Top schools for database/data mining

[riteshn]

Hello

I am an MS student in Univ of Iowa planning to apply for PhD. What are the other good schools for databases/datamining?

I would like to apply 2 better colleges then Iowa and couple of colleges inferior to Univ of Iowa.

Anywhere where I can find more info?

[CalmLogic]

One way to find the higher-ranking schools may be to see where Microsoft's data mining researchers went to school:

https://research.microsoft.com/dmx/

I read a few of the researcher's profiles, and the universities where they got their PhDs included Columbia (which has a Database Research Group), Stanford (InfoLab), UIUC (Data Mining Research Group), and University of Wisconsin-Madison (data mining institute).

Another way is to see who is publishing the most at database journals/conferences, e.g.:

site:http://www.sigmod.org/ university - Google Search
site:http://www.sigmod.org/ .edu - Google Search
site:http://www.sigkdd.org/ .edu - Google Search
site:http://www.sigkdd.org/ university - Google Search

For a lower-ranking school, UIC (ranked # 59 by US News in 2007) seems to have a significant interest in data mining as they are a member of the Data Mining Group. UIC is also home to a professor who wrote a significant book on web data mining: Web Data Mining, book by Bing Liu

Similarly, some other authors and their universities:

Introduction to Data Mining

Pang-Ning Tan, Michigan State University
Michael Steinbach, University of Minnesota
Vipin Kumar, University of Minnesota

Introduction to Data Mining - Addison-Wesley and Benjamin Cummings Catalog

Two of the authors above are at the University of Minnesota, so it's not a surprise to see this:

The University of Minnesota is one of the world’s leading research centers in data mining. The faculty accomplishments have helped to demonstrate the potential of data mining in solving a wide range of practical problems.

DTC Data Mining Consortium (University of Minn.)

For more schools:

Data Mining Research at The Ohio State University

Knowledge Discovery Laboratory (UMass)

site:.edu database research - Google Search
site:.edu data mining research - Google Search

[riteshn]

Thank you for the info. I will do further research on it.

[CalmLogic]

Another list of relevant universities:

Steering Committee
Robert Grossman, University of Illinois, Chicago
Jiawei Han, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Anil K. Jain, Michigan State University
Vipin Kumar, Co – Chair, University of Minnesota
David Skillicorn, Queen's University, Canada

SIAM: SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM08)

What's interesting about the above list is that all of the universities except the one in Canada were mentioned in my first post. So there is certainly a trend emerging.

Of the universities in the list above, UIUC is certainly the highest ranked according to USNews, though USNews rankings are not specific to specialties like data mining. I also like the lower-ranking UIC at least as a safety school, especially since they use the GRE CS as a PhD qualifying exam:

http://www.urch.com/forums/gre-compu...ying-exam.html (The GRE CS can serve as a PhD Qualifying Exam)

Another university is UCF, which offers an M.S. in data mining:

Data Mining Program - Home Page

Some positive things about computer science at UCF is that a variety of research projects seem to be NASA funded and UCF produces more PhDs in computer science than most other universities. Though UCF ranks lower than UIC according to USNews, UCF does rank very high at #10 for student satisfaction according to a different survey:

CS Doctoral Program Ranking



BTW, it may at least slightly help your SOP if you become a contributor to an opensource data mining project:

Software: Suites for Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery

Also, it may help establish your interest in data mining if you become a student member of a data mining society, e.g. ACM SIGKDD: Welcome for only $12, especially if you attend a conference, even remotely:

The 13th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (free conference webcasts)
http://videolectures.net/Top/Computer_Science/
data mining - Google Video

If you haven't already taken an introductory course in data mining, you can mention that you audited the MIT OpenCourseWare:

MIT OpenCourseWare | Sloan School of Management | 15.062 Data Mining, Spring 2003 | Home

[MSHunter]

Thx a lot for the links.

BTW, it may at least slightly help your SOP if you become a contributor to an opensource data mining project:

Software: Suites for Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery

Any idea, how do i contribute to an Open Source project.
I mean ,i am not familiar with the process.
If there is an On-going project of my interest,then how can i approach them with my ideas ?

Also, it may help establish your interest in data mining if you become a student member of a data mining society, e.g. ACM SIGKDD: Welcome for only $12, especially if you attend a conference, even remotely:

The 13th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (free conference webcasts)
Videolectures category: Computer Science
data mining - Google Video

How do i justify in my SOP to the Universities that i am a member of IEEE or ACM, and have attended many Conferences (remotely) ?

If you haven't already taken an introductory course in data mining, you can mention that you audited the MIT OpenCourseWare:

MIT OpenCourseWare | Sloan School of Management | 15.062 Data Mining, Spring 2003 | Home

Thx, i will go through the course ware.
BTW i didn't get the auditing part here.
U mean i can also contribute to the Course ware?? Will they accept it ?

[CalmLogic]

Keep in mind that most of what I listed is not going to boost an application at all, though it could be helpful in writing the SOP. The only thing I mentioned that could really boost an application would be if you were a significant contributor to a major, well-known open source project like SQLite. However, to get to that point could take easily take 6 months of full-time work. Of course, research experience would be even more helpful, especially if one got published or presented at a conference.

Originally Posted by MSHunter

Any idea, how do i contribute to an Open Source project.

Not really. The best thing is to ask the developer(s) on the project. They often have a forum.

Also, for Fall 2008 admissions, it's too late to get much credit for doing so because you would want to be listed on the project's website as a contributor.

How do i justify in my SOP to the Universities that i am a member of IEEE or ACM, and have attended many Conferences (remotely) ?

Just being a member isn't going to help since there is no selectivity in the processes of joining. One could list one's ACM and IEEE membership numbers, but that's not really going to impress anyone. I just mentioned it as something that could be listed in a SOP or resume as a way of establishing interest, especially for those without work or research experience. Watching online videos of conference presentations would also be something that I would just mention in a SOP as a way of showing my motivations.

Thx, i will go through the course ware.
BTW i didn't get the auditing part here. [
U mean i can also contribute to the Course ware?? Will they accept it ?

MIT does not allow contributions to the courseware. I simply meant that one could mention in the SOP that one has used the MIT course materials for learning more about data mining. Auditing a course means to take a course without turning in work or getting a grade. Auditing an MIT opencourseware course would not boost an application since one could simply lie about it. It would be like saying "I read 5 textbooks on data mining." The CS admissions committee would not give the applicant the benefit of the doubt.