About

Dan's current research focuses on ethical, just, and creative human-data interaction in computer-mediated extended realities (AR/MR/VR). He is committed to research that addresses high-stakes societal needs, including human-in-the-loop data-driven medical decision making, Indigenous cultural revitalization, climate discourse, natural resource management, and computer-mediated creative work. His technologies and media include interactive 3D computer graphics; digital 3D drawing; multimodal sensing; spatial and non-traditional computer displays; digital fabrication with an emphasis on sustainable materials (e.g., clay 3D printing); site-specific installations; and traditional work with wood, metal, printing, paint, and inks.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Data Mining
• Human–computer interaction
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data science
• Computer graphics (images)

Selected publications

• Designing a Collaborative Immersive Visualization System for Radiation Treatment Planning Teams

  IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · 2026-01-01

  articleSenior author

  We present a visualization design study of creating a collaborative virtual reality (VR) system for radiation treatment planning, with an emphasis on proton therapy. The goal is to support teams of dosimetrists, physicians, and medical physicists as they review and compare multiple possible patient-specific treatment plans, which requires analyzing complex 3D spatial relationships between a radiation dosage volume and anatomical structures. The approach is a novel combination and refinement of interactive visualization techniques including: networked multi-user immersive visualization, interactive volume rendering and slicing with 3D widgets and gestures, superimposed surface rendering with GPU-accelerated curvature-directed lines, smart cursors, teleporting, and avatars. These features are integrated within a workflow that supports three complementary modes of visual data comparison (juxtaposition, interchangeable, and explicit encoding). Results and feedback from multi-year iterative development with users and a summative field deployment in the form of a mock plan-review meeting reveal several advantages relative to current clinical practice and suggest directions for future work.

  PublisherDOI

• Preface

  IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · 2026-01-01

  article

  This January 2026 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) contains the proceedings of IEEE VIS 2025, held on November 2–7, 2025 in Vienna, Austria, with the General Chairs Johanna Schmidt (TU Wien), Eduard Gröller (TU Wien), Barbora Kozlíková (Masaryk University), and Krešimir Matković (VRVis GmbH). With IEEE VIS 2025, the conference series is in its 36th year.

  PublisherDOI

• Dear Diary, I Won't Give Up My CAVE!

  2026-03-21

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Collaborative Handheld Robots Near the Limits of Human Dexterity—A Pilot Study

  2025-05-14

  article

  Jointly collaborating with a handheld robot could enable human users to exceed their freehand accuracy and speed. Handheld tool use builds on existing intuition and dexterity of hand use. While collaboration through the delegation of high-precision tasks to a large, grounded surgical robot has shown improved performance, joint collaboration is not widely studied in handheld robots. To further explore this topic, we evaluate the feasibility of a handheld robotic platform for studying joint human-robot collaboration in a trajectory tracking task that is impossible for either robot or human to complete alone: a precision constraint beyond human freehand precision in a workspace larger than the robot's reachable workspace. The handheld robot consists of a modified 2-DoF laser engraving module which compensates for human movement error and also semi-autonomously completes the portion of the task that is within the robot's reachable workspace. Motion data were collected for three users laser-marking a series of square shapes at varying distances apart on thermal paper. We observed a five-fold increase in the steering law Index of Performance (IP) [1] for joint collaboration over freehand lasering. This work provides evidence of feasibility for this platform and informs power analysis for future research.

  PublisherDOI

• Drawing in the Flow: A Data-Aware Mixed-Reality Sketching Interface for Illustrative 3D Flow Visualization

  2025-11-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Rain Gauge: Exploring the Design and Sustainability of 3D Printed Clay Physicalizations

  2024-08-30

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Data physicalizations are a time-tested practice for visualizing data, but the sustainability challenges of current physicalization practices have only recently been explored; for example, the usage of carbon-intensive, non-renewable materials like plastic and metal. This work explores clay physicalizations as an approach to these challenges. Using a three-stage process, we investigate the design and sustainability of clay 3D printed physicalizations: 1) exploring the properties and constraints of clay when extruded through a 3D printer, 2) testing a variety of data encodings that work within the constraints, and 3) introducing Rain Gauge, a clay physicalization exploring environment-driven unmaking on a climate dataset. Throughout our process, we investigate the material circularity of clay-based digital fabrication by reclaiming and reusing the clay stock in each stage. Finally, we reflect on the implications of ceramic 3D printing for data physicalization through the lenses of practicality and sustainability.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Touching The Ground: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Data Physicalizations for Spatial Data Analysis Tasks

