is deposited to dedicated online repositories
    • Track CNS activities at conferences, workshops, and other scientific events and advertise this CNS involvement with the CNS Center Assistant
    • Perform training and outreach, works closely with clients, and publishes results in scientific venues
    • Work on user studies across projects, in close collaboration with the project manager. May work directly with clients to define project goals, establish estimates, negotiate contracts and to ensure that work is completed in an effective and timely fashion.
  • Lead a team of three Research Assistants for VR research & development
  • Serve as lead audiovisual content creator for the Center’s research and educational projects (secondary)

Before joining the team full-time, I was a research assistant at the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center (CNS) at the Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering since I started my PhD in 2015. In that time, I participated in the following projects:

  • Co-authored papers on Data Visualization Literacy and information visualization, published in a high-impact venues (see my Research section)
  • Currently serving as guest editor for an upcoming IEEE Transactions on Computer Graphics and Applications Special Issue on Multi-level Graph Representations for Big Data in Science.
  • Served as 3D application developer for the Indiana University Mapping Component of the Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP), and created the initial prototype for the Registration User Interface (RUI), used by dozens of teams across the US and abroad to register human tissue samples
  • Served as UX lead for the Registration User Interface (RUI), working with stakeholders and users to improve user experience and increase usage
  • Used Unity 3D to develop virtual reality research and enhance art visitor experiences, then presented the research at venues with VR professionals and visualization educators
  • Served as vertical organizer between developers, UX designers, 3D modelers, and center management at CNS
  • Performed data curation duties for building the Common Coordinate Framework (CCF) as part of HuBMAP’s effort to create a map of the healthy, adult human body at high resolution
  • Served as associate instructor for hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students in information science, data science, game design, computer science, and intelligent systems engineering (see my Teaching section)
  • Produced dozen of hours of instructional video material for residential and online students in the US and abroad, including professionals participating in our executive education class on visual analytics and the Visible Human Massive Open Online Course (VHMOOC) as part of HuBMAP
  • Served as project manager overseeing all steps in the video production (research, scripting, filming, post-production, publication) of the Visible Human Massive Open Online Course (VHMOOC) as part of HuBMAP
  • Initiated, organized, and moderated the CNS Research Showcase as well as the Create & Innovate (CAI) event series (internal lighting talks for all research and admin staff plus students in my current lab)
  • Gave dozens of hours worth of live and remote demos of the applications, visualizations, and art developed at CNS and in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering (SICE) at Indiana University,.

Email: abueckle@indiana.edu
Twitter: @AndreasBueckle