Entry Name: "DAC-MC3"

VAST Challenge 2014
Mini-Challenge 3

Team Members:

Patrick Butler, Virginia Tech, pabutler@vt.edu -- PRIMARY

Parang Saraf, Virginia Tech, parang@cs.vt.edu

Dr Naren Ramakrishnan, Virginia Tech, naren@cs.vt.edu

Student Team: YES

Team Number: 47

Streaming User ID: parang@cs.vt.edu

Analytic Tools Used:

Google Maps

D3

Everything else was developed in-house

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

Around 100 hours

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

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elShHtOI9Vk&feature=youtu.be

DAC-MC3

Link to the tool:

http://embers.cs.vt.edu:60051/

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Questions

Please note - this challenge contains a question that is time-dependent. Within 3 hours of starting the final data stream, send an email to VASTChal2014MC3@vacommunity.org containing your answer to question MC3.1. Please include a copy of your answer to MC3.1 in your final answer form also. Your answers to MC3.2 and MC3.3, along with your video, are due July 8.

The responses to these questions should be incrementally built, as you (the contestant) acquire information from each streaming data segment you receive. Your submission will answer these questions in consideration of all of the streaming data segments.

MC3.1 - Within 3 hours after start the final data stream, send an email to VASTChal2014MC3@vacommunity.org containing:

a. An image showing the streaming data in your visual analytics tool. In this image, identify an event of interest that you intend to investigate further.

b. The content of the final message in the data stream

Explanation

Supporting Evidence

a. The event we wish to investigate further is the one involving “Black Van”. The van is having a standoff with police near Gelatogalore and has hostages in it

Figure 1: Image showing streaming data in our visual analytics tool, with the “black van” event highlighted

b. The content of the final message are as follows:

Tweeted at 21:32:00

By: gardener4958

Message: RT @KronosStar There has been an explosion from inside the apartment building. Several people are down. #KronosStar #DancingDolphinFire #AFDHeroes

Figure 2: Image showing content of the final message

MC 3.2 - Describe the timeline of up to five major events that you discover in the streaming data. This timeline should include information from all three segments of the data stream if needed. Use specific microblog records and call center data to support your description, but do not simply mimic back the data stream. Provide a concise description of important participants, locations and durations. Focus your response on the events themselves, rather than on the individuals reporting the events. Please limit your answer to no more than ten images and 1500 words.

Note: The messages are color and geo-coded. The darker red a message is, more number of times that message is tweeted. Also, the messages with geo-coordinates have active map icon, clicking on which will show the location of that message.

S. No

Events

Supporting Evidence

POK Rally

A brief summary of the POK Rally is as follows:

· 17:00 : POK Leader Sylvia Marek begin POK rally with her opening remarks at Abila City Park

· 17:11 : She introduces the special guests/speakers for the rally – Dr Audrey McConnell Newman, who is an award winning activist and conservationist, Professor Lorenzo Di Stefano of University of Abila and Lucio Jakab of Save our Wetlands

· 17:19 : Lucio Jakab was the first speaker

· 17:28 : A music band named Viktor-E played after Jakab

· 17:53 : Prof Di Stefano is the second speaker

· 18:14 : The main guest Dr newman, is the third speaker

· 18:45 : Silvia Marek thanks the guest and let the band play a song

· 19:05 : Silvia Marek says the closing remarks

· 19:07 : Now its Viktor-E concert going on

· 20:13 : The rally breaks up

A more detailed time line is provided in the evidence along with a timeline series of the words related to POK rally. Please note that these words correlate very well with the changes in the POK rally.

Figure 3: Timeline of POK Rally

Figure 4: Timeline of words related to POK Rally

Fire at Dancing Dolphin Apartments

A brief summary is as follows:

· 18:40 : A fire was reported near N. Achilleos St / N. Madeg St.

· 18:42 : Abila Fire Department (AFD) dispatches 2 units and also ask the police department to send units for crowd control

· 18:45 : Fire trucks arrive at the building shortly followed by the police

· 18:47 : Request for medical staff along with ambulance and an additional fire truck is placed

· 18:52 : Firefighters assist residents out of the building. The building has six floor and floor 2 caught fire

· 18:53 : AFD orders evacuation of nearby buildings

· 18:59 : Firefighters report rescuing a resident trapped on upper floor

· 19:13 : More fire trucks followed by additional police arrive

· 19:22 : AFD announces expansion of evacuation area

· 19:35 : Police starts doing house to house evacuation

· 20:05 : A firefighter is injured and is pulled out of flames and is taken to Abila Hospital by paramedics

· 20:25 : The fire appears to be under control

· 20:40 : The fire suddenly seems to be escalating, more units called

· 20:50 : The fireman turn their hoses onto the surrounding buildings, in order to prevent fire from spreading

· 21:00 : Top floor of the building collapsed

· 21:30 : There is an explosion at the Dancing Dolphin Fire

A more detailed time line is provided in the evidence along with a timeline series of the words related to Dancing Dolphin Fire. Please note that these words correlate very well with the events unfolding at Dancing Dolphin Fire.

