SOCRAT: A Dynamic Web Toolbox for Interactive Data Processing, Analysis and Visualization
Alexandr A. Kalinin,
Selvam Palanimalai,
Junqi Zhu,
Wenyi Wu,
Nikhil Devraj,
Chunchun Ye,
Nellie Ponarul,
Syed S. Husain,
Ivo D. Dinov
Affiliations
Alexandr A. Kalinin
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Selvam Palanimalai
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Junqi Zhu
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Wenyi Wu
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Nikhil Devraj
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Chunchun Ye
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Statistics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Nellie Ponarul
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Statistics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Syed S. Husain
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Ivo D. Dinov
Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR), Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
Many systems for exploratory and visual data analytics require platform-dependent software installation, coding skills, and analytical expertise. The rapid advances in data-acquisition, web-based information, and communication and computation technologies promoted the explosive growth of online services and tools implementing novel solutions for interactive data exploration and visualization. However, web-based solutions for visual analytics remain scattered and relatively problem-specific. This leads to per-case re-implementations of common components, system architectures, and user interfaces, rather than focusing on innovation and building sophisticated applications for visual analytics. In this paper, we present the Statistics Online Computational Resource Analytical Toolbox (SOCRAT), a dynamic, flexible, and extensible web-based visual analytics framework. The SOCRAT platform is designed and implemented using multi-level modularity and declarative specifications. This enables easy integration of a number of components for data management, analysis, and visualization. SOCRAT benefits from the diverse landscape of existing in-browser solutions by combining them with flexible template modules into a unique, powerful, and feature-rich visual analytics toolbox. The platform integrates a number of independently developed tools for data import, display, storage, interactive visualization, statistical analysis, and machine learning. Various use cases demonstrate the unique features of SOCRAT for visual and statistical analysis of heterogeneous types of data.