  2024-07-30 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Inspired by recent advances in digital fabrication, artists and scientists have demonstrated that physical data encodings (i.e., data physicalizations) can increase engagement with data, foster collaboration, and in some cases, improve data legibility and analysis relative to digital alternatives. However, prior empirical studies have only investigated abstract data encoded in physical form (e.g., laser cut bar charts) and not continuously sampled spatial data fields relevant to climate and medical science (e.g., heights, temperatures, densities, and velocities sampled on a spatial grid). This paper presents the design and results of the first study to characterize human performance in 3D spatial data analysis tasks across analogous physical and digital visualizations. Participants analyzed continuous spatial elevation data with three visualization modalities: (1) 2D digital visualization; (2) perspective-tracked, stereoscopic "fishtank" virtual reality; and (3) 3D printed data physicalization. Their tasks included tracing paths downhill, looking up spatial locations and comparing their relative heights, and identifying and reporting the minimum and maximum heights within certain spatial regions. As hypothesized, in most cases, participants performed the tasks just as well or better in the physical modality (based on time and error metrics). Additional results include an analysis of open-ended feedback from participants and discussion of implications for further research on the value of data physicalization. All data and supplemental materials are available at https://osf.io/7xdq4/.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Touching the Ground: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Data Physicalizations for Spatial Data Analysis Tasks

  IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · 2024-09-10 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Inspired by recent advances in digital fabrication, artists and scientists have demonstrated that physical data encodings (i.e., data physicalizations) can increase engagement with data, foster collaboration, and in some cases, improve data legibility and analysis relative to digital alternatives. However, prior empirical studies have only investigated abstract data encoded in physical form (e.g., laser cut bar charts) and not continuously sampled spatial data fields relevant to climate and medical science (e.g., heights, temperatures, densities, and velocities sampled on a spatial grid). This paper presents the design and results of the first study to characterize human performance in 3D spatial data analysis tasks across analogous physical and digital visualizations. Participants analyzed continuous spatial elevation data with three visualization modalities: (1) 2D digital visualization; (2) perspective-tracked, stereoscopic "fishtank" virtual reality; and (3) 3D printed data physicalization. Their tasks included tracing paths downhill, looking up spatial locations and comparing their relative heights, and identifying and reporting the minimum and maximum heights within certain spatial regions. As hypothesized, in most cases, participants performed the tasks just as well or better in the physical modality (based on time and error metrics). Additional results include an analysis of open-ended feedback from participants and discussion of implications for further research on the value of data physicalization. All data and supplemental materials are available at https://osf.io/7xdq4/.

  PublisherDOI

• Toward Indigenous Presence: A Radical Relationality Approach for Designing Mixed-Reality Indigenous Data Experiences

  IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications · 2024-11-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  We present Indigenous Presence, a design principle for partnering with Indigenous communities to make computing tools responsive to Indigenous priorities. Indigenous Presence blends participatory design methodologies with radical relationality, a concept from Critical Indigenous Theory, and theories of presence from virtual and mixed-reality (MR) research. Examples come from a six-year partnership with local Micronesian and Dakota communities that aims, in part, to use MR to revitalize and exchange cultural knowledges of canoes, waters, lands, and skies. Five factors for activating Indigenous Presence are identifed: 1) having a community-relevant topic, 2) including Indigenous makers, 3) creating culturally identifiable experiences, 4) centering radical relationality in design, and 5) respecting Indigenous protocols. Potential benefits include higher ethical standards for computing research along with increased trustworthiness and participation in computing.

  PublisherDOI

• Preface

  IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · 2024-11-25

  article

  This January 2025 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) contains the proceedings of IEEE VIS 2024, held on October 1318 October, 2024 in St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA, with the three General Chairs Paul Rosen (University of Utah), Kristi Potter (U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory), and Remco Chang (Tufts University). With IEEE VIS 2024, the conference series is in its 35th year.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CGV: Small: Visualization by Sketching, Analogy, and Computational Creativity

  NSF · $448k · 2012–2016

• BIGDATA: Modeling Simulation and Visulization for Medical Device Design

  NIH · $145k · 2013–2017

• CHS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Sculpting Visualizations: Toward a Practice and Theory of 3D Scientific Visualizations Using Physical Objects and Augmented Reality

  NSF · $707k · 2017–2022

• BIGDATA: Modeling Simulation and Visulization for Medical Device Design

  NIH · $75k · 2013–2016

• BIGDATA: Small: DA: Coupling Data-Intensive Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization with Human Facilities for Design: Applications to Next-Generation Medical Device Prototyping

  NSF · $501k · 2013–2017

Frequent coauthors

• David H. Laidlaw

  St. Thomas Hospital

  46 shared

• Dane Coffey

  Walt Disney (United States)

  25 shared

• Francesca Samsel

  Texas Advanced Computing Center

  21 shared

• Robert C. Zeleznik

  Brown University

  19 shared

• Seth Johnson

  University of Mississippi Medical Center

  16 shared

• Bridger Herman

  University of Minnesota

  16 shared

• Arthur G. Erdman

  University of Minnesota

  15 shared

• Victoria Interrante

  15 shared

Labs

• Interactive Visualization LabPI

  Interactive Visualization Lab at the University of Minnesota

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science

  Brown University

  2007

• B.S., Computer Engineering

  Tufts University

  1999

Awards & honors

• Charles E. Bowers Faculty Teaching Award (2021)
• Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outst…
• Guillermo E. Borja Award (2014)
• 3M Nontenured Faculty Award (2013)
• McKnight Land-Grant Professorship (2012)