1.

Introduction to Data Mining

Grading
60% during the semester:
10% Course activity (course attendance)
20% Midterm exam (questions with multiple choice
answers)
30% Project (project attendance, algorithm
presentation, project delivery)

40% Final exam (questions with multiple choice

answers)
Course site:
http://faima.curs.pub.ro/
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Road Map
What is data mining
Steps in data mining process
Data mining methods and subdomains
Summary

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Definition ([Liu 11])

Data mining is also called Knowledge Discovery
in Databases (KDD).
It is commonly defined as the process of
discovering useful patterns or knowledge from
data sources, e.g., databases, texts, images, the
web, etc.
The patterns must be valid, potentially useful
and understandable.

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Definition ([Ullman 09, 10])

Discovery of useful, possibly unexpected,
patterns in data.
Discovery of models for data:
Statistical modeling
Machine learning
Computational Approaches to Modeling
Summarization
Feature Extraction
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Definition ([Wikipedia])
Data mining (the analysis step of the knowledge
discovery in databases process, or KDD) is the process
of discovering new patterns from large data sets
involving methods at the intersection of artificial
intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database
systems.
The goal of data mining is to extract knowledge from a
data set in a human-understandable structure and
involves database and data management, data
preprocessing, model and inference considerations,
interestingness metrics, complexity considerations, postprocessing of found structure, visualization and online
updating.
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Definition ([Kimball, Ross 02])

A class of undirected queries, often against the most
atomic data, that seek to find unexpected patterns in the
data.
The most valuable results from data mining are
clustering, classifying, estimating, predicting, and finding
things that occur together.
There are many kinds of tools that play a role in data
mining. The principal tools include decision trees, neural
networks, memory- and cased-based reasoning tools,
visualization tools, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, and
classical statistics.
Generally, data mining is a client of the data warehouse.
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Conclusions
The data mining process converts data into valuable
knowledge that can be used for decision support
Data mining is a collection of data analysis
methodologies, techniques and algorithms for
discovering new patterns
Data mining is used for large data sets
Data mining process is automated (no need for human
intervention)
Data mining and Knowledge Discovery in Databases
(KDD) are considered by some authors to be the same
thing. Other authors list data mining as the analysis step
in the KDD process - after data cleaning and
transformation and before results visualization /
evaluation.
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Success stories (1)

Some early success stories in using data mining (from
[Ullman 03]):
Decision trees constructed from bank-loan histories to
produce algorithms to decide whether to grant a loan.
Patterns of traveler behavior mined to manage the sale
of discounted seats on planes, rooms in hotels, etc.
Diapers and beer" Observation that customers buying
diapers are more likely to buy beer than average,
allowing supermarkets to place beer and diapers nearby,
knowing that many customers would walk between them.
Placing potato chips between increased sales of all three
items.
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Success stories (2)

Skycat and Sloan Sky Survey: clustering sky objects by
their radiation levels in different bands allowed
astronomers to distinguish between galaxies, nearby
stars, and many other kinds of celestial objects.
Comparison of the genotype of people with/without a
condition allowed the discovery of a set of genes that
together account for many cases of diabetes. This sort of
mining will become much more important as the human
genome is constructed.

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What is not Data Mining

Find a certain person in an employee database

Compute the minimum, maximum, sum, count or
average values based on table/tables columns
Use a search engine to find your name occurrences on
the web

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DM software (1)
In ([Mikut, Reischl 11]) DM software programs are classified in 9
categories:
Data mining suites (DMS) focus on data mining and include
numerous methods and support feature tables and time series.
Examples:
Commercial: IBM SPSS Modeler, SAS Enterprise Miner, DataEngine,
GhostMiner, Knowledge Studio, NAG Data Mining Components,
STATISTICA
Open source: RapidMiner

Business intelligence packages (BIs) include basic data mining

functionality - statistical methods in business applications, are often
restricted to feature tables and time series and large feature tables
are supported. Examples:
Commercial: IBM Cognos 8 BI, Oracle DataMining, SAPNetweaver
Business Warehouse, Teradata Database, DB2 Data Warehouse from
IBM
Open source: Pentaho
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DM software (2)
Mathematical packages (MATs) provide a large and extendable set
of algorithms and visualization routines. Examples:
Commercial: MATLAB, R-PLUS

