Dr. Rakesh Mittal conducted a workshop titled, “Data-mining de-mystified” on April 26. During the workshop, Dr. Mittal addressed many important questions related to data mining. He explained, “data mining is the process of finding and extracting useful information and insights from large data sets” (Mittal). Additionally, Dr. Mittal discussed why data mining is relevant to us. According to Dr. Mittal, it is relevant because we are currently living in a data-driven economy. Moreover, “the collection and use of data for business decisions is growing at an alarming rate, and business analytical skills are almost a must for every graduate of a business school” (Mittal). Dr. Mittal also believes that the knowledge of these tools can be used to upgrade teaching styles and methods, and that data analytics skills are very useful for industry products and consulting. In addition to explaining data mining and its relevancy today, Dr. Mittal used real data to demonstrate how a data-mining/ machine learning tool can be used to build and validate a predictive model. He also addressed questions regarding industries and fields for data mining, as well as how it is learned.

The workshop was attended by ten School of Management faculty and three members of the Data Warehousing Group, who are from the Information Technology and Infrastructure department. The workshop was very well received as it received the highest rating for impact, which is a five.

By Konstance Teleisha