Advanced Data Mining Techniques

Jeffrey D. Ullman is the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Engineering (Emeritus) in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and CEO of Gradiance Corp. After earning his B.S. from Columbia University in 1963 and Ph.D. from Princeton in 1966, he worked at Bell Laboratories before joining Princeton's faculty in 1969. In 1979, he moved to Stanford, where he served as chair of the Computer Science Department from 1990 to 1994. Ullman's contributions to computer science span databases, compilers, automata theory, and algorithms, authoring 16 influential books that have shaped generations of computer scientists. His work with Alfred Aho, particularly on compiler design and algorithms, earned them the 2020 Turing Award, the highest honor in computer science. Ullman's numerous accolades include election to the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and prestigious awards such as the Knuth Prize and the IEEE von Neumann medal. At Stanford, he developed courses on database systems, automata theory, and compilers, while also creating innovative online learning platforms through Gradiance Corporation. His teaching and mentorship have profoundly influenced the field, with many of his students becoming distinguished computer scientists in academia and industry.

Dr. Jure Leskovec, serving as Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, has established himself as a leading authority in network science and machine learning since joining the faculty in 2009 after earning his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. As the creator of the Stanford Network Analysis Platform (SNAP) and Chief Scientist at Pinterest, he combines academic excellence with practical industry applications, focusing on developing computational models for analyzing massive networks across social media, technological systems, and biomedicine. His groundbreaking research has earned him numerous accolades, including the ICDM Research Contributions Award, the Lagrange Prize, and selection as a Sloan Research Fellow, while his teaching portfolio includes influential courses in machine learning with graphs and mining massive datasets. Through his leadership roles at Stanford's AI Lab, Machine Learning Group, and Center for Research on Foundation Models, Dr. Leskovec continues to advance the field of network science, with his work finding applications in major technology companies like Facebook and Uber, as well as contributing to public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. His research spans graph neural networks, geometric deep learning, and recommender systems, while his recent work focuses on foundation models and their applications in scientific discovery, making him a pivotal figure in shaping the future of artificial intelligence and network analysis.

Anand Rajaraman serves as a Founding Partner at Rocketship.vc and Milliways Ventures, bringing together his expertise as a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and academic. After earning his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and BTech from IIT Madras, he co-founded Junglee in 1996, which pioneered virtual database technology and was acquired by Amazon for $250 million in 1998. At Amazon, he helped transform the company from a retailer to a retail platform and co-invented Amazon Mechanical Turk. His second startup, Kosmix, focused on semantic search technology and was acquired by Walmart for over $300 million in 2011, where he then co-headed @WalmartLabs. As an early investor, his notable investments include being among the first angel investors in Facebook in 2005, along with investments in Lyft, ClearStory, and numerous other successful ventures. At Stanford, he co-teaches a popular course on Data Mining and co-authored the widely-used textbook "Mining of Massive Datasets." His academic work has earned multiple retrospective 10-year Best Paper awards at prestigious conferences. Through Rocketship.vc, he leads a data-driven venture capital approach with investments across more than 20 countries, while also pursuing his passion for sports as co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns cricket team in Major League Cricket.