Interactive Data Visualization

This repository contains written instructions, links to code, and data used for the educational session on interactive data visualization at ESMRMB 2025 in Marseille, France on October 11th, 2025.

This tutorial contains two parts:

Part 1.) Interactive scatter plots

Part 2.) Interactive brain plots

Both parts involve a short presentation and overview of the learning content (stored in the presentation/ directory) and a python notebook for running the code (stored in the notebooks/ directory).

⚠️ Setup instructions for Google Colab ⚠️

We will be running all of our code in Google Colab python notebooks. These are essentially Jupyter notebooks run in the ☁️ cloud ☁️. Running our code using Colab will save us from dealing with python library installation and virtual environment setup. It also ensures that we are all working on the same operating system which makes troubleshooting much easier! Before you open the notebook, make sure you are logged into a Google account. All of the code has been tested using Google Chrome web browser.

Once you are in the Colab notebook tab, in the top right corner you will see a Connect (or Reconnect) button. Click on this, and a dropdown menu will appear as shown below. Click on Connect to hosted runtime this will allow you to run the notebook using Google’s cloud resources, which are likely much faster than your computer. If you would prefer to use your own computer’s resources (this is not recommended and instructors will not be able to help you troubleshoot if you are not running the notebook in the cloud), select Connect to local runtime.

⚠️ Note: sometimes if the notebook is left running for a long time without any activity (i.e. your computer goes to sleep), you will be disconnected from the runtime. In that case, you will need to click on this same button. It will appear as Reconnect instead of Connect. You will also need to re-run all code blocks.

➡️ In the Colab python notebook, there are 2 types of cells: text cells & code cells. The text cells have plain text in them, that the notebook will not interpret as code. These are the cells that contain the background story & task instructions. The code cells have a ▶️ play button on the left side. These are the cells that the notebook will run as code. To run a code cell, you can either click on the play button ▶️ on the left side or use ‘Shift + Enter’ (your cursor must be inside the code cell).

Before clicking on the colab button below, make sure you are logged into a google account and using Chrome or Firefox internet browser (hopefully a current version).