Data Mining and Knowledge
Discovery
Sally I. McClean
University of Ulster
I. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
II. The Technologies
III. Data Mining for Different Data Types
IV. Key Application Areas
V. Future Developments
GLOSSARY
Association rules link the values of a group of attributes,
or variables, with the value of a particular attribute of
interest which is not included in the group.
Data mining process takes place in four main stages:
Data Pre-processing, Exploratory Data Analysis, Data
Selection, and Knowledge Discovery.
Data mining tools are software products; a growing
number of such products are becoming commercially
available. They may use just one approach (single
paradigm), or they may employ a variety of different
methods (multi-paradigm).
Deviation detection is carried out in order to discover
Interestingness in the data. Deviations may be detected
either for categorical or numerical data.
Interestingness is central to Data Mining where we are
looking for new knowledge which is nontrivial. It al-
lows the separation of novel and useful patterns from
the mass of dull and trivial ones.
Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) is the main
objective in Data Mining. The two terms are often used
synonymously, although some authors define Knowl-
edge Discovery as being carried out at a higher level
than Data Mining.
DATA MINING is the process by which computer pro-
grams are used to repeatedly search huge amounts of data,
usually stored in a Database, looking for useful new pat-
terns. The main developments that have led to the emer-
gence of Data Mining have been in the increased volume
of data now being collected and stored electronically, and
an accompanying maturing of Database Technology. Such
developments have meant that traditional Statistical Meth-
ods and Machine Learning Technologies have had to be
extended to incorporate increased demands for fast and
scaleable algorithms.
In recent years, Database Technology has developed in-
creasingly more efficient methods for data processing and
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