Dr. William “Bill” Ribarsky
Distinguished Faculty Award (Posthumous)
Data visualization. Visual analytics. These are terms that most people have never heard and likely do not understand. Luckily for the UNC Charlotte community, a brilliant faculty member not only understood them, but helped lead the field.
Few college professors have had the type of impact on their industry in the same way as the late William “Bill” Ribarsky, Ph.D. As one of the nation’s leading authorities in large scale data visualization and visual analytics, his work is considered a key field in developing technology for the Big Data revolution.
“The Charlotte Visualization Center he founded is one of the five major centers in the country,” says former College of Computing and Informatics Dean Yi Deng. “Because of his research and academic leadership, it has been a major player and collaborator in the state, nationally, and internationally.”
The Bank of America Endowed Chair in Information Technology and the founding and chair of the Department of Computer Science, Dr. Ribarsky published over 130 scholarly papers and books – along with significant competitive research grants and contracts – cementing his place as an expert in his field. During his career at UNC Charlotte, he and the Visualization Center received research funding from the Army, the Department of Homeland Security, DOE, U.S. Department of Transportation, EPA, and Bank of America.
Always on the cutting edge of academic research, Dr. Ribarsky and his team worked on real-world applications such as the outcomes of the spread and evolution of disease, critical infrastructure and the effect of large scale disasters on those structures, patient data. He worked with Belk Inc. to leverage social media data to better understand customer sentiment and trends.
One of his most prominent efforts was his work with Bank of America. Focusing on fraud analysis, they set out to find ways of recognizing fraudulent activity within the millions of bank transactions. To combat this issue, he developed WireVis, a system specifically designed to both seek out fraudulent activity and train analysts within the banking industry and also for risk managementand customer intelligence.
His accomplishments continue to directly benefit UNC Charlotte, as he worked on cultivating a partnership with Bank of America to train students in this field and present opportunities for summer internships. The best students in the program would potentially then be offered permanent employment at the bank.
Dr. Ribarsky was a favorite among his students, working to mentor, challenge, and inspire them. He encouraged collaboration among researchers, within multiple disciplines of study, and alongside non-profit partners within the Charlotte metro area, transforming the department into what it is today.
The recipient of the 2015 First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal, Dr. Bill Ribarsky passed away in early 2017. He will be missed by the entire UNC Charlotte community.