Analysis of electoral data: a visualisation-based approach

• Grant number: 12/07636-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Vieira Paulovich
• Grantee: Francisco Morgani Fatore
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The data storage capacity attained by the current tools and approaches makes it possible to many companies and institutions to register data about their business to reach better results. Currently, several companies have obtained good results with the exploration of their databases. Well-known examples are the supermarkets and companies in general that seek to extract patterns and tendencies from the data about clients in order to improve the sales results. Several researchers have been working on the exploration of commercial and scientific data, but little effort has been put into the analysis of social and political ones. Aiming at improving the exploration of such data, especially the electoral data, this project seeks to employ information visualization techniques to create visual representations so that the human visual ability can be applied to exploratory and interpretation tasks. In this project, the main goals are focused on the analysis that involves information about voting records and campaign funding resources. Our purpose is to make the results and produced software available on the web so that they can be used on other research projects and by the population in general. The extra effort will be put to make this tool, or an initial version, available before the elections that are going to run this year.(AU)