Profiled in SAFE (22 January 2005) — A new book has just been published that describes recent R&D on security technologies (Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World, HarperCollins 2005). Chapter 12 ("The Dangers of Data") profiles the research of KDL and several other research groups around the country on technologies for knowledge discovery and data mining.

Tutorial at AFRL (21 January 2005) — Matthew Rattigan and I gave a tutorial on knowledge discovery and data mining at the Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Invited talk at IAEA workshop (5 October 2004) — I gave an invited talk at a workshop on "Turning Information into Knowledge" sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The workshop, held in New York City, was convened by IAEA's Division of Safeguards' Information Technology (SGIT), which is responsible for collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating information to support IAEA's inspectors.

Invited talk at DHS workshop (23 September 2004) — I gave an invited talk at a workshop on data sciences sponsored by the Advanced Scientific Computing Program of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The workshop was intended to provide identify key technologies and research goals for the next five years of DHS- sponsored research in data sciences.

SIGKDD panel on privacy (25 August 2004) — I served on a panel discussing issues of privacy and data mining at the 10th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.

Invited talk at Yahoo Labs (10 June 2004) — I gave an invited talk at a workshop on social networks convened by Yahoo! Research Labs.

Invited talk at LLNL (8 June 2004) — I gave an invited talk on analyzing complex networks at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories' Center for Applied Scientific Computing.

Associate Professor (1 September 2004) — In late April 2004, I accepted a tenure-track appointment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as Associate Professor of Computer Science. The appointment became effective September 1. The Department is a remarkable community of people who combine first-rate minds, creative spirits, and kind hearts. I look forward to contributing to this community for many years to come.

Invited talk to EFF/NISS Panel (21 April 2004) — I gave an invited talk to a panel organized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences to study the technical feasibility of using data mining to discover terrorist threats. The panel was co-chaired by Professors Stephen Fienberg (Carnegie Mellon) and David Banks (Duke University), and the other members were Christopher Clifton (Purdue University), Cynthia Dwork (Microsoft Research) and Herbert Edelstein (Two Crows Corporation).

AP story on data mining and counter-terrorism (23 February 2004) — I was quoted in an Associated Press story that appeared in dozens of national and regional newspapers. The article repeats widespread misperceptions of research in knowledge discovery and data mining. For more explanation, see an invited talk I presented several places in 2002 and 2003, including the National Research Council, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Also, see a thoughtful article ("Data Mining and Domestic Security: Connecting the Dots to Make Sense of Data") by K.A. Taipale that appeared recent in the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review that quotes extensively from that invited talk.

Donald D. Jensen (1930-2003) — My father died on December 13. I gave a eulogy at his memorial service in January, and the program included a brief biography.

Invited talk at TTI-Vanguard Meeting (24 September 2003) — I gave an invited talk to a meeting of TTI-Vanguard, "a unique forum for the introduction, discussion and evaluation of emerging and breakthrough information technologies."

NSF ITR grant — Andrew McCallum and I received a five-year $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the creation and use of unified graphical models for information extraction and data mining.

Course in Computational Social Network Analysis (Fall 2003) — Andrew McCallum and I taught a graduate seminar on what we termed "computational social network analysis."

Invited talk to Center for Democracy and Technology (28 August 2003) — I gave an invited talk on data mining in networks at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, DC. The meeting was attended by several Congressional staffers, as well as representatives from a handful of Federal agencies and corporations.

KDL awarded KDD Cup (24 August 2003) — Students and staff from my laboratory entered and won first place in the KDD Cup competition, the most widely recognized competitive evaluation of technologies for knowledge discovery. We won first place in the Open Task, which asked entrants to define interesting analysis tasks and then complete those tasks. Our paper — "Exploiting Relational Structure to Understand Publication Patterns in High Energy Physics" — combined a wide variety of analyses to elucidate the world of scientific publishing in high-energy physics.

Papers at summer conferences (August 2003) — My students, colleagues, and I presented several papers at conferences in August, including several papers on new algorithms for knowledge discovery (relational dependency networks, relational probability trees, multiple-instance learning in relational data, and clustering relational data), a paper on statistical biases in relational learning, and a paper on assessing the utility of relational data for information awareness.

Invited talk to KDD 2003 Workshops on Link Analysis and Data Cleansing (27 August 2003) — I gave an invited talk on "How the structure of relational data should affect data analysis" to a joint session of two workshops at KDD 2003.

IJCAI Workshop on Learning Statistical Models from Relational Data (11 August 2003) — Lise Getoor and I organized the Workshop on Learning Statistical Models from Relational Data at IJCAI 2003. The workshop was attended by approximately 60 people from the machine learning and data mining communities.

Invited talk to Center for Strategic and International Studies (23 July 2003) — I gave an invited talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as part of theirWorkshops on Data Mining and Privacy Oversight.

Keynote address to SIAM Workshop on Data Mining and Counter Terrorism (3 May 2003) — I gave the keynote address at the Workshop on Data Mining and Counter Terrorism at the SIAM International Conference on Data Mining.

Invited talk to CMU's AI seminar (8 April 2003) — I gave an invited talk as part of AI Seminar at the CMU's Computer Science Department.

Invited talk to National Research Council Roundtable on Social and Behavioral Sciences and Terrorism (11 December 2002) — I gave an invited talk to the Roundtable on Social and Behavioral Sciences and Terrorism of the National Research Council on December 11 in Washington, DC.

Institute for Defense Analyses' review panel (Fall 2002 and Spring 2003) — I served on an external review panel organized by the Institute for Defense Analyses for a software development project by the National Security Agency.

Invited talk to National Academy of Sciences Symposium on Dynamic Social Network Analysis and Modelling (8 November 2002) — I presented a paper at the National Academy of Sciences Symposium on Dynamic Social Network Analysis and Modelling on November 7-9 in Washington, DC

Participated in Machine Intelligence Symposium (September 2002) — I gave an invited talk at the 19th Machine Intelligence Workshop in Wye, Kent.

Papers at summer conferences (July 2002) — Jen Neville and I published papers on the effects of linkage and autocorrelation on feature selection and evaluation of relational learners.

Invited talk to CMU's Heinz School (22 April 2002) — I gave an invited talk at the Research Seminar Series at CMU's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management on "Knowledge Discovery in Networks." The talk was co-sponsored by the Center for the Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems.

Participated in White House Roundtable on Data Mining for Counter-Terrorism (8 February 2002) — I participated in a roundtable convened by the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House Conference Center.

Quoted in U.S. News and World Report (17 December 2001) — I was quoted in an article on the use of knowledge discovery software for preventing terrorism that appeared in U.S. News and World Report ("Mass Deduction" by James M. Pethokoukis).

Quoted on National Public Radio's Morning Edition (15 October 2001) — I was quoted in a report on National Public Radio's Morning Edition ("Terror Networks" by Joe Palca).

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