Figure 5: Timeline of Fire at Dancing Dolphin Apartments

Figure 6: Timeline of words related to the fire at Dancing Dolphin Apartments

Black Van with hostages captured after a stand-off

A brief summary is as follows:

· 19:20 : A message reported that a black van hit a person’s car near N Souliou St 1424 1498

· 19:22 : Another message reported that a black van hit a guy on bike near N Edessis St / N Menelaou, which gets reported and police starts chasing the van

· 19:40 : After a brief chase, the van is cornered-off in the parking lot near GelatoGalore. Both the cops and the van occupants open their doors and started firing at each other during which an office is shot

· 19:42 : Request for ambulance and additional police units is sent

· 19:55 : SWAT arrives at the location

· 20:00 : The guy in the van says that he will shoot the hostages if they don’t let them go

· 20:06 : Meanwhile, police starts evacuating near by businesses

· 20:10 : A police negotiator starts talking to the guy

· 21:00 : The guys goes back in the van and have an animated argument with the other van occupant.

· 21:17 : They decide to surrender and come out with hands up

· 21:18 : Police put them (a male and a female) in a waiting car and rescue the hostages (2 females)

A more detailed time line is provided in the evidence along with a timeline series of the words related to the black van. Please note that these words correlate very well with the events unfolding of the events.

Figure 7: Timeline of Black Van

Figure 8: Timeline of words related to Black Van

Supposedly Rumor Spreader

A user “Officia1AbilaPost” has been spreading rumors throughout the evening. The timeline of rumors are as follows:

· 17:13 : Missing GAStech employees found safe

· 17:32 : Elian Karel, ex-POK leader found alive, living in Tethys

· 19:43 : Three killed in police action at POK rally

· 20:20 : Eight shot at GelatoGalore Robbery

A more detailed time line is provided in the evidence along with a timeline series of the user's posts.

Figure 9: Timeline of rumor tweets

Figure 10: Timeline of rumor accountholder

MC 3.3 – Select one of your five major events from question MC 3.2 that you consider to be most likely to provide additional clues to the investigation of the GASTech disappearances. Describe the roles of the participants. Describe how other events you identified in MC3.2 may have influenced your selected event. Provide a hypothesis and evidence as to whom you suspect as being directly involved in the GAStech disappearances, either as perpetrators or victims. Please limit your response to no more than five images and 500 words.

Explanation

Supporting Evidence

The selected event is the case of Black Van with hostages that was captured after a standoff. This event is likely to provide additional clues to the investigation of GAStech employees because one of the theories behind their disappearance involves kidnapping by POK. As this case also involves a bunch of hostages, it is quite possible that the hostages are GAStech employees.

The van had two primary occupants, one male and one female, and were carrying two hostages, 2 females, with them. It appeared that the van occupants were is a hurry to reach somewhere as they were driving quite erratically having hit a car and a bike on their way. This eventually tipped off the police who started chasing them (figure 11).

It is quite possible that the van occupants were holding hostages captive near the Dancing Dolphin Apartments, which caught fire around 18:40. As precautionary measures the fire department with the help of Abila police started evacuating the nearby buildings. This might have scared them and have forced them to leave with the hostages in a hurry, which explains erratic driving. The first car was hit near N Souliou St 1424 1498, which is very close to Dancing Dolphin Apartments and the captivators’ apartment, which further strengthens our claim (figure 12).

However, they ran out of luck when they hit a bike, which resulted in a police tip-off, followed by a chase, standoff and eventual capture of the captivators and evacuation of the hostages (figure 13).

There was a message from a user “trollingsnark” with content: “@nico watch your six if they expand their area anymore” (figure 14). This appears to be a hint from one of the perpetrators of the crime to other to watch out for six of his hostages in case the evacuation area is increased. Possibly they might have divided the hostages amongst themselves. There are no tweets from user @nico available.