** Special Session on Machine Learning for Business

part of IJCNN:
2012 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence
Brisbane, Australia
June 10-15, 2012

* MORE INFORMATION
http://www.icmc.usp.br/~mlb-wcci

* ORGANIZERS
André Carvalho, University of São Paulo (USP) at São Carlos, Brazil
Carlos Soares, LIAAD-INESC TEC-Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Ricardo B. C. Prudêncio, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) at Recife, Brazil
Teresa B. Ludermir, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) at Recife, Brazil


* DESCRIPTION
Business, government and science organizations are increasingly moving towards decision-making processes that are based on information. In parallel, the amount of data representing the activities of organizations that is stored in databases is also growing. Therefore, the pressure to extract as much useful information as possible from this data is very strong. Many tools for Data Mining (DM) and Business Intelligence (BI) have been developed for that purpose, including Neural Networks and other Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. These methods are increasingly being integrated into other information systems and tools (e.g., customer relationship management, database management systems, network security tools). Despite the maturity of the field, new problems and applications are continuously challenging both researchers and practitioners. The successful development of solutions for those problems requires that companies and universities work in close contact. Feedback from people with a business-oriented perspective is useful to assess current research results and to provide researchers with new challenges to work on. On the other hand, practitioners as well as decision makers in general need to be in touch with state-of-the-art research. Otherwise, they will not be able to provide the best solutions to their problems or to the problems of their clients. However, contact between these two communities is not as frequent as would be desirable. Although neural networks, pattern recognition, data mining and machine learning conferences provide an important contribution, they mostly attract an audience with a more technical and research background.

Following the successful organization of similar events together with other prestigious conferences (KDD, ECML-PKDD and PAKDD), in 2012 we have teamed up with IJCNN. The goal of this special session is to bring together practitioners and researchers both from companies, government and academia, therefore promoting the exchange of experiences, ideas and challenges.


* OBJECTIVES
To promote the exchange of ideas between researchers and practitioners, from companies, government and universities and coming from different areas of expertize, including neural networks, machine learning, data mining, pattern recognition, soft computing, fuzzy systems and statistics. This is achieved by presenting and discussing:
-case studies and experience reports of the application of intelligent technologies, emphasizing the benefits as well as the lessons learned
-challenges and innovative applications
-integration of intelligent technologies with other technologies and business processes


* TOPICS OF INTEREST
We are interested in presentations concerning applications, techniques and products. We are interested in applications from (but not restricted to) the following areas: government, banking and finance, insurance, retail, e-business, telecommunications, network security, entertainment, automotive industry, health and pharmaceutics.

We welcome success stories as well as applications which did not succeed. In any case the presentations should include lessons learned that can be useful in different situations. Submissions comparing different tools on applications are also interesting. In the case of techniques, we are particularly interested in innovative techniques used to address novel problems. Finally, submissions concerning tools can describe the integration of computational intelligence technologies into Information Systems tools of different kinds, especially in the case of tools for vertical applications.


* SUBMISSION
Papers should be submitted following the instructions at the WCCI 2012 web site at: http://www.ieee-wcci2012.org/
Select the correct special session AND notify the chairs of your submission by sending email to dmbiz@fep.up.pt.

* IMPORTANT DATES
-Paper submission deadline: January 18, 2012
-Paper acceptance notification: February 20, 2012
-Final paper submission: April 2, 2012
-Conference: June 10-15 2012