Open source: Octave, R, Kepler

Integration packages (INTs) are extendable bundles of many

different open-source algorithms
Stand-alone software (KNIME, the GUI-version of WEKA, KEEL, and
TANAGRA)
Larger extension package for tools from the MAT type

Extensions (EXT) are smaller add-ons for other tools such as

Excel, Matlab, R, with limited but quite useful functionality.
Examples:
Artificial neural networks for Excel (Forecaster XL and XLMiner)
MATLAB (Matlab Neural Networks Toolbox).
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DM software (3)
Data mining libraries (LIBs) implement data mining methods as a
bundle of functions and can be embedded in other software tools
using an Application Programming Interface. Examples: Neurofusion
for C++, WEKA, MLC++, JAVA Data Mining Package, LibSVM

Specialties (SPECs) are similar to DMS tools, but implement only

one special family of methods such as artificial neural networks.
Examples: CART, Bayesia Lab, C5.0, WizRule, Rule Discovery
System, MagnumOpus, JavaNNS, Neuroshell, NeuralWorks Predict,
RapAnalyst.
Research (RES) are usually the first implementations of new
algorithms, with restricted graphical support and without automation
support. RES tools are mostly open source. WEKA and RapidMiner
started in this category.
Solutions (SOLs) describe a group of tools that are customized to
narrow application fields. Examples: for text mining: GATE, image
processing: ITK, ImageJ, drug discovery: Molegro Data Modeler
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Communities involved
The most important communities involved in
data mining
STATISTICS

DATABASE
SYSTEMS

AI
DATA
MINING

CLUSTERING

VISUALIZATION

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Road Map
What is data mining
Steps in data mining process
Data mining methods and subdomains
Summary

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Data mining steps (1)

1.

Data collection: Data gathering from existing

databases or (for Internet documents) from Web
crawling.
Data preprocessing, including:

2.

Data cleaning: replace (or remove) missing values, smooth

noisy data, remove or just identify outliers, remove
inconsistencies.
Data integration: integration of data from multiple sources, with
possible different data types and structures and also handling
of duplicate or inconsistent data.
Data transformation: data normalization (or standardization),
summarizations, generalization, new attributes construction,
etc.
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Data mining steps (2)

2.

Data preprocessing (cont):

Data reduction (called also feature extraction): not all the

attributes are necessary for the particular Data Mining process
we want to perform. Only relevant attributes are selected for
further processing reducing the total size of the dataset (and
the time needed for running the algorithm).
Discretization: some algorithms work only on discrete data.
For that reason the values for continuous attributes must be
replaced with discrete ones from a limited set. One example is
replacing age (number) with an attribute having only three
values: Young, Middle-age and Old.

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Data mining steps (3)

3.

4.

5.

Pattern extraction and discovery. This is the stage

where the data mining algorithm is used to obtain the
result. Some authors consider that Data Mining is
reduced only at this step, the whole process being
called KDD.
Visualization: because data mining extracts hidden
properties/information from data it is necessary to
visualize the results for a better understanding and
evaluation. Also needed for the input data.
Evaluation of results: not everything that outputs
from a data mining algorithm is a valuable fact or
information. Some of them are statistic truths and
others are not interesting/useful for our activity. Expert
judgment is necessary in evaluating the results
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Bonferroni principle (1)

A true information discovered by a data mining process
can be a statistical truth. Example (from [Ullman 03]):
o In 1950s David Rhine, a parapsychologist, tested students in
order to find if they have or not extrasensorial perception (ESP).
o He asked them to guess the color of 10 successive cards red
or black. The result was that 1/1000 of them guessed all 10
cards (he declared they have ESP).
o Re-testing only these students he found that they have lost ESP
after knowing they have this feature
o David Rhine did not realize that the probability of guessing 10
successive cards is 1/1024 = 1/210 , because the probability for
each of these 10 cards is (red or black).

