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Notes For Data Mining and Machine Learning
Notes For Data Mining and Machine Learning
Data mining is the process of mining large, usually vast, amounts of data, to extract information
into usable structures. Typically the structures are patterns in the data, which are novel and
interesting, for example grouping in the data, unusual data, or dependencies.
An example of an extracted dependency could be: Out of all M.Sc. and MCA students: Those
who attended NCDMA14 would pass in first class, with a probability of 90%.
Machine learning is a tool used by data mining to extract patterns. Earlier, experts would analyze
data and come up with a model for predicting new unseen input data. Machine learning takes
example data directly and learns a model from them, because of this, it can be used on much
larger data than what human experts can use, and it can be used for data where it is near to
impossible for a human expert to identify the model.
Machine learning is very popular at the moment, the free Machine Learning course from Stanford
University is by far the most popular online training in the world.
Machine Learning finds uses in many diverse areas, instead of business revenue optimization
where it began. Forbes recently identified novel ideas based on the use of machine learning1 :
● Amazon challenge: Automating employee access control the idea is, that granting and
revoking access to resources is automated, based on the users’ features (for access to
other resources)
● Animal protection: Learning sounds of whales in the ocean, so ships can steer clear of
them, and, learning bird sounds so researchers can map dangered species.
● Emergency room wait times: Learn a model considering staff level, patient data, room
layout, etc. The model implicitly evaluates a patient’s survival chances at the ER.
● Identifying heart failure: Analysis of patient journals to catch wrongly diagnosed heart
problems before they become fatal.
● Stroke and seizure prediction: Analysis of accelerometer data in smartphone to identify a
critical patient condition.
All are examples of what earlier required a human expert to look at data and make an evaluation,
but, which can now be done fully automatically by computers.
1
http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2014/01/06/sixnovelmachinelearningapplications/