The 2012 Broadening Participation in Data Mining Workshop (BPDM 2012) will be the first workshop of its kind in data mining designed specifically to foster mentorship, guidance, and connections of underrepresented groups in data mining, while also enriching technical aptitude and exposure. The workshop will be co-hosted with the 2012 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM 2012), one of the premier conferences in the field of Data Mining. This proposal discusses the attendance and financial support of students from underrepresented groups to the workshop, as well as, to the conference. The conference provides a venue for students and researchers who are addressing data mining problems in areas such as science, engineering, industrial processes, healthcare, business, and medicine, to present their work in a peer-reviewed forum. It also provides an ideal setting for students and others new to the field to learn about cutting-edge research by hearing outstanding invited speakers and attending presentations, tutorials, and focused workshops. The funds will enable the students to attend both the workshop and the remainder of the meeting.
As data mining research and applications continue to expand into a variety of fields such as medicine, finance, security, marketing, biometrics, etc, the need for talented and diverse individuals is clearly felt. This is especially the case as Big Data initiatives have taken off in federal, private, and academic sectors, providing a wealth of opportunities, nationally and internationally. Accordingly, the Broadening Participation in Data Mining Program (BPDM) directly addresses this need by providing a venue for which students of underrepresented groups (URM) are exposed to technically rich content and guidance from senior researchers in industry, academia, and government. The BPDM structure is geared to provide students with opportunities to learn, share, and connect. Learn – students will attend various panels and keynote talks which will address common issues and advancements in data mining Share – mentoring activities will allow senior members of the community to share their experience and provide their advice to early-career researchers Connect – various networking breaks will allow students to connect with mentors and peers and expand their network. BPDM 2012 was held on April 28, 2012 in Anaheim, CA, in conjunction with the 2012 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining. It hosted nearly 40 attendees for the one-day event, including 22 early-career researchers (selected out of 70 completed applications), 11 panelists and 2 speakers. The BPDM 2012 feedback consisted of greater exposure to industry and startups, and greater diversity of technical content over a longer period of time. BPDM 2013 followed its 2012 success with a change of venue, expanded schedule, and continued growth and became co-located with the ACM SIGKDD 2013 Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) in Chicago, IL. BPDM 2013 also extended its program from one-day to two-days, taking place just prior to official conference activities. The program included two keynote presentations from distinguished women in data mining, two structured mentoring activities, two "In The Lab" tutorial sessions presenting the Hadoop and PMML technologies, and a Meet and Greet Reception. Organizers also sought to expand the BPDM network beyond the participant, speaker and panelist pool by engaging with social media and by streaming its keynote presentations live on the web. BPDM 2013 hosted nearly 65 attendees, including 30 on-site early-career researchers, nearly 15 senior researchers and 20 virtual attendees during the keynote presentations. Additional financial support was provided by CRAW/ CDC and Robert Bosch Research and Technology Center to cover expenses to attend both BPDM and the co-located data mining technical conference. Refer to www.dataminingshop.com for additional information on the past and future BPDM activities.