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Bonferroni principle (2)

This kind of results may be included in the output of a
data mining algorithm but must be recognized as a
statistical truth and not real data mining output.
This fact is also the object of the Bonferroni principle.
This can be synthesized as below:
If there are too many possible conclusions to draw, some
will be true for purely statistical reasons, with no physical
validity.
or
If you look in more places for interesting patterns than
your amount of data will support, you are bound to find
meaningless patterns.
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Road Map
What is data mining
Steps in data mining process
Data mining methods and subdomains
Summary

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Method types

Prediction methods. These methods use some

variables to predict the values of other variables. A
good example for that category is classification. Based
on known, labeled data, classification algorithms build
models that can be used for classifying new, unseen
data.
Description methods: algorithms in this category find
patterns that can describe the inner structure of the
dataset. For example clustering algorithms find groups
of similar objects in a dataset (called clusters) and
possible isolated objects, far away from any cluster,
called outliers.
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Algorithms
Prediction algorithm types:
Classification
Regression
Deviation Detection

Description algorithm types:

Clustering
Association Rule Discovery
Sequential Pattern Discovery
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Classification
Input:
A set of k classes C = {c1, c2, , ck}
A set of n labeled items D = {(d1, ci1), (d2, ci2), , (dn
cin)}. The items are d1, , dn, each item dj being labeled
with class cj C. D is called the training set.
For calibration of some algorithms a validation set is
required. This validation set contains also labeled items
not included in the training set.
Output:
A model or method for classifying new items. The set of
new items that will be classified using the model/method
is called the test set
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Example
Let us consider a medical set of items where each item
is a patient of a hospital emergency unit.
o There are 5 classes, representing maximum waiting time
categories: C0, C10, C30, C60 and C120, Ck meaning the
patient waits maximum k minutes.
o We may represent these data in tabular format
o The output of a classification algorithm using this training set
may be for example a decision tree or a set of ordered rules.
o The model may be used to classify future patients and assign a
waiting time label to them

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Emergency unit training set

Name (or

Vital

Danger

0 resource

1 resource

>1

>1 resource

Waiting

ID)

risk?

if

needed

needed

resource

needed and

time

needed

vital function s

(class

affected

label)

waits?

John

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

C0

Maria

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

C10

Nadia

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

C0

Omar

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

C30

Kiril

No

No

No

Yes

No

Yes

C60

Denis

No

No

No

No

Yes

No

C10

Jean

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

C120

Patricia

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

C60

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Result: decizion tree

The result for the example:

Felix

will be C0
28

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

?????

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Regression (1)
Regression is related with statistics.
Meaning: predicting a value of a given
continuous valued variable based on the values
of other variables, assuming a linear or
nonlinear model of dependency ([Tan,
Steinbach, Kumar 06]).
Used in prediction and forecasting - its use
overlaps machine learning.
Regression analysis is also used to understand
relationship between independent variables and
dependent variable and can be used to
infer causal relationships between them.
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Regression (2)
- There are many types of regression.
For example, Wikipedia lists:
Linear regression model
Simple linear regression
Logistic regression
Nonlinear regression
Nonparametric regression
Robust regression
Stepwise regression

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Example
Linear regression example
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linear_regression.svg)

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Deviation detection
Deviation detection or anomaly detection means discovering
significant deviation from the normal behavior. Outliers are a
significant category of abnormal data.
Deviation detection can be used in many circumstances:
Data mining algorithm running stage: often such information may
be important for business decisions and scientific discovery.
Auditing: such information can reveal problems or mal-practices.
Fraud detection in a credit card system: fraudulent claims often
carry inconsistent information that can reveal fraud cases.
Intrusion detection in a computer network may rely on abnormal
data.
Data cleaning (part of data preprocessing): such information can
be detected and possible mistakes may be corrected in this
stage.

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Deviation detection techniques

Distance based techniques (example: k-nearest neighbor).
One Class Support Vector Machines.
Predictive methods (decision trees, neural networks).
Cluster analysis based outlier detection.
Pointing at records that deviate from association rules
Hotspot analysis

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Algorithms
Prediction algorithm types:
Classification
Regression
Deviation Detection

Description algorithm types:

Clustering
Association Rule Discovery
Sequential Pattern Discovery
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Clustering
Input:
A set of n objects D = {d1, d2, , dn} (called usually points).
The objects are not labeled and there is no set of class labels
defined.
A distance function (dissimilarity measure) that can be used to
compute the distance between any two points. Low valued
distance means near, high valued distance means far.
Some algorithms also need a predefined value for the number
of clusters in the produced result.
Output:
A set of object (point) groups called clusters where points in
the same cluster are near one to another and points from
different clusters are far one from another, considering the
distance function.
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Example
- Having a set of points in a 2 dimensional space, find the
natural clusters formed by these points.
INITIAL

AFTER CLUSTERING

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cluster-1.svg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cluster-2.svg

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Association Rule Discovery

Let us consider:
A set of m items I = {i1, i2, , im}.
A set of n transactions T = { t1, t2, , tn}, each
transaction containing a subset of I, so if tk T
then tk = {ik1, ik2, , ikj} where j depends on k.

Then:
A rule is a construction X Y where X and Y are
itemsets.

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Association Rule Discovery

- The support of a rule is the number of occurrences of the
union between left and right part of the rule in T (and the
support of this union as an itemset):

support(X Y) = support(XY)
- The confidence of a rule is the proportion of transactions
containing Y in the set of transactions containing X:

confidence(X Y) = support(XY) / support(X).

- We accept a rule as a valid one if the support and the
confidence of the rule are at least equal with some given
thresholds.
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Association Rule Discovery

Input:
A set of m items I = {i1, i2, , im}.
A set of n transactions T = { t1, t2, , tn}, each transaction containing a
subset of I, so if tk T then tk = {ik1, ik2, , ikj} where j depends on k.
A threshold s called support, given either as a percent or in absolute
value.
If an itemset X I is part of w transactions then w is the support of X. If
w >= s then X is called frequent itemset
A second threshold c for rule confidence.

Output:
The set of frequent itemsets in T, having support >= s
The set of rules derived from T
having support >= s and confidence >= c
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Example
Consider the following set of transactions:
Transaction

Items

ID
1

Bread, Milk, Butter, Orange Juice, Onion, Beer

Bread, Milk, Butter, Onion, Garlic, Beer, Orange Juice, Shirt,

Pen, Ink, Baby diapers

Milk, Butter, Onion, Garlic, Beer

Orange Juice, Shirt, Shoes, Bread, Milk

Butter, Onion, Garlic, Beer, Orange Juice

If s = 60% then {Bread, Milk, Orange Juice} or {Onion, Garlick, Beer}

are frequent itemsets. Also if s = 60% and c=70% then the rule
{Onion, Beer} {Garlic} is a valid one because its support is 60%
and the confidence is 75%.
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Sequences
The model:
- Itemset: a set of n distinct items
I = {i1, i2, , in }
- Event: a non-empty collection of items;
- we can assume that items are in a given (e.g.
lexicographic) order: (i1,i2 ik)

- Sequence : an ordered list of events

< e1 e2 em >

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Sequential Pattern Discovery

Input:
- A set of sequences S (or a sequence database).
- A Boolean function that can test if a sequence S1 is included (or is a
subsequence) of a sequence S2. In that case S2 is called a
supersequence of S1.
- A threshold s (percent or absolute value) needed for finding frequent
sequences.

Output:
- The set of frequent sequences, i.e. the set of sequences that are
included in at least s sequences from S.
- Sometimes a set of rules can be derived from the set of frequent
sequences, each rule being of the form S1 S2 where S1 and S2 are
sequences.

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Examples
- In a bookstore we can find frequent sequences like:

{(Book_on_C, Book_on_C++), (Book_on_Perl)}

- From this sequence we can derive a rule like that: after
buying books about C and C++, a customers buys books
on Perl:

Book_on_C, Book_on_C++ Book_on_Perl

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Summary
This first course presented:
A list of alternative definitions of Data Mining and some examples of
what is Data Mining and what is not Data Mining
A discussion about the researchers communities involved in Data
Mining and about the fact that Data Mining is a cluster of
subdomains
The steps of the Data Mining process from collecting data located in
existing repositories (data warehouses, archives or operational
systems) to the final evaluation step.
A brief description of the main subdomains of Data Mining with some
examples for each of them.
Next week: Data preprocessing

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References

[Liu 11] Bing Liu, 2011. Web Data Mining, Exploring Hyperlinks, Contents, and
Usage Data, Second Edition, Springer, 1-13.

[Tan, Steinbach, Kumar 06] Pang-Ning Tan, Michael Steinbach, Vipin Kumar, 2006.
Introduction to Data Mining, Adisson-Wesley, 1-16.

[Kimbal, Ross 02] Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross, 2002. The Data Warehouse Toolkit,
Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 1-16, 396

[Mikut, Reischl 11] Ralf Mikut and Markus Reischl, Data mining tools, 2011, Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, Volume 1, Issue
5, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/widm.24/pdf

[Ullman] Jeffrey Ullman, Data Mining Lecture Notes, 2003-2009, web page:
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/mining/mining.html

[Wikipedia] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, en.wikipedia.org

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