An Intelligent Assistant for the Knowledge Discovery Process

Abstract

A knowledge discovery (KD) process involves pre- data, choosing a data-mining algorithm, and postprocessing the mining results. There are very manychoices for each of these stages, and non-trivial interactions between them. Consequently, both novicesand data-mining specialists need assistance in navigating the space of possible KD processes. We present the concept of Intelligent Discovery Assistants (IDAs), which provide users with (i) systematic enu- merations of valid KD processes, so important, potentially fruitful options are not overlooked, and (ii) effective rankings of these valid processes by differentcriteria, to facilitate the choice of KD processes toexecute. We use a prototype to show that an IDA canindeed provide useful enumerations and effective rankings.