2024

• Education/ We developed ‘Catalunya en dades,’ an initiative to reimagine the visualization of open data from the Catalan government using the Observable Framework. Participation is open to anyone learning 🧑‍💻📓📈🔍 data science, communication, design, or data visualization, with 🏅 monthly prizes (and a 🏆 grand final prize) for the best collaborations.

• Lab/ We collaborated with the National Geographic Society in designing and developing the immersive StoryCloud experience. (Publication pending)

• Education/ We led the workshop "Creating data visualizations with Observable", at the Free GIS Days 2024 - Geotech/Spatial Data Science Conference organized by University of Girona-SIGTE.

• Lab/ We collaborated with the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) to co-create the ‘Corporate Disclosure Explorer’, a data visualization that explains why making corporate emissions data public can lead to significant reductions in climate pollution. (Publication pending)

• Education/ We also run a Hackathon focused on inclusivity in cinema as part of the Master’s Degree in Data Science at the University of Girona. The event aims to encourage students to explore and address issues of diversity and representation in the film industry through data analysis and visualization.

2023

• Lab/ We collaborated with the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). We created a clear and compelling visualization of the gains in life expectancy that can be achieved through cleaner air. The AQLI translates air pollution concentrations into their impact on life expectancy through an interactive platform map.

• We were proud sponsors of the Outlier Conference 2023 in Porto (Portugal).

• Lab/ We collaborated with National Geographic Society, Utrecht University and Esri on the World Water Map, a tool to understand how people use water around the globe.

• Lab/ We collaborated with the UN Environment Programme to design and develop the third phase of their Climate Action Note. UNEP’s Actions on Air Quality report provides a review of policy actions being undertaken by governments worldwide to improve air quality.

• Education/ Hackathon about the health impact of air pollution as part of the Master’s Degree in Data Science at the University of Girona.

• Education/ We were proud to announce the second edition of the Master’s program in Visual Tools to Empower Citizens (2023-24) in collaboration with the Fundació UdG: Innovació i Formació. Through this program, we trained professionals capable of designing visualization solutions for the public sector: from transparency tools aimed at citizens to intelligent systems for data-driven understanding, exploration and decision-making.

• Lab/ We initiated UNTWIST, a three-year European project which will contribute to the construction of a renewed democratic society in which the heterogeneous gender needs, demands and worries of the public are all addressed by different parties in democratic ways.

2022

• Education/ The conference Dataviz for Society gathered experts in the data and information visualization field, to discuss how we should design and disseminate data visualizations that are understandable for society. It was co-organized by the Digital Future Society and the ViT Foundation.

• Lab/ We worked with the Ajuntament de L'Hospitalet and MWC to reimagine how they can communicate and visualize survey data about the digital divide in L'Hospitalet.

• Education/ We are thrilled to start the 2nd edition Master’s Degree Visual Tools to Empower Citizens, in collaboration with the Fundació UdG: Innovació i Formació.

• Education/ We run the pre-conference workshop DataViz for Decision-Making: Data Visualization as a Support Tool for Health Policies at the XL + 1 Conference on Health Economics in Zaragoza, organized by the AES.

• Education/ We presented Barfi, an interactive tool to create square cartograms, at the SIGLibre2022 organized by UdG’s SIGTE. It spun off a collaboration with UNEP based on many design restrictions when visualizing data about the climate crisis.

• We officially presented the ViT Foundation in Barcelona. After two years without showing our work face to face due to COVID-19, we finally brought together communication and data visualization experts, policymakers, and open data experts.

• Education/ Hackathon about anomaly detection of sea surface temperatures as part of the Master’s Degree in Data Science at the University of Girona.

• Lab/ We collaborated with UNEP and other partners to design and develop MPAth (Marine Protected Area Tool Hub): an educational platform and repository developed to help community practitioners with their personalized challenges.

2021

• Lab / Ahead of COP26, we collaborated with the UN Environment Programme to design and develop the second phase of their Climate Action Note.

• Lab / We worked with the Canadian Institute for Health Information, a government-controlled not-for-profit Crown corporation that provides essential information on Canada's health systems and the health of Canadians. Our collaboration helped CIHI improve their internal capabilities to produce data-driven visual essays, and update their tools, skill sets, and processes to create standard interactive charts.

• Lab / We collaborated with the UN Environment Programme to design and develop the Air Pollution Note, a data-driven dashboard that visualizes and annotates data about air pollution and its health consequences.

• Lab / As a way to showcase the current opportunities —and shortcomings— of visualizing open public data, we designed and developed an open-source, data-driven, automatic report to track the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Spain.

• Lab / We collaborated with the UN Environment Programme to design and develop the initial phase of their Climate Action Note, a data-driven widget that explores and explains several climate change metrics.

2020

• Education / We started the Master’s program in Visual Tools to Empower Citizens in collaboration with the Fundació UdG: Innovació i Formació. Through this program, we train professionals capable of designing visualization solutions for the public sector: from transparency tools aimed at citizens to intelligent systems for data-driven understanding, exploration and decision-making.

• Lab / We worked with National Geographic to visualize the global reach of their grant program for educators and storytellers on the frontlines of COVID-19 (a grant program supported by the National Geographic Society’s emergency funds.)

All software written for our projects lives on public GitHub repositories. We release them under MIT license to foster further collaborative development. We are currently in the process of adapting them to the requirements of the Digital Public Goods Alliance.