The results of this work show that NemoViz reduced the time that users spent defining the inputs of a NEMO5 simulation. Regular NEMO5 users were exposed to NemoViz, and users’ effectiveness and efficiency was measured while debugging the input for a simulation. In this work we introduce NemoViz, an interactive visualization tool that enables users to define the simulation inputs required by NEMO5. NEMO5 is a tool designed to simulate the electronic properties of nanoelectronic devices on an atomistic level. This work features a case study on the creation of a nanoelectronic device simulation and provides evidence of how the use of visual analytics reduces the cognitive complexity of defining an atomistic simulation. In other fields, visual analytics have been used to facilitate user interaction with complex data. The introduction of visualizations to the simulation creation process could alleviate some common user issues with simulation creation, in particular regarding the input-text files.
These files contain details about the corresponding materials, geometries, algorithms, initial values, etc. The inputs required by these engines are usually described in long-text files, and their composition is error prone. These simulations are generally supported by complex and specific simulation engines that require a deep knowledge of the engine as well as the field. Given that the nanoscale regime has been reached, atomistic simulations are being used as predictive tools on a nanoscopic scale in nanoelectronics, materials science, and computational fluid dynamics.