Michael Wybrow

I am a Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. I am a member of the Embodied Visualisation research group.

Research interests

My research interests include geometric layout constraints, software usability, graphical user interfaces, text and diagram layout, connector routing, and information visualisation.

My research explores automatic and semi-automatic approaches to various layout problems for diagrams and documents. These approaches combine the power and flexibility of constraint-solving techniques with insights and guidance provided by domain expert users. His research has been used to produce better layout tools in interactive diagram editors, for high-quality routing in commercial circuit diagramming software, and for automatic layout of protein structure diagrams and a range of biological networks.

I am the primary author of the Adaptagrams project, a set of low-level libraries for connector routing and constraint-based layout of diagrams based on Monash research. These software libraries are utilised by many commercial products and open-source projects.

My constraint-based layout and connector routing research is implented in Dunnart, a prototype constraint-based diagram editor. Dunnart was written as a testbed for both prototyping new tools and well as conducting usability testing and benchmarking.

Other interests

Outside of my work life, I am married with a young daughter. I enjoy rock'n'roll and swing dancing, and playing Magic: the Gathering and board games. I'm also an indie iOS app developer.

Publications

Software:

  • Adaptagrams
    C++ libraries for constraint-based network layout and connector routing.
  • Dunnart
    A prototype diagram editor with constraint-based network layout.
  • Pro-origami
    A website for automatic generation of protein structure cartoons.
  • Edeap
    Euler Diagrams Drawn with Ellipses Area-Proportionally.

Book Chapters:

  • Matthias Hirth, Jason Jacques, Peter Rodgers, Ognjen Scekic and Michael Wybrow.
    Crowdsourcing Technology to Support Academic Research.
    In: Archambault D., Purchase H., Hoßfeld T. (Eds.) Evaluation in the Crowd. Crowdsourcing and Human-Centered Experiments. LNCS 10264, pages 70–95, Springer 2017. DOI
  • Michael Wybrow, Niklas Elmqvist, Jean-Daniel Fekete, Tatiana von Landesberger, Jarke J. van Wijk, and Björn Zimmer.
    Interaction in the Visualization of Multivariate Networks.
    In A. Kerren et al. (Eds.): Multivariate Network Visualization 2013, LNCS 8380, pages 97–126, Springer, 2014. DOI

Journal Articles:

