Special Topics: Math & Formal Foundations
Fall 2002 (03-1)
All available information about this course may be found at: http://www.pitt.edu/~hirtle/is2931.html
The course will provide an important foundation for
further study in diverse areas, such as information retrieval, cognitive
science, and marketing. The techniques discussed are also the foundation of many
modern data mining techniques. The course will count as one of the two required
foundations courses in the MSIS program or as one of the two required statistics
course for the Information Science Track of the DIST PhD program.
Please note that a certain degree of mathematical and statistical fluency is
required. It will be assumed that students have completed IS 2020, or the
equivalent. If you have not taken this course, then please contact the
instructor, via email, for permission to take the course.
Materials. The primary text for the term is
The following software package from the University of
Pittsburgh Software Licensing
Services is also required:
A complete set of powerpoint slides to accompany the text can be found at: http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~han/DM_Book.html. There is a separate list of the weekly reading assignments. Data analysis may also require accounts on sunfire.sis, unixs.cis, and vms.cis. See me if you have trouble getting an account on any of these machines. We will be using several packages and programs, including S-plus and Clementine/SPSS during the semester. Additional links related to the class can be found at the following sites:
Evaluation. Evaluation will occur through a
combination of three short papers and a term project. The papers can be one of
two types: A review or an analysis. A review will describe a current
problem in the data mining field and dicuss various proposed solutions,
including any solutions that you might suggest. An analytical paper will
consist of a short, written analysis of a data set using one or more techniques.
The papers will be will be limited to 5 pages of text, plus supporting graphs
and tables. For each paper, there will be a set of guidelines/topics that will
be distributed two weeks before the paper is due. Each paper will count 50
points. Late papers will lose 2 points each day it is late. No paper will be
accepted more than 7 days after the due date. All papers must be completed
independently. There must be at least one paper of each type at some point
in the term.
In addition to the short papers, there will be a separate term project, which will be similar to the papers in style, but will include a general discussion and must cover at least two of the topic areas. The written part of the project will be limited to 8 pages of text. The project will also be presented orally during the last class meeting. The entire project will be worth 100 points, including 10 points for the oral presentation. Any extenuating circumstances that would result in missing the final deadline must be discussed in advanced with the instructor. The oral presentation cannot be made up.
Special circumstances. If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accomodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Sevices, 216 William Pitt Union, (412-648-7890/TTY:412-383-7355) as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accomodations for this course. In addition, you should be aware that my office is up a short flight of stairs. If this problematic, I am happy to arrange a meeting in an accessible location at any time.
Other References | CSNA | KD Nuggets | Citeseer