Entry Name: "ASTRI-LIU-GC"

VAST 2014 Challenge
Grand Challenge

Team Members:

Yang Liu, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), yangliu@astri.org PRIMARY

Ji Hyoun PARK, ASTRI, jhpark@astri.org

Mengte MIAO, ASTRI, mtmiao@astri.org

Carlos K. F. TSE, ASTRI, carlostse@astri.org

Minjing MAO, ASTRI, minjingmao@astri.org

Hua CAI, caihua90@gmail.com

Xiuhua WANG, waixiu@hotmail.com

Amir S. Y. LIAO, ASTRI, amirliao@astri.org

Kent K. H. WU, ASTRI, khwu@astri.org

Lei Zhibin James, ASTRI, lei@astri.org

Student Team:

NO

Analytic Tools Used:

Python

JAVA

SQLite3

Excel

CanvasJS, founded by Sunil Urs

PostgreSQL

D3 Java libarary

ASTRI text processor developed by NMS group, ASTRI, and adapted for the challenge

ASTRI streaming data processor developed by NMS group, ASTRI, and adapted for the challenge.

Approximately how many hours were spent working on this submission in total?

60 hours

May we post your submission in the Visual Analytics Benchmark Repository after VAST Challenge 2014 is complete?

YES

Video:

index_files\astri-liu-gc-video.wmv

http://210.3.53.50/vast/astri-liu-gc-video.wmv

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Questions

GC.1 – Summarize and describe the events of January, 2014 relating to the disappearance of the GAStech employees. Focus on the disappearance of the employees, and the events immediately before and afterward. The summary should include the following:

a. Who: Individuals and groups involved and their roles

b. What: A description of what happened over the time period

c. Where: Associate events with locations

d. When: Specific times of activities, particularly as it relates to planning and execution

e. Why: A description of the motives or motivations of the individuals or groups involved

f. How: What, if any, notable entities provided support for or facilitated the events that took place? These could be people, places, or things that helped those responsible for the disappearance in some way.

Do not reproduce the overview or MC1 materials concerning background knowledge, although you may reference this information if needed. Visualizations illustrating how you determined the summary points above are encouraged. Please limit your response to no more than five images and 500 words.

We think the disappeared GAStech employee included executive group of GAStech and the kidnapper suspects. The executive group are Ingrid Barranco, Ada Campo-Corrente, Orhan Strum, and Willem Vasco-Pais (figure 1.1). The kidnapper suspects include the receipts of Email circle “RE: FW: ARISE - Inspiration for Defenders of Kronos”, Isia Vann, Inga Ferro, Loreto Bodrogi, Hennie Osvaldo, Minke Mies. (figure 1.1)

Figure 1.1 Email analysis and Gastech structure from MC1

We guess one possible motivation behind the Gastech employee disappearance is the POK wanted to take a radical action against the company (figure 1.2). In addition, money may also be a motivation since there is a $20 million ransom noticed on Jan. 21. But, for Isia Vann, the motivation may include family revenge to the company on the loss of Julianna Vann. With these assumptions, the executive group of GAStech are victims, the kidnapper suspects are the planners and executers.

Figure 1.2 POK trees from MC1

We assume the employee disappearance happened at Jan. 20, around 10:00 am. Before that, the victims were having a meeting at GAStech building. After that, the suspects made a call to claim a false fire alarm, and took the victims away in the evacuation (As shown in figure 1.4). Probably, the victims and some kidnappers left Abila by private planes at Jan. 20 afternoon.

Figure 1.3 Time line for Jan. 20 morning from MC1.