  • Michael Wybrow, Peter Rodgers, Fadi K. Dib
    Euler diagrams drawn with ellipses area-proportionally (Edeap).
    In BMC Bioinformatics, 22, 214, 2021. DOI
  • Vahan Yoghourdjian, Yalong Yang, Tim Dwyer, Lee Lawrence, Michael Wybrow and Kim Marriott
    Scalability of Network Visualisation from a Cognitive Load Perspective
    In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 27(2): 1677–1687, 2021. DOI
  • Ying Yang, Michael Wybrow, Yuan-Fang Li, Tobias Czauderna and Yongqun He
    OntoPlot: A Novel Visualisation for Non-hierarchical Associations in Large Ontologies
    In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 26(1): 1140–1150, IEEE, 2019. DOI
  • Vahan Yoghourdjian, Tim Dwyer, Karsten Klein, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow
    Graph Thumbnails: Identifying and Comparing Multiple Graphs at a Glance
    In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 24(12): 3081–3095, IEEE, 2018. DOI
  • Steve Kieffer, Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow
    Hola: Human-like orthogonal network layout
    In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 22(1): 349–358, IEEE, 2015. DOI InfoVis 2015 Best paper award.
  • Finja Büchel, Nicolas Rodriguez, Neil Swainston, Clemens Wrzodek, Tobias Czauderna, Roland Keller, Florian Mittag, Michael Schubert, Mihai Glont. Martin Golebiewski, Martijn van Iersel, Sarah Keating, Matthias Rall, Michael Wybrow, Henning Hermjakob, Michael Hucka, Douglas B Kell, Wolfgang Müller, Pedro Mendes, Andreas Zell, Claudine Chaouiya, Julio Saez-Rodriguez, Falk Schreiber, Camille Laibe, Andreas Dräger and Nicolas Le Novèr.
    Path2Models: large-scale generation of computational models from biochemical pathway map
    In BMC Systems Biology 7(1): 116, BioMed Central, 2013. DOI [HTML]
  • Tobias Czauderna, Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott and Falk Schreiber.
    Conversion of KEGG metabolic pathways to SBGN maps including automatic layout
    In BMC Bioinformatics 14(1): 250, BioMed Central, 2013. DOI [HTML]
  • Kim Marriott, Helen Purchase, Michael Wybrow, Cagatay Goncu
    Memorability of Visual Features in Network Diagrams
    In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 18(12): 2477–2485, IEEE, 2012. DOI [PDF]
  • Alex Stivala, Michael Wybrow, Anthony Wirth, James C. Whisstock and Peter J. Stuckey.
    Automatic generation of protein structure cartoons with Pro-origami
    In Bioinformatics 27(23): 3315–3316, Oxford University Press, 2011. DOI [PDF]
  • Falk Schreiber, Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow.
    A generic algorithm for layout of biological networks
    In BMC Bioinformatics 10(1): 375, BioMed Central, 2009. DOI [PDF]
  • Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, Falk Schreiber, Peter J. Stuckey, Michael Woodward, and Michael Wybrow.
    Exploration of networks using overview+detail with constraint-based cooperative layout
    In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 14(6): 1293–1300, IEEE, 2008. DOI [PDF]
  • Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott, Linda McIver, and Peter J. Stuckey.
    Comparing Usability of One-Way and Multi-Way Constraints for Diagram Editing
    ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 14(4): 19:1–38, ACM Press, 2008. DOI [PDF]

Refereed Conference Papers:

