VAST Challenge 2024

In the 2024 VAST Challenge, something big is lurking beneath the waves…

Join us as we return to Oceanus, where a network of nefarious businesses has been caught fishing illegally. FishEye, a non-profit organization that focuses on illegal fishing, has assembled a knowledge graph from multiple structured and unstructured data sources. You will be asked to develop visual analytics tools for knowledge graphs that can help analysts better identify bias, track behavior changes, and infer temporal patterns.

The 2024 VAST Challenge Contest will be held in conjunction with the the IEEE VIS Conference.

Challenge Overview

Welcome to Oceanus, an island nation with a healthy market for commercial fishing. Most companies in the region are united in following regulations and implementing sustainable fishing practices. But there are a few companies who are willing to cross ethical lines to increase their catch and their profits. Luckily, FishEye International maintains a watchful eye on fishing data. Their dedicated analysts have been processing data from various sources into a knowledge graph that they call CatchNet: the Oceanus Knowledge Graph.

Mini-Challenge 1: Identifying Bias

Mini-challenge 1 deals with bias in source news articles, algorithms, and analysts. FishEye needs your help to identify sources of bias in their data. Design visualizations to help analysts compare the consistency of extracted knowledge with the source text and identify potential bias.

Please visit VAST Challenge 2024: Mini-Challenge 1 for more information and to download the data.

Mini-Challenge 2: Creating Signatures for Geo-Temporal Patterns

Mini-challenge 2 focuses on analyzing ship movements and shipping records to understand illegal fishing practices. FishEye analysts need help creating visualizations to show patterns of ship movements and identify suspicious behaviors. They also want to understand how the commercial fishing community changed after a company was caught fishing illegally.

Please visit VAST Challenge 2024: Mini-Challenge 2 for more information and to download the data.

Mini-Challenge 3: Temporal Analysis

Mini-challenge 3 concerns visualizing changes in business relationships within the commercial fishing industry. FishEye wants to understand how companies react to the closure of a competitor caught fishing illegally and how these changes affect influence networks. Design visualizations to show these changes over time and identify companies that may benefit from illegal fishing.

Please visit VAST Challenge 2024: Mini-Challenge 3 for more information and to download the data.

Grand Challenge: Tracking Bias to Its Source

In this grand challenge, it is especially important to create visualizations and visual analytics approaches that integrate data from the whole across the different sources in the CatchNet knowledge graph. Using data from all 3 mini-challenges including the CatchNet knowledge graph and source documents and visual analytics, identify how the data has been manipulated.