In addition, the suspects may plan the kidnapping at several places near Spetson park and Sannan park. At the spots to the south of Spetson park (one spot is latitude, longitude =36.07682632, 24.8659217), Loreto Bodrogi and Isia Vann may meet at Jan. 07 around 3:35 am, Hennie Osvaldo and Isia Vann may meet at Jan 11 around 3:30am Hennie Osvaldo and Isia Vann may meet at Jan 11 around 3:30am. For the spot near Sannan park (latitude, longitude = 36.06040821, 24.90568582), we found most suspects visited the place frequently, for instance, Loreto Bodrogi left the location at Jan. 07 around 3:20am and Jan. 09 around 3:20 am, Hennie Osvaldo visited the location at Jan. 11 around 3:20am and Jan. 14, around 03:20am, Isia Vann visited the place at Jan.19 around 15:42 with an abnormal weekend route.

Specifically, MC3 work indicated that there was a fire in an apartment named dancing dolphin. The observer is located at (latitude, longitude = 36.059, 24.894), which is very close to the Sannan park suspect location.

Figure 1.4 Suspect locations identified in MC2 and MC3.

Figure 1.5 Dancing dolphin apartment fire observation location in MC3.

Additionally, the airport may help the escape since no passenger lists for the private planes were available till Jan. 23. And, since the victims and suspects may leave in the helicopter, people or department related to the helicopter, such as the security department of GAStech, may also be enrolled. Finally, newspapers and social media helped the suspects in some extent, such as delivering the ransom information at Jan. 21 and reporting the POK rally at Jan. 23.

GC.2 – Describe at a high level the most significant networks that exist, and how they have influenced each other to produce the current situation. Please limit your response to no more than three images and 100 words.

Before 2001, both GAStech and Kronos government had supporters for POK to tackle the GAStech pollution issue.

Figure 2.1 Enquiry to POK support before 2001 from MC1

However, after 2001, both support connection broke. POK turned to local organizations as Save Our Wildlands and recruited them as members. The change also introduced radical factors.

Figure 2.2 Enquiry to POK support after 2001 from MC1

In addition, potential interest transfer from GAStech to Kronos government may reduce the chance of POK reaching the target since GAStech got huge profit recently (figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3 Event extraction on IOT from MC1.

GC.3 – Identify three of the most significant information gaps that remain at the end of the time period covered by the data. Describe why this missing information would be important to the investigation. Highlight in your visualizations where these knowledge gaps are present. Please limit your response to no more than three images and 250 words.

The first important information gap is the real motivation behind the event. In fact, we are not sure if POK should be responsible for the event as an organization or Isia Vann and others executed the kidnapping in the name of POK. As shown in figure 3.1, there was a POK public rally at Jan. 23. If POK was already considered as a suspect officially, it is hard to understand why Aliba office would permit such a rally. In addition, if POK wanted to reach the target to protect Kronos environment, the criminal action would not help.

Figure 3.1 POK rally identified in MC3

The second important gap is there is no continuous/complete GPS data of the employee cars. If the available traffic time of two employee cars does not overlap, we can only calculate the distances between the two cars according to the recent GPS data. Therefore, we are not confident if the two employees really meet each other or not in a given time slot.

Figure 3.2 GPS data direct display for Isia Vann in MC2

The third gap is passengers’ name on the two planes left at Jan. 21 noon from Abila airport. If the disappeared employees were found the passengers, police can trace the plane for further investigation.

Figure 3.3 Event extraction on Abilia airport at Jan. 20 in MC1

GC.4 – The police have sufficient manpower to investigate up to two different locations simultaneously. Provide your best recommendation to the police chief as to where the police should be deployed, and why. Provide visualizations that help describe the importance of this action. Please limit your response to no mor than two images and 100 words.

Following the discussion in GC.1, we recommend two locations for further investigation where the suspects visited most often. The first one is the south part of Spetson park, especially the location = (latitude, longitude =36.07682632, 24.8659217, the red point in figure 4.1). The second recommendation is the spot with (latitude, longitude = 36.06040821, 24.90568582, the green point in figure 4.1). As stated in GC.1, we guess the second recommendation is the dancing dolphin department, which may be the white building southeast to Sannan park in figure 4.2.

Figure 4.1 Suspect locations identified example from MC2

Figure 4.2 Tourist map from MC2