  • Shaveen Singh, Bernd Meyer, and Michael Wybrow.
    UserFlow: A Tool for Visualizing Fine-grained Contextual Analytics in Teaching Documents.
    In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE ’20), pages 384–390. ACM Press, 2020. DOI
  • John M. Betts, David L. Dowe, Daniel Guimarans, Daniel D. Harabor, Heshan Kumarage, Peter J. Stuckey and Michael Wybrow.
    Peak-Hour Rail Demand Shifting with Discrete Optimisation
    In International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP '19), LNCS 11802, pages 748–763. Springer, 2019. DOI
  • Gleb Belov, Tobias Czauderna, Maria Garcia de la Banda, Matthias Klapperstueck, Ilankaikone Senthooran, Mitch Smith, Michael Wybrow and Mark Wallace.
    Process plant layout optimization: Equipment allocation
    In International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP '18), LNCS 11008, pages 473–489. Springer, 2018. DOI
  • Gleb Belov, Tobias Czauderna, Amel Dzaferovic, Maria Garcia de la Banda, Michael Wybrow and Mark Wallace.
    An Optimization Model for 3D Pipe Routing with Flexibility Constraints
    In International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP '17), LNCS 10416, pages 321–337. Springer, 2017. DOI
  • Kim Marriott, Mingzheng Shi, and Michael Wybrow.
    VEDD: A Visual Editor for Creation and Semi-Automatic Update of Derived Documents
    In Proceedings of the 15th ACM Symposium on Document Engineering (DocEng '15), pages 125–128. ACM, 2015. DOI
  • Ulf Rüegg, Steve Kieffer, Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow.
    Stress-Minimizing Orthogonal Layout of Data Flow Diagrams with Ports.
    In Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'13), LNCS 8871, pages 319–330. Springer-Verlag, 2014. DOI
  • Juliane Franze, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
    What Academics Want When Reading Digitally.
    In Proceedings of the 14th ACM Symposium on Document Engineering (DocEng '14), pages 199–202. ACM, 2014. DOI
  • Nadezhda T. Doncheva, Karsten Klein, John H. Morris, Michael Wybrow, Francisco S. Domingues and Mario Albrecht.
    Integrative Visual Analysis of Protein Sequence Mutations.
    In BMC Proceedings 2014: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Symposium on Biological Data Visualization 8(Suppl 2):S2, BioMed Central, 2014. DOI [HTML]
  • Kim Marriott, Peter J. Stuckey, and Michael Wybrow.
    Seeing Around Corners: Fast Orthogonal Connector Routing.
    In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams (Diagrams 2014), LNCS 8578, pages 31–37. Springer-Verlag, 2014. DOI [PDF]
  • Steve Kieffer, Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow.
    Incremental Grid-like Layout Using Soft and Hard Constraints
    In Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'13), LNCS 8242, pages 448–459. Springer-Verlag, 2013. DOI [PDF]
  • Zong Lei Jiao, Qiang Liu, Yuan-Fang Li, Kim Marriott and Michael Wybrow.
    Visualization of large ontologies with landmarks
    In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications (IVAPP 2013), pages 461–470, SciTePress, 2013. [PDF]
  • Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott and Peter J. Stuckey
    Orthogonal hyperedge routing
    In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams (Diagrams 2012), LNCS (LNAI) 7352, pages 51–64. Springer-Verlag, 2012. DOI [PDF]
  • Christian Bachmaier, Franz J. Brandenburg, Philip Effinger, Carsten Gutwenger, Jyrki Katajainen, Karsten Klein, Miro Spönemann, Matthias Stegmeier, and Michael Wybrow.
    The Open Graph Archive: A Community-Driven Effort
    In Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'11), LNCS 7034, pages 435–440. Springer-Verlag, 2012. DOI [PDF]
  • Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott and Peter J. Stuckey
    Orthogonal connector routing
    In Proceedings of 17th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'09), LNCS 5849, pages 219–231. Springer-Verlag, 2010. DOI [PDF]
  • Mario Albrecht, Andreas Kerren, Karsten Klein, Oliver Kohlbacher, Petra Mutzel, Wolfgang Paul, Falk Schreiber and Michael Wybrow
    On open problems in biological network visualization
    In Proceedings of 17th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'09), LNCS 5849, pages 256–267. Springer-Verlag, 2010. DOI [PDF]
  • Cameron Braganza, Kim Marriott, Peter Moulder, Michael Wybrow and Tim Dwyer.
    Scrolling behaviour with single- and multi-column layout
    In WWW '09: Proceedings of the 18th international conference on World Wide Web, pages 831–840. ACM Press, 2009. DOI [PDF]
  • Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
    Topology preserving constrained graph layout
    In Proceedings of 16th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'08), LNCS 5417, pages 230–241. Springer-Verlag, 2009. DOI [PDF]
  • Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
    Dunnart: A constraint-based network diagram authoring tool
    In Proceedings of 16th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'08), LNCS 5417, pages 420–431. Springer-Verlag, 2009. DOI [PDF]
  • Tim Dwyer, Kim Marriott, and Michael Wybrow.
    Integrating Edge Routing into Force-Directed Layout
    In Proceedings of 14th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'06), LNCS 4372, pages 8–19. Springer-Verlag, 2007. DOI [PDF]
  • Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott, and Peter J. Stuckey.
    Incremental Connector Routing
    In Proceedings of 13th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD'05), LNCS 3843, pages 446–457. Springer-Verlag, 2006. DOI [PDF]
  • Michael Wybrow, Kim Marriott, Linda McIver, and Peter J. Stuckey.
    The usefulness of constraints for diagram editing
    In Stephen Viller and Peta Wyeth, editors, OZCHI Proceedings, pages 192–201, Information Environments Program, University of Queensland, 2003. [PDF]

Dissertations:

  • Michael Wybrow. Using semi-automatic layout to improve the usability of diagramming software. PhD thesis, Monash University, 2008. [PDF]

PhD Students

Current:

Completed:

Contact details

Dr. Michael Wybrow
Faculty of Information Technology
Room 126, 25 Exhibition Walk
Monash University, Clayton campus
Clayton, VIC 3800
Australia

Phone: +61 3 9905 2479

Email: Email address