The University will host two events this week as part of the Places & Spaces exhibition, the first by Enrico Bertini, assistant professor at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who will discuss “Visualization as Intelligence Amplification’’ at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22 at the Ungar Building, 1365 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables.

Bertini will reflect on the role of visualization in research and in society at large. Drawing from Douglas Engelbart’s “Augmenting Human Intellect,” he argues that the main goal of visualization is to “amplify our intelligence” and show examples of systems that achieve this goal. He will showcase research being conducted in his lab at New York University and will discuss challenges and ways we can make visualization more useful and pervasive.

RSVP is required to attend.

The second event, which will take place on Thursday, October 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the School of Architecture’s Stanley and Jewell Glasgow Hall, will feature a dialogue on “Visualization for Effective Communication” with John Grimwade and Stephen Few, leaders in business intelligence and information graphics. The discussion will be moderated by UM’s Alberto Cairo.

Few is on a mission to help organizations squeeze real value from the mounds of data that surround and threaten to bury them. He teaches simple, clear, and practical data visualization techniques for exploring, analyzing, and presenting quantitative information. He speaks, teaches, and consults internationally, writes the quarterly Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter, and is the author of three books about visualization.

Grimwade  has produced infographics for many magazines, books, and corporate clients. He began his career in newspapers, and was in charge of graphics at The Times (London) for six years. He is an instructor at the annual Malofiej Show, Don’t Tell workshop at the University of Navarra, and teaches infographics to undergraduates at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested.