Design & Analysis of Table Cartograms

In Spring of 2019 I gave a "masters presentation" as part of the process of acquiring a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Chicago. As part of that exam (both for personal preparation and personal procrastination) I produced this zine making documenting that works contents in a "hopefully" accessible way. Rather than making the masters paper available, which is rambling and unfocused, I present this lighter and tighter graphical presentation.

While I passed the exam, the quality of the work was still in a nascent stage of development, and would require a couple more years of thought to get where it was going. Eventually, it grew into a paper called "What are Table Cartograms Good for Anyway? An Algebraic Analysis" which was (/ will be) presented at EuroVIS21 and a poster called "A Minimally Constrained Optimization Algorithm for Table Cartograms", which received an honorable mention for best research poster. Looking back at this earlier version of this work gives me a certain degree of cringe (I am mostly now only able to see the mistakes I made), but I think it is an mildly interesting art object and an okay preview of later scholarship.

If you are interested in printing this zine, ensure that your printer can print on both sides and that it can print in color. Select "flip on long edge" and then print. Make both horizontal and vertical cuts along the center and middle. Stack the quarter pages, staple, and fold as appropriate. (You may also want to trim the edges, but that is your business)