Data Mining & Machine Learning Research

NEW Hardiman PhD Scholarships Available

NUI Galway is inviting applications for Hardiman Research Scholarships, which are fully-funded 4-year PhD scholarships, for research across all disciplines in the university. The value of each Research Scholarship is a stipend of €16,000 per year (tax free) plus fees.

The deadline is 7 January 2012. You can find further information, including guidelines and the application procedure, at: http://www.nuigalway.ie/hardiman-scholarships/

I am always pleased to discuss research project ideas that are related to the Data Mining and Machine Learning Group's research activities:

Artificial intelligence, data mining & machine learning
Algorithms for classification and numeric prediction
New methods for combining domain knowledge with data mining
Time series data analysis
Probability, reasoning under uncertainty, and Bayesian networks
Reinforcement learning
Practical applications of data mining and machine learning in science, engineering & medicine.

At present, for example, we are working on research ranging from methods to analyse chemical data and new techniques for monitoring patients in Intensive Care Units to non-player game characters that learn and improve over time.

Please contact me if you are interested in applying and I can help.

Research Overview

The Data Mining and Machine Learning Group is led by Michael Madden of the College of Engineering & Informatics, NUI Galway.

Our research is focused on new theoretical advances in machine learning and data mining, motivated by important practical applications, on the basis that challenging applications foster novel algorithms which in turn enable new applications.

Specific research topics include:

Artificial intelligence, data mining & machine learning
Algorithms for classification and numeric prediction
New methods for combining domain knowledge with data mining
Time series data analysis
Probability, reasoning under uncertainty, and Bayesian networks
Reinforcement learning
Practical applications of data mining and machine learning in science, engineering & medicine.

For more specific information, take a look at our current and recent research projects, our publications, and the current and past members of our group. You can also contact me with questions.

Nonlinearity and Uncertainty in Drug Modelling

Project Overview

This is a strongly interdisciplinary collaborative project, involving Informatics, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, with an application in Medical Informatics. The project collaborators include researchers in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics in NUI Galway, the Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital Galway, as well as Prof. Stuart Russell’s group in Computer Science in the University of California at Berkeley.

In an ICU ward, computer systems constantly monitor and record data such as changes in heart rate and blood pressure. This project will develop software techniques that uses this data, and will add new mathematics and computing techniques that infer patient response to certain drugs in real-time, to predict the impact on the patient of different drug regimes. This will allow for drug treatments to be tailored to the individual. This contrasts with the current practice of basing treatments on standardised data, taken from clinical trials using healthy volunteers, who might not respond in the same way as sick patients.

Analyze-IQ: Intelligent Analytical Chemistry Software

We have developed a software suite, Analyze IQ, for the accurate analysis of data from molecular spectroscopy (initially focusing on Raman spectroscopy). Analyze IQ incorporates innovative patent-protected machine learning methods that we have developed specifically for this application domain, but also supports a range of standard machine learning and chemometric techniques.

The Analyze IQ software also comprises a Raman spectral library of over 2000 different materials. This will help specialists in laboratories and non-specialists in the field identify and quantify illicit and hazardous substances rapidly, easily and accurately. It features intuitive visualisation of results.

Analyze IQ is based on previous interdisciplinary R&D work in the QRS/ML and Hazard-IQ projects, by Dr Michael Madden (Data Mining & Machine Learning Group) , Dr Alan Ryder (Nanoscale Biophotonics, School of Chemistry) and Dr Tom Howley.