Inside Alibaba’s Front‑End Visualization Showcase: Insights from CSIG’s Campus‑to‑Enterprise Event

On May 21, 2021, the China Society of Image and Graphics (CSIG) Visualization and Visual Analysis Committee held a "Enterprise Visit" event at Alibaba’s Xixi Campus in Hangzhou, co‑organized with Alibaba’s Front‑End Committee, DataV team, and Alibaba Front‑End University.

The program covered industry scenarios such as graph data, big‑data research, spatio‑temporal data, and low‑code design, inviting renowned scholars and technology experts to exchange frontier technologies and explore cooperation between academia and industry.

The opening speeches were delivered by Jiang Fan, chair of Alibaba’s Front‑End Committee, and Yuan Xiaoru, director of CSIG’s Visualization Committee from Peking University, who highlighted the committee’s role in advancing visualization research and encouraging enterprise participation.

During the exchange session, Alibaba’s visualization teams—including DataV, AntV, Data Middle‑Platform, Intelligent Security, DataWorks, Hybrid‑Cloud Risk‑Control, and IoT Studio—presented their diverse use cases and needs for visualization and visual analysis within the Alibaba ecosystem.

A round‑table discussion facilitated by Dr. Xia Jing from Alibaba Cloud DataV allowed more than twenty scholars and experts to discuss cooperation mechanisms, research challenges, and effective industry‑academia collaboration models.

Technical reports followed: Professor Wang Changbo from East China Normal University introduced cognitive models for graph visualization, deep‑learning based visual perception methods, and metaphor‑driven visualization approaches; researcher Chen Siming from Fudan University discussed the transition from visual analysis to storytelling and related challenges; researcher Cheng Shenghui from CUHK (Shenzhen) examined data‑driven decision‑making in the big‑data era; and Ph.D. Zhao Yue from Shandong University presented low‑code visual construction systems and animation techniques for visualizations.

The event concluded with a visit to Alibaba’s Xixi Campus Hall 9, where participants explored data‑screen visualizations of various business units, followed by certificate presentations to speakers.

Over 500 participants from universities such as Peking University, East China Normal University, Tongji University, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, CUHK (Shenzhen), Shandong University, Fudan University, and Northwestern Polytechnical University, as well as Alibaba staff, attended either on‑site or via live stream.

CSIG’s Visualization and Visual Analysis Committee will continue to organize "CSIG‑VIS into Enterprise" activities to promote industry applications and collaborative development of visualization and visual analysis.